From Respected to Scandalous: The Fall of The Palladian Literary Society 1871-1969

Palladian Literary Society questionnaire

Figure 1. This was a questionnaire from the Palladian Literary Society that all pledges took and had to pass to be allowed in the society.

Receipt, Palladian Literary Society

Emily Gengenbach, History 250: The Historian Craft, Spring 2019

There have been several literary societies throughout the history of the University of Nebraska Lincoln, all starting with the Palladian Literary Society. It became the basis for future literary societies. A literary society is an organization of students interested in debates that concerns politics at the time . Also, literary activity such as original essays, poetry, music, etc. [1] The Palladian Literary Society was created in 1871 after the Greek goddess Pallas Athene. They met every Friday at seven pm for the formal meeting, where they would talk about pledges, budget or any severe matter, until eight pm where they would have a ten-minute break. Around 8:10 or so the informal meeting, where pledges would be voted in, literary readings, music, and debates would begin and would last for about thirty minutes.[2] Although the Palladian Literary Society started as a respected society, as the years went by it was plagued with controversies causing its downfall in 1969.

The Palladian Literary Society was a strict society with whom they let in and also even stricter with their rules. As a member of the society, they would have to memorize, "Form mentis artermo est" which is latin for "the form of the mind is eternal.” [3] The phrase gave an excellent summary of what members in Palladian Literary Society believed in. While knowing the phrase by heart is an excellent way to stay in society, a member must pass a twenty question test and meet to requirements. To become a member, a student must be attending the University of Nebraska Lincoln, duly elected and pledged, no debts, can not be in a sorority or fraternity, and must comply with all provisions of the Constitution and By-laws. [4] Once meeting the requirements the student must then take a test and get more than 85% correct, if not they are not allowed to join. As seen in Figure 1, multiple questions are ranging from general information of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to in-depth questions of Palladian Literary Society that every member must know by heart. An example of one of the question is number ten which asked, "What part was taken by Palladian in securing of the Temple?" [5]

If a student was able to join the society, they would start paying fees immediately to stay in Palladian Literary Society. Though in 1875 there was a law written that women did not have to pay in hopes of attracting them to the literary society. A member has to pay $7 for initiation, $3 pledge per an academic term, $5 current member fee per an academic term, $3 associate member per an academic term, and the budget determined a senior pledge with the cost. [6] That totals up to be roughly $18 in 1871 so the costs to join the society if it was around to today would be roughly $370. [7] With a cost like that, the society was able to make sure that only the wealthiest students would be able to join. They were making sure that Palladian Literary Society saw as refined and elegant. Failing to pay any of the cost would be grounds for the member to be kicked out no matter if it was their first time not paying.

The controversies in the Palladian Literary Society started with its inception. Palladian Literary Society was a first of its kind not just in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln but also in other colleges as being the first to start as co-education instead of evolving to co-education. The first year there were 25 members with five of them being women. [8] However, for some unknown reason as the time went on tension started to grow within the literary society between men and women. By 1874, the tension between the two genders caused women to create their literary society called Pierian Literary Society where they would mock the Palladian Literary Society for being faulty and sexist. The Palladian Society started to get criticized by other societies decided to follow in the Union society and exempt women from paying the costly fees and dues in the hope of attracting ladies and putting the sexism controversy behind them.

Sadly for Palladian Literary Society, the controversies with the women in the society did not stop. After passing the law that exempt women from paying, they slowly started to joining again as in 1901 there were thirty-five ladies in the society. When women finally came back, they started to take more active roles, such as joining the debate team and getting elected for positions of power within the Palladian Society. Once women gained power, they started to try to change the old fashion ways of Palladian Society. The first old fashion tradition they changed was Slate, in which young men were expected to accompany ladies to and from society every week. Women focused on this tradition first as Slate was seen as a way to hold power over the women. Even with women in positions of power, Palladian would not change this tradition so one week every girl rejected her slate and wore a We Go It Alone pin to the meetings. Again the Palladian Literary Society did not change their ways until the criticism from other organizations became too much, and just as before they changed their tradition to stop the criticism. Though the damage was done and the Palladian Literary Society would have the label of sexism hanging over them.

The Palladian Literary Society's controversies do not stop there as they are most known for their fights with other literary societies and Fraternities. Palladian Literary Society started fighting with other literary societies when competitions and challenges started. Competitions between two literary societies would be over Speeches, Essays, Declamation, and Debates with judges would be chosen from faculty. [9] The winners would get the prestige of being first, money, and various prizes depending on what each college puts up as prizes. With their honor and money on the line, Palladian Literary Society became ferocious and despised any literary society for winning against them.

