8 minute read
History Lesson
Sig Story
This signature and date were uncovered during classroom renovations in Hathorn Hall. We thought it was a name from the 1800s, but soon learned the truth.
The mystery of a signature — Frank? Fran K.? — uncovered in a historic Hathorn Hall classroom ends with a very contemporary answer
by jay burns
The voice was divulging the answer to a mystery that vexed us for a few weeks last summer: the identity of the person whose signature was found on wallpaper behind an old chalkboard in a Hathorn Hall classroom.
During summer work to replace worn-out chalkboards in Hathorn, project manager Paul Farnsworth snapped a quick photo of the signature — but alas, not of the complete signature — and shared it around. Because Hathorn is the oldest building on campus, opened in 1857, and because the pencil signature was on old wallpaper, we figured that it must belong to someone deep in Bates’ past.
The photo was first published in an installment of the online Campus Construction Update about the work being done in Hathorn. The caption suggested that the words appeared to be, “Thank you.”
Emma Gay ’25 of Herndon. Va., not yet matriculated at Bates, sent an email suggesting that it was a signature, perhaps “Fran K.”
PAUL FARNSWORTH
Here in the Bates Communications Office, a colleague agreed that the name was Fran K. “because of the periodlooking thing after the K.” Pat Webber, director of the Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library, thought the name was Frank, and that the K being separate from the rest of the letters “was just the way the person signed their name.” And down we went, deeper into the rabbit hole of Bates history. Deciphering the date as “May 16 — 1892,” we sought a match — a student, professors, anyone — to a “Fran K.” or “Frank” from the late 1800s or early 1900s. Some folks joined the search, like Madison Fox ’19. Deep in the Bates records, she found a “Francis K. Sweetser,” the father of alumna Mary Ruth Sweetser Quincy, Class of 1912. Could Mary Ruth have written her father’s name in her Hathorn classroom as a way to honor his memory? That was great sleuthing. But right across the campus in Facility Services, there was no mystery about the name. After posting the image and our hypothesis on Facebook, Facility Services staff member Adam Wright offered a 20th-century solution. “The name is ‘Frank Ford, he commented. “I believe he was a carpenter at the college for some time. Seen it in other places around campus.”
Reoriented to current times, we looked in our trusty Bates directory and, sure enough, we saw the name Frank Ford, a Bates retiree now age 88, who lives on Gammon Avenue in Auburn.
We gave him a call and, after some appropriate gatekeeping by his daughter (after all, we were asking about someone’s signature), Frank came on the line.
“Mr. Ford,” I said, “we found what we think is a signature of your name under a blackboard in Hathorn Hall.” Ford said it was his name, but that he didn’t write it. “Well, who did?” I asked. “Cliff Dow and Ray Fortier,” Ford replied.
Dow and Fortier were Bates carpenters, “very good carpenters,” explained Ford, who also liked “to horse around.”
Among the tradespeople at the Cutten Maintenance Center, the Frank Ford name is well known, as is Frank himself, recalled fondly by the long-timers there. The signature has been found by the trades workers in curious places
all over campus, whether behind sheetrock here and there or hidden on a wardrobe in Rand Hall, presumably custom-built by Dow and Fortier decades ago.
Indeed, the “Frank Ford” signature seems to be a Bates version of “Kilroy Was Here,” the graffiti meme popular during World War II. (The question remains why the signature seems to end with the year 1892. Could be a joke by the carpenters, or perhaps it’s supposed to read, “May 16–18, ’92” — as in the year 1992.
Ford was a jack of all trades in the Bates maintenance shop. “I loved the variety.” He recalls being called in to fix a slew of broken windows in Smith Hall. “It was colder than the dickens.”
The busted windows were perhaps the result of draft protests in the winter of 1969–70, or perhaps related to the infamous bottle-throwing incident in Smith on Halloween night in 1970 that led to the censure of two students by the Conduct Committee.
