The Messenger Lectures are a series of talks given by scholars and public figures at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

. They were funded in 1924 by a gift from Hiram Messenger of "a fund to provide a course of lectures on the Evolution of Civilization for the special purpose of raising the moral standard of our political, business, and social life", to be "delivered by the ablest non-resident lecturer or lecturers obtainable". The lecture series has been described as one of Cornell's most important of extracurricular activities. Initially a series of twelve lectures per year, there are now either three or six lectures by one speaker each semester. Archeologist

James Henry Breasted James Henry Breasted (; August 27, 1865 – December 2, 1935) was an American archaeologist, Egyptologist, and historian. After completing his PhD at the University of Berlin in 1894 – the first American to obtain a doctorate in Egyptology – ...

delivered the first series of Messenger Lectures in 1925.

Hiram Messenger

Dr. Hiram John Messenger Jr (July 6, 1855 - Dec. 15, 1913; B. Litt., Phd,) was from Hartford, Connecticut and graduated from Cornell in 1880. He was a teacher of mathematics Associate Professor of Mathematics at the University of the City of New York and an

actuary An actuary is a professional with advanced mathematical skills who deals with the measurement and management of risk and uncertainty. These risks can affect both sides of the balance sheet and require investment management, asset management, ...

of the Traveler's Insurance Company. The gift he left to Cornell was part of $4,000 mentioned in his will and a portion of his estate goes to Cornell each year. He was himself the youngest son of Hiram J. Messenger, a mercantile businessman and owner of banks.

The lectures

:''See th
list of Messenger Lectures
at Cornell University for a complete list'' There have been over 80 talks given since 1924, the most famous of which is probably Richard Feynman's 7 lecture series in 1964, ''

The Character of Physical Law ''The Character of Physical Law'' is a series of seven lectures by physicist Richard Feynman concerning the nature of the laws of physics. Feynman delivered the lectures in 1964 at Cornell University, as part of the Messenger Lectures series. The ...

'', the videos of which were bought and made available to the public by

Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American businessman and philanthropist. A pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, he co-founded the software company Microsoft in 1975 with his childhood friend ...

in 2009. A partial listing of some of the lecturers over the years is provided in Cornell's Messenger Lectures brochure as: * Michael Moss (2016) *

Cecilia Vicuña Cecilia Vicuña (born 1948) is a Chilean poet and artist based in New York and Santiago, Chile. Her work is noted for themes of language, memory, dissolution, extinction and exile. Critics also note the relevance of her work to the politics of e ...

(2015) *

Leonard Susskind Leonard Susskind (; born June 16, 1940)his 60th birth anniversary was celebrated with a special symposium at Stanford University.in Geoffrey West's introduction, he gives Suskind's current age as 74 and says his birthday was recent. is an Americ ...

(2014) *

Nima Arkani-Hamed Nima Arkani-Hamed (; born April 5, 1972) is an Iranian-American-Canadian

(2010) *

Steven Weinberg Steven Weinberg (; May 3, 1933 – July 23, 2021) was an American theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate in physics for his contributions with Abdus Salam and Sheldon Glashow to the unification of the weak force and electromagnetic inter ...

(2007) * Sir Martin Rees (2005) * Maynard Solomon (1992) * Susan Moller Okin (1989) * Peter Nye (1989) *

Edward W. Said Edward Wadie Said (1 November 1935 – 24 September 2003) was a Palestinian-American academic, literary critic, and political activist. As a professor of literature at Columbia University, he was among the founders of post-colonial studies.R ...

(1986) *

Quentin Skinner Quentin Robert Duthie Skinner (born 26 November 1940) is a British intellectual historian. He is regarded as one of the founders of the Cambridge School of the history of political thought. He has won numerous prizes for his work, including ...

(1983) * Jean Seznec (1978) *

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American professor and public intellectual known for his work in linguistics, political activism, and social criticism. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a ...

(1976) * Edward O. Wilson (1976) *

Richard Feynman Richard Phillips Feynman (; May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988) was an American theoretical physicist. He is best known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, the physics of t ...