It was not unusual for campuses to have more than one literary society and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln was no exception, the University had Palladian Literary Society and Union Literary Society. Throughout both the literary societies history, there was at times friendly competitions, but those were few and far between, as most of the time the two societies spent loathing each other. It was not uncommon for the two societies to exchange challenges with each other causing the tension to rise higher every time. On October 5, 1883, the tension of the two societies was at its peak with the Union society sending a challenge during the business meeting. Palladian Society wasting no time created a committee to respond to the challenge. In the Palladian minutes, the committee responded by accusing the Union society of backing out on other challenges that the Palladian had issued and declining the Union's challenge. [10] Looking at the Union's minute they stated that the Palladian answer consisted of "genuine Palladian lies and a list of silly resolutions," and they began to boo and hiss the Palladian messenger out of their meeting. [11] This conflict with the Union Society then cased Palladian Society as unfriendly and not sociable with other groups. Even though Palladian Literary Society strongly disliked like Union Society, it did not even come close to what both literary societies felt for Greek-letter fraternities.

Fraternities started showing up at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in the 1880s, with first Sigma Chi at 1883, then Phi Delta Theta in 1884. [12] The students at the time believe that fraternities were inherently evil and wanted them not to be allowed on campus, which was the general reaction towards fraternities across the country. Even with the mindset, fraternities started to gain members, some from the literary societies, as the rule of against joining fraternities had not been put in place yet. The members of Palladian Literary Society were not pleased with their members joining the fraternities believing that fraternities were going to take over the literary societies. [13] So in true Palladian fashion, they passed an amendment prohibiting fraternities in 1884. Which led to what University of Nebraska-Lincoln would know as Frat-Barb Fight of 1884.

It was called Frat-Barb fight of 1884 because it was a political fight against fraternities and barbarians, people against fraternities and non-Greeks. The fight started as soon as fraternities started to form on campus, as Palladian and Union members started to join fraternities and ignoring the literary society. As members of the societies started to spend more time with fraternities, other members started to suspect that they were spies that were going to take over the societies completely. Palladian Society did not start thinking about banning fraternities until a rumor started to circulate that they were looking to take over the society halls. That rumor was the last straw and on October 23, 1884, Will O. Jones, the president of Palladian Literary Society, informed Mary L. Jones, a writer for The Hesperian , that he was going to propose an amendment to banned fraternities and sororities. [14] The amendment would take a week to be finalized as he was confident that the amendment would go through as there were enough "barbarians" to vote. Moreover, it also gave people time to decide if they wanted to be in society or a fraternity. The whole campus was vibrating with excitement once word got out that Palladian Society was going to ban fraternities members from their society. Mary L. Jones stated that everyone from the Chancellor to John Green was excited to see the outcome. The drama of the amendment caused lectures to be canceled or cut short since no one could concentrate on anything but the outcome of the amendment. [15]

The night of October 31st, the whole college was holding their breath waiting to see if the amendment would pass or not. The Palladian Literary Society's business meeting was so packed that some faculty were worried about it being a fire hazard. Literary societies were all about debating, so it was no surprise that the debates on the alteration took until midnight. The Palladian vote on the amendment came to seventeen to forty, with the defeated party at that moment to withdrew their membership. [16] Fraternities members were at last completely out of Palladian. After that night, Palladian Literary Society was a place with strict rules about only allowing students in if they matched what the society thought was the perfect student.

The Palladian Literary Society was a place where students could debate, discuss their favorite authors, type of writing and music. The society was meant to be a place of respect and brilliant thinkers. Instead, it became a place of controversies and fighting. The Palladian society could not escape controversies, such as being sexist and an elitist, no matter how many years had passed. Thus despite the Palladian Literary Society started as an esteemed society, as the years went by it was troubled with disputes causing its destruction in 1969.


