Harvard University. Cuban Summer School

The Cuban Summer School held at Harvard University in 1900 was one of the largest cultural exchanges between the United States and Cuba. On July 5, 1900, about 1,270 Cuban teachers arrived in Boston to complete a six-week summer school program at Harvard where they participated in classes, lectures, and excursions. Superintendent of Public Schools in Cuba Alexander Everett Frye (LLB 1890) organized the summer school to instruct Cuban teachers in the latest American educational methods and American culture.

The summer school was based on lawyer Ernest Lee Conant’s (AB 1884) suggestion to Frye to bring some Cuban teachers to the United States for further education. Vastly increasing the scale of Conant’s original plan, Frye proposed the Cuban Summer School to Harvard President Charles W. Eliot and the project was approved in April 1900. With support from the Boston community, more than $70,000 was raised by subscription to defray students' travel costs. The summer school was also supported by the United States federal government. Officials such as Secretary of War Elihu Root and Military Governor of Cuba Major-General Leonard Wood viewed the expedition as a step towards the annexation of Cuba through acculturation. The U.S. government provided ship transportation for the expedition, covering the cost of onboard meals and service.

From June 25 to 29, 1900, teachers from across Cuba departed on U.S. military ships from ports in Gibara, Matanzas, Cienfuegos, Sagua, and Nuevitas. Participants were selected by town vote and consisted of women and men from across racial and social backgrounds. Upon arriving in Boston in early July the teachers were guided to their accommodations. Men were housed in Harvard dormitories while women were lodged in the private homes of Cambridge and Boston residents. During the program, the Cuban teachers were accompanied by Harvard students who served as guides, translators, and assistants.

The summer school curriculum included Education, Geography, Psychology, Spanish-American History, U.S. History, and Public Libraries. English language classes were highly emphasized and taught twice a day, including Saturdays. Women were given additional classes in kindergarten training and men in Sloyd at the Cambridge Manual Training School. In the afternoon the teachers took excursions to places of historical, geographical, or industrial interest around the city. Destinations included Beaver Brook in Medford, the Cambridge Clay Pits, and factories in Cambridgeport.

While the focus was on educating a large proportion of the teachers in Cuba, the summer school was also attended by ten Puerto Rican teachers and one Filipino teacher.

Before returning to Cuba in August, the teachers also visited the tomb of Ulysses S. Grant, Columbia University, and West Point military academy in New York; Independence Hall in Philadelphia; and toured Washington D.C. where they met President William McKinley.

The expedition was widely reported in local newspapers and the cohort was well received by the people of Boston. Many events were held in the teachers' honor including receptions, dances, and social gatherings. Social events were organized by Harvard, private families, and local organizations such as the Baptist Societies of Cambridge and the Catholic Alumni Sodality.

Though never recreated on the same scale, a smaller Cuban Summer School was held at Harvard in 1901 using leftover funds from the prior year. This program accommodated 77 Cuban teachers, both women and men, under the age of 30 who had prior English language experience. The program focused solely on English language classes and was attended by teachers who covered a considerable portion of their own expenses.

The Cuban Summer School served as a model for future programs at Harvard including a summer school for Puerto Rican teachers (1904) and a summer school for Chinese students (1906).