"Harvard Porcellian Club Bookplate" (SOLD)
Price on Request
4 1/4" x 3 1/2
Rare bookplate which may be a proof for the 19th century version of the piece as the plate lacks the words "ex libris" but has all the other elements of the bookplate present.
The Porcellian Club is an all-male final club at Harvard University, colloquially known as the Porc or the P.C. Its founding is traditionally dated to either 1791, when a group began meeting under the name "the Argonauts," or 1794, the year of a roast pig dinner that formally established the club under its initial name, the "Pig Club." The club's Epicurean motto, Dum vivimus vivamus ("While we live, let us live"), and its emblem—a pig—reflect its origins. Members often wear golden pig motifs on watch chains or neckties adorned with pig-head symbols.
Notable members
The Porcellian Club’s alumni include prominent figures in politics, literature, and academia. A 1929 Time obituary noted its roster featured "Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt Jr., Poet Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Nicholas Longworth, Poet James Russell Lowell, Richard Henry Dana Jr. (Two Years Before the Mast), Novelist Owen Wister, [and] John Jay Chapman." A 1940 Time article added:
The Pork...is very much a family affair. Upon its roster, generation after generation, appear the same proud Boston names—Adams, Ames, Amory, Cabot, Cushing, etc.
Selected notable members include:
Joseph Alsop (1932) – Journalist; co-author of The 168 Days (1938)
August Belmont Jr. (1875) – Financier; namesake of Belmont Park and the Belmont Stakes
Charles E. Bohlen (1927) – Diplomat; U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union
William Astor Chanler (1895) – U.S. Congressman from New York
John Jay Chapman (1884; L.L.D. 1887) – Essayist; translator of Dante and Sophocles
Benjamin Robbins Curtis (1829) – Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
Richard Henry Dana Jr. – Author of Two Years Before the Mast
Edward Everett – U.S. Secretary of State; President of Harvard; Governor of Massachusetts
Hamilton Fish III (1910) – College football All-American; U.S. Congressman from New York
Miles Fisher – Film and television actor
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. – Author, poet; Harvard Medical School professor
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. – Associate Justice of the Supreme Court; Harvard Law School professor
William Henry Fitzhugh Lee (1858) – Confederate Major General
Henry Cabot Lodge – U.S. Senator from Massachusetts
Dan Sullivan – U.S. Senator from Alaska
James Russell Lowell – Poet; Harvard professor
Theodore Lyman (1858) – Union Army officer; U.S. Congressman from Massachusetts
George Gordon Meade (Honorary 1866) – Union Major General; victor of the Battle of Gettysburg
Paul Nitze – Diplomat; U.S. Secretary of the Navy; co-founder of Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies
Wendell Phillips – Abolitionist leader
William Phillips – U.S. Ambassador to Italy
H. H. Richardson – Architect; designer of Trinity Church, Boston
Theodore Roosevelt – 26th U.S. President
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. – Brigadier General; Medal of Honor recipient
Leverett Saltonstall – Governor and U.S. Senator from Massachusetts
Louis Agassiz Shaw II – Socialite; subject of Robert Lowell's poem Waking in the Blue
Robert Gould Shaw (attended 1856–1859) – Colonel of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment
Joseph Story (1795) – Associate Justice of the Supreme Court
Charles Sumner (1830; L.L.D. 1834) – U.S. Senator from Massachusetts
Benjamin Ogle Tayloe (1814) – Diplomat; political activist
Edward Thornton Tayloe – Diplomat; nominated U.S. Secretary of the Treasury (1841)
Henry Constantine Wayne (1834) – Georgia Militia Major General
Richard Whitney (1911) – President of the New York Stock Exchange (1930–1935)
Cameron Winklevoss (2004) – Olympic rower; co-founder of ConnectU
Tyler Winklevoss (2004) – Olympic rower; co-founder of ConnectU
Grenville Lindall Winthrop – Art collector; benefactor of the Fogg Museum
Owen Wister (1882) – Author of The Virginian
John Bozman Kerr (1830) was a U.S. Congressman, representing the sixth district of the state of Maryland from 1849 until 1851. He also served as Chargé d'Affaires to Nicaragua