Endnotes

 

  1. "Literary Societies and Social Libraries." Impressions from a Lost World. https://dinotracksdiscovery.org/supporting/swapfull/context/literary-societies/.
  2. Tucker F.F.,  Fauclkner Nellie,Smith Flocernece, Wheeler Myrtle,Cheney R.L., Miss Hart, Hunt Jasper,Teele R.P.. RG 38-03-06: Palladian Society, Records, Box 1, Folder 1. Constitutions and By-laws, 1929
  3. Tucker F.F.,Fauclkner Nellie, et al. RG 38-03-06: Palladian Society, Records, Box 1, Folder 1. Constitutions and By-laws, 1929
  4. Welden C. R., Miss Boose, Corey S. J., Miss Pollard, Smith S. C., Miss Bell, Lyon A. B., Matthews B. C.. RG 38-03-06: Palladian Society, Records, Box 1. Folder 9. Minutes, 1881-1891, Figure 1. Reedy C. RG 38-03-06: Palladian Society, Records, Box 1, Folder 1. Constitutions and By-laws, 1929
  5. Boose Emma, Pollard N. L., Thompson Lizzie,Johnson A. S.,Hall Margaret, Cushman Mable, Thompson  Grace, Baker R. S.. RG 38-03-06: Palladian Society, Records, Box 1, Folder 1. Constitutions and By-laws, 1921
  6. Tucker F.F.,Fauclkner Nellie, et al. RG 38-03-06: Palladian Society, Records, Box 1, Folder 1. Constitutions and By-laws, 1929
  7. "Inflation Rate between 1871-2018 | Inflation Calculator." 1871 Dollars in 2018 | Inflation Calculator. http://www.in2013dollars.com/1871-dollars-in-2018.
  8. Jones Will Owen, Caldwell Clara, Polk O.B., Barret H.P., Marsland Ethel, Perrin W.S., Fletcher  W.N.. RG 38-03-06: Palladian Society, Records, Box 1. Folder 9. Minutes, 1881-1891
  9. Jones Owen Will, Caldwell Clara, at all. RG 38-03-06: Palladian Society, Records, Box 1. Folder 9. Minutes, 1881-1891
  10. Jones Owen Will, Caldwell Clara, at all. RG 38-03-06: Palladian Society, Records, Box 1. Folder 9. Minutes, 1881-1891, Figure 2.  Frankforter B., Conley H. T. RG 38-03-10: University Union Literary Society, Box 1.
  11. Frankforter B., Conley H. T. RG 38-03-10: University Union Literary Society, Box 1.
  12. Jones Mary. RG 38-01-02: The Hesperian, Periodical: Box: 3.
  13. Jones Owen Will, Caldwell Clara, at all. RG 38-03-06: Palladian Society, Records, Box 1. Folder 9. Minutes, 1881-1891
  14. Jones Mary. RG 38-01-02: The Hesperian, Periodical: Box: 3.
  15. Jones Mary. RG 38-01-02: The Hesperian, Periodical: Box: 3.
  16. Jones Owen Will, Caldwell Clara, at all. RG 38-03-06: Palladian Society, Records, Box 1. Folder 9. Minutes, 1881-1891


Bibliography

  • B. Frankforter, H. T. Conley Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. RG 38-03-10: University Union Literary Society, Box 1.
  • C. Reedy. RG 38-03-06: Palladian Society, Records, Box 1, Folder 1. Constitutions and By-laws, 1929
  • C. R. Welden, Miss Boose, S. J. Corey, Miss Pollard, S. C. Smith, Miss Bell, A. B. Lyon,B. C. Matthews. Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. RG 38-03-06. Palladian Society, Records, Box 1. Folder 9. Minutes, 1881-1891
  • Emma Boose, N. L. Pollard, Lizzie Thompson, A. S. Johnson, Margaret Hall, Mable Cushman, Grace Thompson, R. S. Baker. Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. RG 38-03-06: Palladian Society, Records, Box
  • F.F. Tucker, Nellie Fauclkner, Flocernece Smith, Myrtle Wheeler, R.L. Cheney, Miss Hart, Jasper Hunt, R.P. Teele. RG 38-03-06: Palladian Society, Records, Box 1, Folder 1. Constitutions and By-laws, 1929
  • "Inflation Rate between 1871-2018 | Inflation Calculator." 1871 Dollars in 2018 |
  • Inflation Calculator. http://www.in2013dollars.com/1871-dollars-in-2018.
  • "Literary Societies and Social Libraries." Impressions from a Lost World. https://dinotracksdiscovery.org/supporting/swapfull/context/literary-societies/ .
  • Mary Jones. Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. RG 38-01-02: The Hesperian, Periodical: Box: 3.
  • Will Owen Jones, Clara Caldwell, O.B. Polk, H.P. Barret, Ethel Marsland, W.S. Perrin, W.N. Fletcher. Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. RG 38-03-06. Palladian Society, Records, Box 1. Folder 9. Minutes, 1881-1891
From Respected to Scandalous: The Fall of The Palladian Literary Society 1871-1969