This isn’t the Gazette’s first time covering our nation’s anniversary party. Fifty years ago, we published a special issue focusing on the United States Bicentennial (July 1976).
The cover was drawn by none other than Samuel Maitin FA’51, who illustrated some 20-plus covers for this magazine [“The Art of Life,” Mar|Apr 2005]. He and editor Anthony Lyle C’61 decided the subject should be the iconic American eagle. “I think we are old enough as a nation to treat our eagle as art, not as a religious relic,” Maitin said at the time. “I have tried to make my eagle hopeful. It looks toward a future that I hope we still have.”
Feature articles included “The Signers,” written by graphologist Daniel Anthony, who analyzed the handwriting of 20 signers of the Declaration of Independence, including nine who were affiliated with Penn. Of Benjamin Franklin, he wrote, “Not only is this signature less beautifully penned than was customary for him, but it was comparatively smaller than his usual size.” He ponders, “Could it be that the famous and brilliant man … was feeling the jitters of awe as he inscribed his tentative and rather plain signature on that world-changing document?”
Franklin was also highlighted in another feature, “Who Was B. Franklin?” which catalogued 47 quotations from “mostly famous people” giving their impressions of Penn’s founder. “His mind was ever young, his temper ever serene,” effused Thomas Paine. “His conversation was civil and sweet, he seemed to be a man of much wit,” noted Charles Gravier.
A spread of American art filled a few pages, as well as a look back at the 1876 US Centennial from the view of English actress Fanny Kemble (in sum: she was not impressed). Penn Museum consultant Elisabeth Tooker wrote about Native populations in “The First Americans.” And Caroline Werkley, longtime research librarian for anthropology professor Loren Eiseley Gr’37, wrote about an even older American, a dinosaur named Hadrosaurus foulkii, native to Haddonfield, New Jersey.
The features capped off with a reprint of Chief Justice Warren E. Burger Hon’76’s Commencement speech, and Penn President Martin Meyerson Hon’70’s remarks to the Class of 1976, where he encouraged them to “take risks.” He explained, “Our founder, Benjamin Franklin, was a first-rate risk-taker.” —NP
