Bells to ring for presidential Installation

As with other musical offerings celebrating the beginning of a new administration, a peal of bells will ring throughout Cambridge in joyous thanksgiving for the Installation of Lawrence H. Summers as 27th president of Harvard University. Long a Harvard tradition, bells rang for the 1849 inauguration of Jared Sparks and the 1909 inauguration of Abbott Lawrence Lowell. The bells of Southwark Cathedral, London, England – John Harvard’s baptismal church – rang in 1936 for the Tercentenary celebrations; and since 1989 the bells of the city of Cambridge have rung at the conclusion of every Harvard Commencement.

On October 12, when the University Marshal has declared the formal installation festivities adjourned, the bell in the Memorial Church tower will be joined by the pealing of the 17-bell Russian zvon of Lowell House, the bell of “Hope, Felicity, and Joy” of the Business School, the Divinity School bell in Andover Hall, the historic 13-bell “Harvard Chime” of Christ Church Cambridge, and the bells of the Church of the New Jerusalem, First Church Congregational, First Parish Unitarian Universalist, St. Paul Roman Catholic Church, St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church, University Lutheran Church, Holy Trinity Armenian Apostolic Church, North Prospect United Church of Christ, First Baptist Church, and St. Anthony’s Church. The bells will begin ringing at approximately 3:45 p.m., and will continue for about 15 minutes.