Grover Cleveland, Henry Ford, Hamilton Fish, of which the last received the Pulitzer Prize. He had had a prominent career in journalism and wanted to entice the public to read history. He organized the Society of American Historians and established the annual Bancroft Prize for the three leading works in the subject. His Explorers of North America is a classic. Meanwhile, the formidable William Linn Westermann, who deciphered the stacks of Greek papyri found near the Nile delta, was the drill master of the small band of seekers after ancient history.
Rigorous scholarship requires frigorous human relations.
Enough has been said so far to show that, unlike today, students in the late 1920s had immense respect for their teachers and noted their foibles as part of the common lot, rather than as a warrant for assuming equality and acting as customers. Asking for a better grade would have been a sign of delirium. There was great courtesy on both sides and no bandying of first names, but it was not unusual for a seminar leader to invite his students to an evening buffet at his house or for an outing in the country. Nor had learning as yet been discovered to be a cover for an oppressive social system. The result was pleasure in the hard work of ascertaining and interpreting fact and joy in the knowledge that one was an apprentice in a worthy guild.