Harvard Foundation Portraiture Project

HARVARD FOUNDATION for Intercultural and Race Relations

Portraiture Project

Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck First Native American to graduate from Harvard College in 1665.

History of the Portraiture Project

The Harvard Foundation Portraiture Project was created by Dr. S. Allen Counter, Director of the Harvard Foundation and Professor of Neurology in 2002 with the aim of increasing ethno-cultural diversity in the portraits that currently exist on the walls of buildings at Harvard of men and women who have served the University with particular distinction, from the college to the professional schools. To this end, Dr. Counter requested and received funds from the Office of the President of Harvard University to support the Harvard Foundation Portraiture Project as an ethnic diversity, equity and inclusion initiative at the University.

The aim of the Harvard Foundation Portraiture Project is to reflect the diversity of individuals who have served Harvard University for at least twenty-five years with exceptional distinction by commissioning portraits that include persons of African American, Asian American, European American, Hispanic/Latino American, and Native American backgrounds deserving special recognition.

In 2003, a committee of Harvard faculty and administrators was organized for the governance of the Harvard Foundation Portraiture Project. The Reverend Professor Peter J. Gomes was appointed the first chairperson of the committee, and served in this capacity until his passing in 2011.

In January 2011, Dr. John E. Dowling, Gordon and Llura Gund Professor of Neurosciences was appointed chairperson and served in this capacity for five years. In 2015, Dr. Sandra Naddaff, Director of Studies in the Literature Concentration and Dean of Harvard Summer School was appointed Chairperson of the Harvard Foundation Portraiture Committee, and currently serves in this position. Dr. Counter has served as the Coordinator of the Harvard Foundation Portraiture Project since its inception.

The Committee appointed Mr. Stephen Coit (Harvard College Class of 1971) as the official artist of the Harvard Foundation Portraiture Project.

The Harvard Foundation coordinates the installation of all portraits with the Harvard Art Museums.

Archie C. Epps (1937-2003) Location: Room 115, 1st Floor, University Hall Unveiling Date: May 2005 Archie Calvin Epps III received a bachelor of theology degree from Harvard Divinity School in 1961. He became Assistant Dean of Students at Harvard College in 1964, and was one of Harvard’s first African American administrators. In 1971, Mr. Epps became the Dean of Students, and remained in the position until his retirement in 1999. Dean Archie Epps died August 21, 2003 and was buried in Mt. Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

David L. Evans (1940 -) Location: 1st Floor Entry, Lamont Library Unveiling Date: May 2005 David L. Evans came to work in the Admissions Office in 1970. During his time in Cambridge, over fifteen times more African American undergraduates have matriculated at Harvard than in the previous 334 years.

Mr. Evans has served as a proctor in Harvard Yard, an adviser to first-year students and an Assistant Dean of Freshmen. In 2002, Mr. Evans was awarded the FAS Administrative Prize, the highest honor to be conferred on an administrator by Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. In 1990, Evans was given a Point of Light award by President George H.W. Bush.

Rulan Chao Pian (1922-2013) Location: 1st Floor Living Room, Cabot House, Cabot Hall Unveiling Date: May 2005 Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Rulan Pian received her B.A. (1944) and M.A. (1946), both in Western music history, from Radcliffe College, and a Harvard Ph.D. (1960) in East Asian Languages and in Music. From 1961, Professor Rulan Pian served Harvard University with great distinction, first as a scholar, and then as Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations and of Music from 1972-1992. Her academic work on the intersection of East Asian Languages and Civilizations and music generated a new discipline in the field. Professor Pian was Master of South House (now Cabot House) from 1975-1978, making her the first ethnic minority to serve as House Master for any Harvard College House.

Eileen Jackson Southern (1920 - 2002) Location: 1st Floor Dining Hall Entry, Adams House Unveiling Date: February 2007 In 1975, Eileen Jackson Southern, a scholar of Renaissance and African American music, became the first black woman to receive tenure at Harvard University. She held a joint professorship appointment in the Music Department and in the Afro-American Studies Department, which she chaired from 1976 to 1980. She retired as Professor emerita in 1987.

A music scholar and teacher, Professor Southern received the 2000 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of American Music, the Outstanding Contributor to Music Award from the National Association of Negro Musicians, the Deems Taylor Award from ASCAP, and the Distinguished Achievement Award from the National Black Music Caucus. In 2001, she was named as a National Humanities Medalist.

Harold Amos (1918 – 2003) Location: Warren Alpert Building, 200 Longwood Avenue, Harvard Medical School Unveiling Date: October 2007 Harold Amos, the Maude and Lillian Presley Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics taught at Harvard for nearly half a century as a member of the Harvard Medical School faculty and the Faculty of Arts & Sciences. A faculty member for nearly 50 years, he was the first African American to chair a department at the Medical School, where he chaired the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics twice, first from 1968 to 1971 and then from 1975 to 1978. Professor Amos was an admired mentor to hundreds of students and many present-day faculty members.

He served as the first director of the Minority Medical Faculty Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Dr. Amos was a brilliant and dedicated scholar and a compassionate professor.

