The Messenger Lectures are a series of talks given by scholars and public figures at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

. They were founded in 1924 by a gift from Hiram Messenger of "a fund to provide a course of lectures on the Evolution of Civilization for the special purpose of raising the moral standard of our political, business, and social life", to be "delivered by the ablest non-resident lecturer or lecturers obtainable". The lecture series has been described as one of Cornell's most important of extracurricular activities. Initially a series of twelve lectures per year, there are now either three or six lectures by one speaker each semester. Archeologist James Henry Breasted delivered the first series of Messenger Lectures in 1925.

Hiram Messenger

Dr. Hiram John Messenger Jr (July 6, 1855 - Dec. 15, 1913; B. Litt., Phd,) was from Hartford, Connecticut and graduated from Cornell in 1880. He was a teacher of mathematics Associate Professor of Mathematics at the

University of the City of New York New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

and an actuary of the Traveler's Insurance Company. The gift he left to Cornell was part of $4,000 mentioned in his will and a portion of his estate goes to Cornell each year. He was himself the youngest son of Hiram J. Messenger, a mercantile businessman and owner of banks.

The lectures

:''See th
list of Messenger Lectures
at Cornell University for a complete list'' There have been over 80 talks given since 1924, the most famous of which is probably Richard Feynman's 7 lecture series in 1964, ''

The Character of Physical Law ''The Character of Physical Law'' is a series of seven lectures by physicist Richard Feynman concerning the nature of the laws of physics. Feynman delivered the lectures in 1964 at Cornell University, as part of the Messenger Lectures series. Th ...

'', the videos of which were bought and made available to the public by

Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions ...

in 2009. A partial listing of some of the lecturers over the years is provided in Cornell's Messenger Lectures brochure as: * Michael Moss (2016) * Cecilia Vicuña (2015) *

Leonard Susskind Leonard Susskind (; born June 16, 1940)his 60th birthday was celebrated with a special symposium at Stanford University.in Geoffrey West's introduction, he gives Suskind's current age as 74 and says his birthday was recent. is an American physicis ...

(2014) *

Nima Arkani-Hamed Nima Arkani-Hamed ( fa, نیما ارکانی حامد; born April 5, 1972) is an American-Canadian

(2010) *

Steven Weinberg Steven Weinberg (; May 3, 1933 – July 23, 2021) was an American theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate in physics for his contributions with Abdus Salam and Sheldon Glashow to the unification of the weak force and electromagnetic interac ...

(2007) *

Sir Martin Rees Martin John Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: (born 23 June 1942) is a British cosmologist and astrophysicist. He is the fifteenth Astronomer Royal, ...

(2005) * Maynard Solomon (1992) * Susan Moller Okin (1989) * Peter Nye (1989) *

Edward W. Said Edward Wadie Said (; , ; 1 November 1935 – 24 September 2003) was a Palestinian-American professor of literature at Columbia University, a public intellectual, and a founder of the academic field of postcolonial studies.Robert Young, ''White ...

(1986) * Quentin Skinner (1983) *

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky i ...

(1976) *

Edward O. Wilson Edward Osborne Wilson (June 10, 1929 – December 26, 2021) was an American biologist, naturalist, entomologist and writer. According to David Attenborough, Wilson was the world's leading expert in his specialty of myrmecology, the study of a ...

(1976) *

Richard Feynman Richard Phillips Feynman (; May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988) was an American theoretical physicist, known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, the physics of the superfl ...

(1964) * 1960-1961

Fred Hoyle Sir Fred Hoyle FRS (24 June 1915 – 20 August 2001) was an English astronomer who formulated the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis and was one of the authors of the influential B2FH paper. He also held controversial stances on other sci ...

, Astronomy, University of Cambridge * 1959-1960 Linus Pauling, Chemistry, California Institute of Technology * 1959-1960

Arthur F. Burns Arthur Frank Burns (April 27, 1904 – June 26, 1987) was an American economist and diplomat who served as the 10th chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1970 to 1978. He previously chaired the Council of Economic Advisers under President Dwight ...

, Economics, Columbia University * 1958-1959

Vincent Wigglesworth Sir Vincent Brian Wigglesworth CBE FRS (17 April 1899 – 11 February 1994) was a British entomologist who made significant contributions to the field of insect physiology. He established the field in a textbook which was updated in a number ...

, Zoology, University of Cambridge * 1957-1958

Guido Pontecorvo Guido Pellegrino Arrigo Pontecorvo FRS FRSE (29 November 1907 – 25 September 1999) was an Italian-born Scottish geneticist. Life Guido Pontecorvo was born on 29 November 1907 in Pisa into a family of wealthy Italian industrialists. He was on ...

