Irving Literary Society (Cornell University)

rdf:langString Irving Literary Society (Cornell University)

rdf:langString Irving Literary Society

rdf:langString Irving Literary Society

rdf:langString The Irving Seal, 1883

rdf:langString Society Hall , Cornell University

rdf:langString Alethia

rdf:langString The Irving Literary Society (also known as the Irving Literary Association or simply The Irving) was a literary society at Cornell University active from 1868 to 1887. The U.S. Bureau of Education described it as a "purely literary society" following the "traditions of the old literary societies of Eastern universities." During the period when the Cornell literary societies flourished, the Irving and its peers produced literature at a rate higher than the campus average for the next generation, leading commentators at the turn of the 20th century to question whether academic standards had fallen since the university's founding. Named after the American writer Washington Irving, the Irving Literary Society was founded on October 20, 1868, shortly after Cornell opened. Past members who went on to prominent careers included Judge Morris Lyon Buchwalter, Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, and the journalists John Andrew Rea and Francis Whiting Halsey. The Irving's last public meeting was held on May 23, 1887. After that it ceased to exist as a Cornell University student society. However, the New York Alpha Chapter of the Phi Kappa Psi undergraduate fraternity at Cornell claims to have "served as steward of the Irving Literary Societysince 1888".