At the beginning of the academic year 1997-98, the department of Architecture, under the auspices of the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, launched the Design Arts Initiative, intending to broaden our academic involvment with the allied arts - such as industrial and product design, interior design, graphic design, and the decorative arts - that are not part of the School's curriculum and programs that, since its foundation more than half a century ago, have canonized the alliances between architecture, physical planning, urbanism, and landscape architecture. We aim to respond, on the one hand, to our obligation to comply with the ample intellectual mission of the school and its traditions, and on the other, to the new territory that professional practice, the market, industry, art and popular culture have been remapping in the last decades and thatineevitably has challenged from the outside some of the ideological, methodological, and theoretical boundaries that defined the field of action of architectural education.

The Silver Pitcher (and Goblet)

Sarah Wyman Whitman designed a silver pitcher, and goblet in sterling silver manufactured by Shreve Crump & Low Co. It is the only item in silver she ever designed. The pitcher, in Greek urn design, and goblet were presented to Harvard University in 1892 from Sarah Wyman Whitman in the name of her younger brother, and only sibling, Charles Wyman to be used by the University on public occasions in Sanders Theatre. This gesture may have been to mark his 25th reunion year. Charles Wyman, A.B. 1867 and M.A. 1871, was placed in an asylum in 1882 until his death in 1911 for undocumented reasons, and was considered dead to his fellow classmates and Boston society. As his sole caretaker and guardian, she designed the pitcher so that his presence would be remembered in the future by many. A similar goblet and pitcher was commissioned by Radcliffe's class of 1896, which when made, were modeled after those in the possession of Harvard College. The pitcher was featured in Harvard Magazine, May-June 1990, to recognize its current use, which is to grace the speaker's table of the Alpha Iota chapter of Phi Beta Kappa at their annual meeting.

The Graduate School of Design, with the gracious consent of the President and Fellows of Harvard University and the Fogg Art Museum, where the pitcher resides, has commissioned silversmith Michael Brophy to reproduce the pitcher to serve as Harvard's Excellence in Design Award. This 1997 reproduction will include the crest of the Graduate School of Design and will be engraved specially for each recipient of the Award.