, Genetics, University of Glasgow * 1957-1958 Paul Tillich, Religion, Harvard University * 1956-1957 W. K. C. Guthrie, Classics, University of Cambridge * 1956-1957

Alfred L. Kroeber Alfred Louis Kroeber (June 11, 1876 – October 5, 1960) was an American cultural anthropologist. He received his PhD under Franz Boas at Columbia University in 1901, the first doctorate in anthropology awarded by Columbia. He was also the first ...

, Anthropology, University of California * 1955-1956 Edward C. Kirkland, History, Bowdoin College * 1955-1956 Arthur J. Altmeyer, Louis I. Dublin, Edward J. Stieglitz, Gerontology * 1954-1955 Philip Kuenen, Submarine Geology, Groningen, the Netherlands * 1954-1955 Alpheus T. Mason, Government, Princeton University * 1953-1954 Luther Gulick, Public Administration, New York * 1953-1954

C. B. van Niel Cornelis Bernardus van Niel (also known as Kees van Niel) (November 4, 1897 – March 10, 1985) was a Dutch-American microbiologist. He introduced the study of general microbiology to the United States and made key discoveries explaining t ...

, Bacteriology, Stanford University * 1952-1953

Joseph Wood Krutch Joseph Wood Krutch (; November 25, 1893 – May 22, 1970) was an American author, critic, and naturalist who wrote nature books on the American Southwest. He is known for developing a pantheistic philosophy. Biography Born in Knoxville, Tenne ...

, Drama, Columbia University * 1952-1953

Theodore von Karman Theodore may refer to: Places * Theodore, Alabama, United States * Theodore, Australian Capital Territory * Theodore, Queensland, a town in the Shire of Banana, Australia * Theodore, Saskatchewan, Canada * Theodore Reservoir, a lake in Saskatche ...

, Engineering, California Institute of Technology * 1951-1952

Otto Struve Otto Struve (August 12, 1897 – April 6, 1963) was a Russian-American astronomer of Baltic German origins. In Russian, his name is sometimes given as Otto Lyudvigovich Struve (Отто Людвигович Струве); however, he spent most o ...

, Astronomy, Yerkes Observatory * 1951-1952

Robert Redfield Robert Redfield (December 4, 1897 – October 16, 1958) was an American anthropologist and ethnolinguist, whose ethnographic work in Tepoztlán, Mexico, is considered a landmark of Latin American ethnography. He was associated with the University ...

, Anthropology, University of Chicago * 1950-1951

William F. Albright William Foxwell Albright (May 24, 1891– September 19, 1971) was an American archaeologist, biblical scholar, philologist, and expert on ceramics. He is considered "one of the twentieth century's most influential American biblical scholars." ...

, Archaeology, Johns Hopkins University * 1950-1951 Thomas A. Bailey, Russian-American Relations, Stanford University * 1950-1951 Jens Clausen, Botany, Stanford University * 1949-1950 Otto E. Neugebauer, History of Mathematics, Brown University * 1949-1950

Vincent du Vigneaud Vincent du Vigneaud (May 18, 1901 – December 11, 1978) was an American biochemist. He was recipient of the 1955 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his work on biochemically important sulphur compounds, especially for the first synthesis of a polypep ...

, Biochemistry, Cornell Medical College * 1948-1949 Otto Kinkeldey, Musicology, Harvard University * 1948-1949

Harvey Fletcher Harvey Fletcher (September 11, 1884 – July 23, 1981) was an American physicist. Known as the "father of stereophonic sound", he is credited with the invention of the 2-A audiometer and an early electronic hearing aid. He was an investigator i ...

, Acoustics, Bell Telephone Laboratories * 1947-1948

Howard Mumford Jones Howard Mumford Jones (April 16, 1892 – May 11, 1980) was an American intellectual historian, literary critic, journalist, poet, and professor of English at the University of Michigan and later at Harvard University. Jones was the book editor for ...

, American Literature, Harvard University * 1947-1948

Catherine Bauer Catherine Krouse Bauer Wurster (May 11, 1905 – November 21, 1964) was an American public housing advocate and educator of city planners and urban planners. A leading member of the "housers," a group of planners who advocated affordable housi ...

, Housing, University of Cambridge * 1947-1948

Marjorie Hope Nicolson Marjorie Hope Nicolson (February 18, 1894 – March 9, 1981) was an American literary scholar. She was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1941 and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1955. Early life an ...

, English Literature, Columbia University * 1946-1947 Sumner Slichter, Economics, Harvard University * 1945-1946

Hu Shih Hu Shih (; 17 December 1891 – 24 February 1962), also known as Hu Suh in early references, was a Chinese diplomat, essayist, literary scholar, philosopher, and politician. Hu is widely recognized today as a key contributor to Chinese libera ...