(1964) * 1960-1961

Fred Hoyle Sir Fred Hoyle (24 June 1915 – 20 August 2001) was an English astronomer who formulated the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis and was one of the authors of the influential B2FH paper, B2FH paper. He also held controversial stances on oth ...

, Astronomy, University of Cambridge * 1959-1960

Linus Pauling Linus Carl Pauling ( ; February 28, 1901August 19, 1994) was an American chemist and peace activist. He published more than 1,200 papers and books, of which about 850 dealt with scientific topics. ''New Scientist'' called him one of the 20 gre ...

, Chemistry, California Institute of Technology * 1959-1960

Arthur F. Burns Arthur Frank Burns (April 27, 1904 – June 26, 1987) was an American economist and diplomat who served as the 10th chair of the Federal Reserve, chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1970 to 1978. He previously chaired the Council of Economic Ad ...

, Economics, Columbia University * 1958-1959 Vincent Wigglesworth, Zoology, University of Cambridge * 1957-1958

Guido Pontecorvo Guido Pellegrino Arrigo Pontecorvo FRS FRSE (29 November 1907 – 25 September 1999) was an Italian-born Scottish geneticist. Life Guido Pontecorvo was born on 29 November 1907 in Pisa into a family of wealthy Italian industrialists. He was o ...

, Genetics, University of Glasgow * 1957-1958

Paul Tillich Paul Johannes Tillich (; ; August 20, 1886 – October 22, 1965) was a German and American Christian existentialist philosopher, religious socialist, and Lutheran theologian who was one of the most influential theologians of the twenti ...

, Religion, Harvard University * 1956-1957 W. K. C. Guthrie, Classics, University of Cambridge * 1956-1957 Alfred L. Kroeber, Anthropology, University of California * 1955-1956 Edward C. Kirkland, History, Bowdoin College * 1955-1956 Arthur J. Altmeyer, Louis I. Dublin, Edward J. Stieglitz, Gerontology * 1954-1955 Philip Kuenen, Submarine Geology, Groningen, the Netherlands * 1954-1955 Alpheus T. Mason, Government, Princeton University * 1953-1954 Luther Gulick, Public Administration, New York * 1953-1954 C. B. van Niel, Bacteriology, Stanford University * 1952-1953 Joseph Wood Krutch, Drama, Columbia University * 1952-1953 Theodore von Karman, Engineering, California Institute of Technology * 1951-1952 Otto Struve, Astronomy, Yerkes Observatory * 1951-1952

Robert Redfield Robert Redfield (December 4, 1897 – October 16, 1958) was an American anthropologist and ethnolinguist, whose ethnographic work in Tepoztlán, Mexico, is considered a landmark of Latin American ethnography. He was associated with the Universi ...

, Anthropology, University of Chicago * 1950-1951

William F. Albright William Foxwell Albright (May 24, 1891 – September 19, 1971) was an American archaeologist, biblical scholar, philologist, and expert on ceramics. He is considered "one of the twentieth century's most influential American biblical scholars ...

, Archaeology, Johns Hopkins University * 1950-1951 Thomas A. Bailey, Russian-American Relations, Stanford University * 1950-1951 Jens Clausen, Botany, Stanford University * 1949-1950

Otto E. Neugebauer Otto Eduard Neugebauer (May 26, 1899 – February 19, 1990) was an Austrian-American mathematician and historian of science who became known for his research on the history of astronomy and the other exact sciences as they were practiced in a ...

, History of Mathematics, Brown University * 1949-1950 Vincent du Vigneaud, Biochemistry, Cornell Medical College * 1948-1949 Otto Kinkeldey, Musicology, Harvard University * 1948-1949

Harvey Fletcher Harvey Fletcher (September 11, 1884 – July 23, 1981) was an American physicist. Known as the "father of stereophonic sound", he is credited with the invention of the 2-A audiometer and an early electronic hearing aid. He was an investigator in ...

