The Irving Literary Society (also known as the Irving Literary Association or simply The Irving) was a literary society at Cornell University active from 1868 to 1887. The U.S. Bureau of Education described it as a "purely literary society" following the "traditions of the old literary societies of Eastern universities." During the period when the Cornell literary societies flourished, the Irving and its peers produced literature at a rate higher than the campus average for the next generation, leading commentators at the turn of the 20th century to question whether academic standards had fallen since the university's founding. Named after the American writer Washington Irving, the Irving Literary Society was founded on October 20, 1868, shortly after Cornell opened. Past members who went on to prominent careers included Judge Morris Lyon Buchwalter, Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, and the journalists John Andrew Rea and Francis Whiting Halsey. The Irving's last public meeting was held on May 23, 1887. After that it ceased to exist as a Cornell University student society. However, the New York Alpha Chapter of the Phi Kappa Psi undergraduate fraternity at Cornell claims to have "served as steward of the Irving Literary Society since 1888".
History
Founding
A preliminary meeting chaired to organize the Society was held Room No. 4, Cascadilla Place, on October 20, 1868, some thirteen days after Cornell University opened its doors. The second business meeting followed on November 7 with George F. Behringer as President when the society's name was discussed with members equally between the John Bright Brotherhood, honoring the English orator John Bright and others favoring the Irving Literary Association after Washington Irving. A compromise was struck in which the society was named after Irving, while Bright and the American orator, Charles Sumner, were admitted as the first honorary members. Each of the early sessions was opened with prayer. In 1930 John Andrew Rea recalled: What I was thinking of most at that time was founding a fraternity and a literary society. I was Phi Kappa Psi, and wanted Foraker and Buchwalter to come on and join me in founding the New York Alpha, which we did, and we had a great bunch of boys. The literary society was first in time. Mr. Williams of our class agitated for the organization of a society under the name "Philanthea". I was appointed on the committee to report on the name for the second society. We did not want a Latin or Greek name, for this was a new institution, one that had never existed before. After much discussion, we went to Mr. White [ Andrew Dickson White ] and told him we were starting a society and he suggested we use the name of "Irving", after the founder of American literature. The committee accepted it and reported it to the boys and so it was called the Irving Literary Society. I have no record of the demise of the Irving . . . . There were no other activities than those of the fraternity and the literary society. That was all we knew anything about; no athletics the first year. The literary society had public exhibitions with essays, orations, and debates. They were held downtown.
The first question 'put to the house' in 1869 was "Resolved, the erection of a theatre was not in the interest of promoting correct morals within the University community." The answer was nodded in the affirmative. The Irving was not to be the venue for the theatre arts at Cornell. Beginning in February 1870, the Irving and the Philaletheian held their annual contest against each other. That event has been noted as one reason the quality of debate was so high between 1869 and 1884. Initially, the Irving's proceedings were held on Friday evenings at Deming Hall, on what is now the Ithaca Commons. Special events were held at the Cornell Public Library around the corner. Later it shared Society Hall with the other literary societies at Cornell. The Irving was initially a male-only society, but following the lead of Cornell's Curtis Literary Society (founded in 1872), membership in the Irving became open to women students and remained so throughout its existence. In 1873, members of the Curtis, Irving and Philaletheian societies jointly founded and ran the Cornell Review, "a repository of original articles, essays, stories, Woodford orations, elaborate discussions, and poems."