, History of Chinese Philosophy, Peking * 1945-1946

J. Robert Oppenheimer J. Robert Oppenheimer (; April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physicist. A professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, Oppenheimer was the wartime head of the Los Alamos Laboratory and is oft ...

, Atomic Physics, California Inst. Of Technology * 1945-1946

C. C. Little Clarence Cook Little (October 6, 1888 – December 22, 1971) was an Americans, American genetics, cancer, and tobacco researcher and academic administrator, as well as a eugenicist. Early life C. C. Little was born in Brookline, Massachusetts ...

, L. H. Snyder, H. J. Muller, Gene * 1944-1945

Douglas Bush John Nash Douglas Bush (1896–1983) was a literary critic and literary historian. He taught for most of his life at Harvard University, where his students included many of the most prominent scholars, writers, and academics of several generation ...

, English Literature, Harvard University * 1944-1945 T. R. McConnell, W. H. Cowley, W. DeVane, Higher Education * 1944-1945 Charles E. Kellogg, Agronomy, U.S. Department of Agriculture * 1944-1945 Lydia Roberts, Nutrition, University of Chicago * 1943-1944

Griffith Taylor Thomas Griffith "Grif" Taylor (1 December 1880 – 5 November 1963) was an English-born geographer, anthropologist and world explorer. He was a survivor of Captain Robert Scott's Terra Nova Expedition to Antarctica (1910–1913). Taylor was a se ...

, Geography, Toronto * 1942-1943

Carl L. Becker Carl Lotus Becker (September 7, 1873 – April 10, 1945) was an American historian of the Age of Enlightenment in America and Europe. Life He was born in Waterloo, Iowa. He enrolled at the University of Wisconsin in 1893 as an undergraduate, an ...

, Cornell History, Cornell University * 1942-1943 H. Peyre, French Literature, Yale University * 1941-1942 H. M. Evans, Endocrinology, University of California * 1941-1942 T. M. River and others, Virus Diseases, Rockefeller Institute * 1940-1941 F. A. Pottle, Modern Poetry, Yale University * 1940-1941 H. E. Sigerist, History of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University * 1939-1940 T. D. Kendrick, Archaeology, British Museum * 1938-1939 G. P. Adams, Philosophy, University of California * 1938-1939 G. H. McIlwain, History of Political Theory, Harvard University * 1937-1938 E. J. Dent, Musicology, University of Cambridge * 1936-1937

Isaiah Bowman Isaiah Bowman, AB, Ph. D. (December 26, 1878, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada – January 6, 1950, Baltimore, Maryland), was an American geographer and President of the Johns Hopkins University, 1935–1948, controversial for his antisemitism and ...

, Geography, Johns Hopkins University * 1936-1937 Robert Hegner, Parasitology, Johns Hopkins University * 1935-1936 W. M. Calder, History of Christianity, University of Edinburgh * 1934-1935 W. C. Mitchell, Economics, Columbia University * 1933-1934 Sir Arthur Eddington, Astronomy, University of Cambridge * 1932-1933 B. Malinowski, Anthropology, London * 1931-1932 F. J. Mather, Fine Arts, Princeton University * 1930-1931

T. H. Morgan Thomas Hunt Morgan (September 25, 1866 – December 4, 1945) was an American evolutionary biologist, geneticist, embryologist, and science author who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1933 for discoveries elucidating the role tha ...

, Genetics, California Institute of Technology * 1929-1930

Roscoe Pound Nathan Roscoe Pound (October 27, 1870 – June 30, 1964) was an American legal scholar and educator. He served as Dean of the University of Nebraska College of Law from 1903 to 1911 and Dean of Harvard Law School from 1916 to 1936. He was a membe ...

, Law, Harvard University * 1928-1929 E. L. Thorndike, Psychology, Columbia University * 1927-1928 T. F. Tout, English History, Manchester * 1926-1927

H. J. C. Grierson Sir Herbert John Clifford Grierson, FBA (16 January 1866 – 19 February 1960) was a Scottish literary scholar, editor, and literary critic. Life and work He was born in Lerwick, Shetland, on 16 January 1866. He was the son of Andrew John Grie ...

, English Literature, University of Edinburgh * 1925-1926 R. A. Milliken, Physics, California Institute of Technology * 1924-1925 J. H. Breasted, Ancient History, Chicago

References

{{reflist

External links

Feynman's Messenger Lectures
Cornell University Lecture series

Hiram Messenger

The lectures

See also

References

External links