William Alexander Hammond

For a generation William Alexander Hammond was the leading exponent of liberal culture at Cornell University. Holding the Sage Professorship of Ancient Philosophy he was also, from 1920 to 1930, Dean of the Faculty. The list of his commentaries and translations is a long one and his scholarship was as thorough as it was ripe and discriminating. He was much more than learned, however, as his colleagues testify. His was at once a lovable and a commanding personality. Because of the affection and respect of his associates, his judgments carried weight in the meetings of the faculty. He was not less beloved of his students, and his influence upon them was large and helpful. Like all leaders he had strong convictions and never hesitated to express them. In 1923, for example, when Lord Carnarvon was excavating in Tut-ankh-Amen’s tomb, he addressed a philosophy class at Cornell as follows:

“The twentieth century shows too little reverence. Think, how would you like it if three thousand years from now the Saracens supersede our civilization and break into George Washington’s tomb at Mount Vernon? How would you like it if Abraham Lincoln’s bones were carried off to Constantinople and placed on display in a Saracenic museum? Yet that is precisely what Lord Carnarvon is now doing while the scientific world applauds. What we need is more conservative scientific investigation, coupled with more reverence for departed human life.”

It was typical of his mental vigor and candor that he should take up, consider, and decide for himself thus clearly a question that for all its obviousness is rarely raised and almost never debated on its merits. The last years of his life he passed in Washington where he served as consultant in philosophy at the Library of Congress.

Geoffrey Parsons
1938 Century Memorials