Legacies of the Civil War
Neil Evans
Tracy Sweet
As part of “Lest We Forget,” the town of Andover’s ongoing commemoration of the Civil War, Phillips Academy sponsored a special event featuring Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust and awardwinning filmmaker Ric Burns. Faust, a renowned historian of the Civil War and the American South, is the author of This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War, winner of the Bancroft Prize in 2009 and a finalist for a National Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize. Burns, a writer, director, and producer, recently released Death and the Civil War, a historical documentary based on Faust’s book. The event began with a powerful clip from Burns’s documentary. Then Faust and Burns, seated before the 1,000-plus audience in Cochran Chapel, discussed the Civil War’s staggering death toll and the impact of the estimated 750,000 casualties—approximately 2.5 percent of the population—on the psyche of the
“The Civil War asks, ‘What does it mean to be a nation?’” said Drew Gilpin Faust, seated at left. Faust and Ric Burns (at right) spoke in Cochran Chapel on April 15.
American people. “Ours was a nation in mourning and uncertainty for decades to come,” said Faust. “There was no closure afterward.”
Burns, who described death as “generative,” spoke of how “a new nation-state emerged with new responsibilities.” The audience comprised Phillips
Academy students, faculty, and staff, as well as members of the Andover Historical Society and numerous Andover townspeople.
Sculpture Barn Raising
SYA Celebrates 50
Mathematician and sculptor George W. Hart (back, left), who lectures and exhibits worldwide, conducted a “barn raising” of two of his sculptures in Morse Hall in late April. More than 60 students, faculty, and staff assisted in the four-hour assembly process, during which Hart explained the mathematical and physical principles of his designs. This challenging and fun event was initiated by math instructor Joel Jacob and made possible by an Abbot Academy Association grant.
Schoolboys Abroad, the precursor of School Year Abroad (SYA), was conceived in the early 1960s by Wilbraham Academy teacher Clark Vaughn, who, due to funding issues at his school, brought the idea to PA Headmaster John Kemper. Spanish instructor Ed Harris, SYA’s first executive director, nurtured and directed the program from the basement of SamPhil. In September 1964, a dozen Wilbraham and PA 11th-graders and three teacher-chaperones clambered aboard the SS Aurelia and departed for Barcelona, Spain, for the program’s inaugural year overseas. Phillips Exeter joined as an SYA cosponsor in 1965, and St. Paul’s signed on in 1968. To date, nearly 550 PA students have participated in SYA programs in Spain, France, China, and Italy, and numerous faculty members have taught English and math classes at its various locations. In 1994, Ni Xiao-Min, former PA instructor in Mandarin, was instrumental in helping launch the SYA China program. Faculty Emeritus Hal McCann, executive director from 1976 to 1986, recently called the program “the best ‘course’ PA ever created.” Now a separate entity, SYA is headquartered in North Andover, Mass.
Andover | Spring 2014
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