Kiyo Morimoto (1918 – 2004) Location: 1st Floor Dining Room, Dunster House Unveiling Date: February 2008 Kiyo Morimoto was a member of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and a lecturer on education, and taught courses at the Harvard School of Public Health, the Harvard Business School, and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Prior to coming to Harvard, Dr. Morimoto was decorated war hero of the U.S. Army in World War II. Dr. Morimoto worked for at total of 27 years at the Bureau of Study Counsel, six of which he served as director. His warm, accepting, and supportive manner helped hundreds of Harvard students adjust to college life.

John Usher Munro (1912-2002) Location: 1st-2nd Floor Stairs, Phillips Brooks House Unveiling Date: October 2008 A former dean of Harvard College, John Monro spearheaded Harvard’s efforts to open its doors to lower-income and minority students in the 1960s.

He considered ethnic and economic diversity to be just as important as the College’s long history of athletic diversity. Mr. Monro wanted to affect educational opportunities in a more immediate way and on behalf of students who may never have conceived of the opportunity to attend Harvard. In 1967, Mr. Monro left Harvard to serve as a teacher and administrator at the historically black Miles College in Alabama. After 30 years at Miles, he worked at Tougaloo College, also a historically black college located in Mississippi. At the age of 80, the school’s students voted Mr. Monro as the best teacher of Tougaloo College. In 1993, he was presented the Harvard Foundation Humanitarian Award.

Stanley J. Tambiah (1929-2014) Location: Junior Common Room, Kirkland House Unveiling Date: January 2009 Stanley J. Tambiah was the Esther and Sidney Rabb Research Professor of Anthropology at Harvard University. He joined the faculty of the Harvard Anthropology Department as professor in 1976 and conducted extensive research on monastic complexes and temples in Bangkok; political violence in South Asia, and notably the Bombay riots of 1991-92; and transnational movements of people and diaspora communities in an age of “globalization.” Professor Tambiah was recognized for his many contributions to the field of social anthropology and for his incisive and erudite study of Buddhism. He also used his background as a social-anthropologist of Southeast Asia to evaluate whether the Western conceptions of magic, science, and religion are valid analytical categories for comparative studies.

Chester Middlebrook Pierce (1927-) Location: Junior Common Room, 1st Floor, Lowell House Unveiling Date: November 2010 A distinguished graduate of Harvard College in 1948 and Harvard Medical School in 1952, Chester M. Pierce served on the faculties of Harvard Medical School, Harvard Graduate School of Education, and Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Pierce was the first African American appointed full professor at the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard Department of Psychiatry. A professor of psychiatry for over 40 years, Dr. Pierce served as a consultant for the Children’s Television Network, the Peace Corps, and NASA. As an undergraduate, Dr. Pierce was an outstanding athlete at Harvard, and was the first black college football player to compete below the Mason–Dixon line. Dr. Pierce’s students revered him as a knowledgeable and caring instructor who served Harvard with exceptional dignity and professionalism.

Lester Fred Jewett (1936 - 2011) Location: Room 135, 1st Floor, Cronkhite Building, 86 Brattle Street Unveiling Date: January 2011 Over the course of his career, Lester Fred Jewett brought outstanding guidance to Harvard’s Office of Admissions and Financial Aid, where he held the roles of Director of Freshman Scholarships (1967-1972), and served as Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid (1972-1984).

He became Dean of Harvard College in 1984 and served in that capacity until 1995. Mr. Jewett was known throughout his career for unflagging encouragement of minority student admissions, and for strengthening Harvard’s commitment to financial aid making tertiary education available to thousands of students.

He was an enthusiastic and dedicated supporter of the Harvard Foundation.

Preston Williams (1926-) Location: 1st Floor, Braun Room, Andover Hall, Harvard Divinity School Unveiling Date: August 2011 Preston Williams served as Houghton Research Professor of Theology and Contemporary Change and was acting dean of Harvard Divinity School from 1974 to 1975. He was also the first director of Harvard’s W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research. Additionally, from 1998 to 2008, Professor Williams served as director of the Summer Leadership Institute, which trains religious leaders from urban settings.

Martin Kilson (1931-) Location: 1st-2nd Floor Stairs, Lehman Hall, Dudley House Unveiling Date: March 2012 Martin Kilson earned his PhD in political science at Harvard. Soon afterwards, he was appointed Lecturer in the Department of Government, making him the first African-American faculty member to teach at Harvard College. When he received full tenure in 1969, Professor Kilson became the first African American tenured professor at Harvard. In 1988, Professor Kilson was appointed as the Frank G. Thomson Professor of Government. He has written over one hundred journal articles and co-edited several books.

Florence Ladd (1932-) Location: Faculty Deans Suite, Lowell House Unveiling Date: May 2012 Dr. Florence Cawthorne Ladd first joined Harvard in 1965 to teach in both the Graduate School of Education and the Graduate School of Design. Dr. Ladd left Harvard for MIT where she became associate dean, and then Wellesley College, where she was dean of students until 1984. Returning to Harvard, Dr. Ladd served as director of the Mary Ingraham Bunting Institute at Radcliffe College from 1989 to 1997. She also held the post of lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education from 1965 to 1970 and of Associate Professor of City Planning at the Harvard Graduate School of Design from 1972 to 1977.

