"Catalogue Of The Fly Club Of Harvard University 1836-1941" (SOLD)
Price on Request
[159] pp.
1941
8 3/8" x 5 3/4"
VG
The Fly Club is a final club, traditionally "punching" (inviting to stand for election) male undergraduates of Harvard College during their sophomore or junior year. Undergraduate and graduate members participate in club activities.
Founded 1836 as a literary society by the editors of Harvardiana, the club was granted a charter by the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity in 1837 and remained a chapter until surrendering its charter in 1865. With the graduation of the members of the class of 1868, the club was discontinued until 1878, when graduate members, including Edward Everett Hale (class of 1839) and Phillips Brooks (class of 1855), initiated undergraduates from the class of 1879, to whom the old charter was restored. In 1906, the charter was once again surrendered, and in 1910, the organization officially adopted the name "Fly Club," its unofficial title since 1885. In 1996, the Fly Club merged with the DU Club, another final club, and the combined entity retained the name "Fly Club."
Some sources maintain that the club's name was derived by combining the PH from "Alpha," the l from "Delta," and the i from "Phi," to get "Phli," pronounced "Fly".
The club motto, suggested by Prof. Morris H. Morgan (class of 1881) and adopted Feb. 1902, reads DURATURIS HAUD DURIS VINCULIS, an ablative absolute construction translated as "Bonds should be lasting, not chafing or hard."