Clifton Dow, who retired from Bates, died in 2012. Raymond Fortier has also passed away.
I asked Ford if he thought that Dow and Fortier were pranking their younger colleague by writing his name around campus, or honoring him.
“Well I don’t know,” Ford replied. “But since they’re both gone now, I’ll take it as an honor!” n
PAUL FARNSWORTH
This detail gives some idea of just how this signature vexxed the Communications staff over the summer. Is that a space between the "n" and "k," or just an eccentricity of handwriting in the name "Frank'? We think we have the answer.
archives
Self Portrait
This is George French, Class of 1908, leaning on an Edison phonograph and wearing his class track uniform, presumably in his Parker Hall room. It’s likely a self-portrait: French was a lifelong photographer. Behind him are probably his own photos, mostly of Bates friends and teammates. A baseball, football, and track standout who also played the mandolin, French was the official photographer of the Maine Development Commission for years.
Science Symbols
This lapel pin is from the Jordan Scientific Society, a bygone student club formed in 1910 to “foster an active interest in all fields of science,” said the Mirror. (It was for male students; the women’s science club was Ramsdell.) Through crowd sourcing from Bates science professors, we believe: • The owl suggests wisdom • It’s perched on a mortar, symbolizing chemistry • The telescope is for astronomy and physics • The tripod legs could suggest the tenets of the scientific method: observation, hypothesis, and testing • The skull might suggest biology
Getting a Handle
Under 8 inches tall, this battered trophy cup has an oversized history. The Class of 1911 won it during an interclass competition in exercise drills, e.g., Indian clubs, dumbbells, and swords. It later traveled with class member Roger Guptill to the Congo where he was a missionary. He lost it, then got it back years later, minus its handles.
Fobulous!
Longtime Bates trustee Oliver Barrett Clason, Class of 1877, received this Bates watch fob from his fellow trustees in 1916. A lawyer in Gardiner, Maine, Clason was a longtime state legislator who was Maine Senate president in 1899–1901. Clason House, on College Street, is named for him.
Crows are social and strategic, large and loud. Not my favorite creatures, but that aside, their footprints next to a tire track in just-fallen snow created a pattern that attracted my attention on Bardwell Street a block and a half from campus. No birds were hurt in the making of this photograph. — Phyllis Graber Jensen
Bates Magazine Spring 2022 Editor H. Jay Burns
Designer Jin Kwon
Production Assistant Kirsten Burns
Director of Photography Phyllis Graber Jensen
Photographer Theophil Syslo
Class Notes Editor Doug Hubley
Contributing Editors Mary Pols Freddie Wright President of Bates A. Clayton Spencer
Bates Magazine Advisory Board Marjorie Patterson Cochran ’90 Geraldine FitzGerald ’75 David Foster ’77 Joe Gromelski ’74 Judson Hale Jr. ’82 Jonathan Hall ’83 Christine Johnson ’90 Jon Marcus ’82 Peter Moore ’78
Contact Us Bates Communications 2 Andrews Rd. Lewiston ME 04240 magazine@bates.edu 207-786-6330 Production Bates Magazine is published twice annually at family-owned Penmor Lithographers, just a few minutes from campus. We use paper created with 30 percent postconsumer fiber and print with inks that are 99.5 percent free of volatile compounds.
On the Cover In a meadow at Thorncrag Nature Sanctuary last summer, Sebastian Leon Fallas ’24 of Perez Zeledon, Costa Rica, and Henry Hardy ’22 of Gloucester, Mass., research the area’s pollen environment, guided by Associate Professor of Biology Carla Essenberg. Starting on page 26, learn about Bates’ innovative approach to science education. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen. Nondiscrimination Bates College prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, age, disability, genetic information or veteran status and other legally protected statuses in the recruitment and admission of its students, in the administration of its education policies and programs, or in the recruitment of its faculty and staff. The college adheres to all applicable state and federal equal opportunity laws and regulations. Full policy: bates.edu/nondiscrimination
