Hackley Archives: Item of the Month

Every month, Archivist Liesel Vink will share an "item of the month" from the archives...
Mrs. Hackley's copy of "Poems" by Philip Henry Savage, copyright 1898 was discovered this summer while reorganizing the archive. Philip Savage was the son of Minot Savage, a prominent Unitarian close to Hackley's founders and the namesake of "Minot Savage Hall," where the Admissions Office is located.  Not much is known about Philip Savage except that he was a promising young man and poet who died young.  The portion of Hackley's historic buildings that houses the Head of School's office, with the doorway inscribed with "Enter Here to be and Find  a Friend," is Philip Savage Hall, named in memory of young Savage.  While we do not know the origin of the phrase "Enter Here to be and Find a Friend," we like to think it is in part a tribute to Philip Savage. It echoes Emerson's phrase, "The only way to have a friend is to be one," and Emerson, as a prominent Transcendentalist thinker with Unitarian roots, would have been a shaping influence for the Savage family, as well as Hackley's founders.
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