Anne-Marie Schimmel (1922 – 2003) Location: 2nd Floor Library, Eliot House Unveiling Date: May 2013 Appointed in 1970 as Professor of Indo-Muslim Culture at Harvard, Annemarie Schimmel ranks among the earliest tenured female professors in the Faculty of Arts & Sciences. One of the truly great scholars of Islamic studies in the twentieth century, she mentored many leading scholars in the field.

Her writings continue to shape the thinking of new generations of scholars. The author of over one hundred scholarly books and monographs, Professor Schimmel’s efforts to improve public understanding of Islam, in conjunction with her prolific scholarly work, were recognized through numerous honorary degrees from universities and prestigious awards from institutions and governments both in the West and in Muslim countries.

Rosa “Rosie” Gumataotao Rios (1965 - ) Location: Junior Common Room, 1st Floor, Winthrop House Unveiling Date: April 2015 Rosa “Rosie” Gumataotao Rios, Harvard College class of 1987, became the 43rd Treasurer of the United States after a distinguished career in economic development in both the private and public sectors. Ms. Rios is the third Hispanic woman to occupy the position of US Treasurer.

As an undergraduate at Harvard, Ms. Rios was the director of Harvard’s Mexican-American dance performance group, Ballet Folklórico, an associate of the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations, and organized the first Cultural Rhythms Festival in 1986 with other students. In February 2015, Ms. Rios returned to Harvard as honorary host of the 30th Cultural Rhythms Festival. The portrait of Ms. Rios is the first portrait of a Latina at Harvard.

Richard Theodore Greener (1844 – 1922) Location: Annenberg Hall Unveiling Date: April 2016 Richard Theodore Greener was the first African American student to receive an AB degree from Harvard College in 1870, having won the Bowdoin Prize for elocution in both 1868 and 1870. After Harvard, Greener eventually became the first black faculty member at University of South Carolina, where he developed the Classics Department and earned a degree in law. In 1878, he was appointed Dean of the Howard University School of Law. Devoting later life to public service, Greener also served in the Foreign Service as United States Commercial Agent in Vladivostok, Russia. Scholarships are awarded in his name at Phillips Academy and the University of South Carolina.

Harvard Foundation Portraiture Committee Members: S. Allen Counter, Director, the Harvard Foundation Sandra Naddaff, Dean of the Harvard Summer School John E. Dowling, Professor of Neurosciences Ali Asani, Professor Indo-Muslim Religion and Cultures Benedict H. Gross, Professor of Mathematics David L. Evans, Senior Admissions Officer, Harvard College Kenneth R. Manning, Professor of Rhetoric and History of Science, MIT Paula Pinkston, Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School Robin Gottlieb, Professor of Mathematics Thomas Kelly, Professor of Music Tom Conley, Professor of Romance Languages Emily Driscoll, Collections Administrator, Harvard Art Museums Steve Coit ’71, Harvard Foundation Portraiture Artist Acknowledgements: The students and faculty of the Harvard Foundation gratefuly acknowledge the support of the Harvard Foundation Portraiture Project by the Office of the President of Harvard University and the Office of the Dean of Harvard College.

The Harvard Foundation chose Stephen Coit ‘71 as its portrait artist after a lengthy selection process in 2003. Previously, Mr. Coit was a high tech executive, successful entrepreneur and venture capitalist before taking on a second career as a full-time portraitist in 1996. In addition to having created over twenty works for Harvard, Coit’s portraits of college presidents and other distinguished individuals are in the collections of Lesley University, Tufts University, and Saint Andrews University in Scotland.

All images are reproduced with the permission of the artist, Stephen Coit ’71.

All rights reserved.

HARVARD FOUNDATION for Intercultural and Race Relations

The Mission of the Harvard Foundation In 1981, the president and deans of Harvard University established the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations with the mandate to “improve relations among racial and ethnic groups within the University and to enhance the quality of our common life.”

In pursuit of this mission, the Foundation seeks to involve students of all racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds in the ongoing programmatic enterpr ises of the College and University and to highlight the cultural contr ibutions of all Harvard students. The Foundation sponsors annual programs and activities that are designed to promote diversity, inclusion and equity in the interest of interracial, intercultural and inter-religious understanding and har mony in the Harvard community.

Cover Page: Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck Location: 1st Floor, Annenberg Hall, Memorial Hall Unveiling Date: December 2010

A member of the Wampanoag Aquinnah tribe, Caleb Cheeshahteamuck was the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College in 1665. He attended the Harvard Indian College, which was formally chartered in 1650 for “provisions that may conduce to the education of English & Indian youth of this Country in knowledge and godliness.” Cheeshahteamuck’s portrait symbolizes Harvard College’s early intention for the education of Native Americans to play a significant role in the development of positive relations between the new colony settlers and the local indigenous communities of Massachusetts.

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