Celebrating 50 years of Eastman House
US Rhodes Scholars today joined in celebrating the 50th anniversary of construction of Eastman House, the Oxford home of the Eastman Professor - the holder of one of the world's most respected visiting professorships, which brings a distinguished American scholar to Oxford each year.
The Eastman Professorship was established in 1929 by George Eastman, founder of the Eastman Kodak Company, and has been stewarded since its creation by the Association of American Rhodes Scholars (AARS) . Eastman's principal aim, inspired by the vision and beneficence of Cecil Rhodes, was to promote understanding between the United States, Britain, and other countries.
Holders have included - amongst many other outstanding scholars - Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, George F. Kennan, and several Nobel laureates, including Linus Pauling and Baruch S. Blumburg (later Master of Balliol College). Eastman Professors hold a fellowship at Balliol College for their year in Oxford.
To provide a home in Oxford for the Eastman Professor, construction of Eastman House began in 1959, and it was first occupied in Michaelmas term 1961.
Today's celebration of its 50th anniversary was hosted by the current Eastman Professor, Edward A. Fisher (Leon H. Charney Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at New York University), and Mrs Jill Fisher, and the President of the Association of American Rhodes Scholars, Mr Steve Crown (Washington & Queen's 1980).
In thanking all who contributed to the success of the Eastman Professorship - including University of Oxford and Balliol College staff, and officers of the AARS - Steve Crown also especially thanked Lady (Gill) Williams, who was responsible for the interior decoration of Eastman House in 1961, and who was present at this 50th anniversary celebration. Her late husband, Sir Edgar Williams, Warden of Rhodes House (1952-80), had overseen construction of Eastman House, and successive Wardens have helped to welcome Eastman Professors to Oxford.
Mr Crown also spoke of George Eastman's vision of the Eastman Professor having contact, formal and informal, with Rhodes Scholars and other students in Oxford. The current Eastman Professor and Mrs Fisher have taken part in several activities with Rhodes Scholars, including Professor Fisher leading a dinner conversation about careers in biomedical sciences, and their much-appreciated hospitality in having Scholars and others in their home for the 50th anniversary celebration.
Mr Crown also read messages from past Eastman Professors reflecting on their happy memories of their time in Oxford and of its important benefits for their work - 'inspiring outcomes' of Eastman's 'amazing gift'.
In warmly welcoming guests, Professor Fisher referred amusingly to the role of British architects in designing the exterior of Eastman House, to make it fit graciously into its location on Jowett Walk, and the role of American architects in shaping the interior design, helping to make it a comfortable home in which an American family could live.
The Association of American Rhodes Scholars is committed to assuring that the Eastman Professorship will remain vital, and attractive to America's leading scholars, in the decades ahead, and is working closely with the American Trust for Oxford, the University of Oxford, Balliol College, and Rhodes House to this end.
To view the remarks made by Mr Steve Crown, please click here.
The commemorative booklet produced as a special issue of The American Oxonian to mark the 50th anniversary celebration of Eastman House can be viewed here.
For further information about the Eastman Professorship, click here (AARS) or here (Balliol College).
