Listen to Jesse R. Erickson, the Morgan’s Astor Curator of Printed Books and Bindings, read a passage from Richard T. Greener’s handwritten autobiography (1870).
GREENER’S HARVARD DIPLOMA
This vellum, handwritten diploma for “Richardum Theodorum Greener” conferred the bachelor of arts degree on Harvard’s first Black graduate. Perhaps the document’s most visible features are its water stains and faded signatures. These signs of distress speak to its incredible story. Long thought to have been lost during the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, when Greener lived on the West Coast, the diploma and other personal papers were discovered in 2009 by a contractor, Rufus McDonald, in the attic of an abandoned South Chicago house slated for demolition. McDonald consigned the document for sale in an auction, and it sold to Harvard University, which now preserves the diploma in its archives.
Richard T. Greener’s bachelor of arts diploma, Harvard College, June 28, 1870
Harvard University Archives; HUM 201 Box 1
Harvard University, Houghton Library
PHILIP: Belle Greene’s father, Richard T. Greener, led a fascinating life and pursued many professions after becoming Harvard’s first Black graduate. He was at times a professor, librarian, lawyer, writer, and diplomat. But he always strove to leave his greatest legacy as an activist seeking to uplift African-American communities in the United States. Greener was a gifted writer and public speaker and wanted his audience to remember his words. In this following manuscript autobiography excerpt, he wrote during his senior year at Harvard, Greener sought to set the record straight about his personal history while looking forward to a promising future.
JESSE: There are not many pleasant incidents in my college life to recall; the unpleasant ones I have no desire to hear of again.
My chief desire is to lead a purely literary life, in my own way.
I have a great fondness and some knowledge of Art. I am particularly interested in Metaphysics, general literature, and the Greek and Latin classics when divested of grammatical pedantry.
My plans in life are to get all the knowledge I can, make all the reputations I can, and “do good” and make a comfortable competence as the corollaries of the other two. I think I can do these best in the profession of Law.
I have been thus minute with my life, partly to remove many false impressions about me, such as that I escaped from slavery with innumerable difficulties; that I came direct from the cotton field to college; that I was a scout in the Union Army; the son of a Rebel-general etc., and partly because I have an impression that, perhaps, hereafter it will be pleasant for my classmates, and myself, to remember these things.
Richard Theodore Greener
Cambridge, May 19, 1870