, Acoustics, Bell Telephone Laboratories * 1947-1948 Howard Mumford Jones, American Literature, Harvard University * 1947-1948 Catherine Bauer, Housing, University of Cambridge * 1947-1948 Marjorie Hope Nicolson, English Literature, Columbia University * 1946-1947 Sumner Slichter, Economics, Harvard University * 1945-1946

Hu Shih Hu Shih ( zh, t=胡適; 17 December 189124 February 1962) was a Chinese academic, writer, and politician. Hu contributed to Chinese liberalism and language reform, and was a leading advocate for the use of written vernacular Chinese. He part ...

, History of Chinese Philosophy, Peking * 1945-1946

J. Robert Oppenheimer J. Robert Oppenheimer (born Julius Robert Oppenheimer ; April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physics, theoretical physicist who served as the director of the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos Laboratory during World ...

, Atomic Physics, California Inst. Of Technology * 1945-1946 C. C. Little, L. H. Snyder, H. J. Muller, Gene * 1944-1945 Douglas Bush, English Literature, Harvard University * 1944-1945 T. R. McConnell, W. H. Cowley, W. DeVane, Higher Education * 1944-1945 Charles E. Kellogg, Agronomy, U.S. Department of Agriculture * 1944-1945 Lydia Roberts, Nutrition, University of Chicago * 1943-1944 Griffith Taylor, Geography, Toronto * 1942-1943

Carl L. Becker Carl Lotus Becker (September 7, 1873 – April 10, 1945) was an American historian who studied the American Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment in America and Europe. Life He was born in Waterloo, Iowa. He enrolled at the University of Wisco ...

, Cornell History, Cornell University * 1942-1943 H. Peyre, French Literature, Yale University * 1941-1942 H. M. Evans, Endocrinology, University of California * 1941-1942 T. M. River and others, Virus Diseases, Rockefeller Institute * 1940-1941 F. A. Pottle, Modern Poetry, Yale University * 1940-1941 H. E. Sigerist, History of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University * 1939-1940 T. D. Kendrick, Archaeology, British Museum * 1938-1939 G. P. Adams, Philosophy, University of California * 1938-1939 G. H. McIlwain, History of Political Theory, Harvard University * 1937-1938 E. J. Dent, Musicology, University of Cambridge * 1936-1937

Isaiah Bowman Isaiah Bowman, AB, Ph. D. (December 26, 1878 – January 6, 1950), was an American geographer and President of the Johns Hopkins University, 1935–1948, controversial for his antisemitism and inaction in Jewish resettlement during World War ...

, Geography, Johns Hopkins University * 1936-1937 Robert Hegner, Parasitology, Johns Hopkins University * 1935-1936 W. M. Calder, History of Christianity, University of Edinburgh * 1934-1935 W. C. Mitchell, Economics, Columbia University * 1933-1934 Sir

Arthur Eddington Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington, (28 December 1882 – 22 November 1944) was an English astronomer, physicist, and mathematician. He was also a philosopher of science and a populariser of science. The Eddington limit, the natural limit to the lu ...

, Astronomy, University of Cambridge * 1932-1933 B. Malinowski, Anthropology, London * 1931-1932 F. J. Mather, Fine Arts, Princeton University * 1930-1931 T. H. Morgan, Genetics, California Institute of Technology * 1929-1930

Roscoe Pound Nathan Roscoe Pound (October 27, 1870 – June 28, 1964) was an American legal scholar and educator. He served as dean of the University of Nebraska College of Law from 1903 to 1911 and was dean of Harvard Law School from 1916 to 1936. He was a ...

, Law, Harvard University * 1928-1929 E. L. Thorndike, Psychology, Columbia University * 1927-1928 T. F. Tout, English History, Manchester * 1926-1927 H. J. C. Grierson, English Literature, University of Edinburgh * 1925-1926 R. A. Millikan, Physics, California Institute of Technology * 1924-1925 J. H. Breasted, Ancient History, Chicago

References

External links

Feynman's Messenger Lectures

Jean Seznec's Messenger Lectures “Revival and Metamorphoses of the Gods in Nineteenth Century Art and Literature”
{{Cornell Cornell University University and college lecture series 1925 establishments in New York (state) Recurring events established in 1925

Hiram Messenger

The lectures

See also

References

External links