Cosmopolitan Club (Harvard University)

Cosmopolitan Clubs, also known as International Clubs, were among the earliest formal organizations dedicated to serving the needs of foreign students on college campuses in the United States. The first Cosmopolitan Club was founded in 1903 at the University of Wisconsin and a national organization, the Association of Cosmopolitan Clubs of America, was formed in 1907. The club spread quickly with chapters at Cornell University, the University of Michigan, the University of Illinois, Ohio State University, Purdue University, and other schools. The Cosmopolitan Clubs were one of the first United States student organizations affiliated with an international group, the International Federation of Students (also known as Corda Fratres).

At the suggestion of Henry Wilder Foote (AB 1897) in a November 1907 letter to the editor of Harvard Bulletin, the Harvard Cosmopolitan Club was organized on February 12, 1908 "to unite for their mutual benefit, social and intellectual, Harvard men of all nationalities; to promote throughout the world knowledge of Harvard and its resources; to increase the resort of foreign students; and to help these, before and after their arrival, to fulfill the object of their coming." The club required that at least two-thirds of all active members be of foreign birth, had low membership fees, and allowed international students to participate in social events during a time when they were unlikely to be admitted to other clubs or fraternities. Club activities included weekly informal talks on foreign countries, monthly formal lectures or international entertainment, an information bureau conducted by members to help newly arrived international students settle into their environment, an annual reception for all international students at the start of the academic year, and an annual dinner featuring prominent international speakers. The club was roomed in Holyoke House on the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Holyoke Street. The Harvard Cosmopolitan was disbanded around 1925 and replaced by a similar organization, the International Club, in 1926.