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The original draft of this article was written for my site, A Brief History of East Lansing, Michigan. While browsing through my usual sources for a quick biographical sketch of Holmes, I stumbled across these glaring, unanswered questions: Why, after his years of dedication and ceaseless work in getting the school founded, was he so abruptly dismissed? When Joseph Williams gets a hall named for him after a mere two years as college president, and H.G. Wells has had 3 (!) halls named for him just for being the first president of the Board of Agriculture (the first even while he was still alive), why did it take more than 100 years for Holmes — who spent more than ten years of his life getting the school founded and giving it, as his contemporary President T.C. Abbot said, "a right start" — to have his name attached to what is, no offence to the architect, basically a glorified dormitory among several?
Was he caught with his hand in the cookie jar? Was he the scapegoat for the faulty construction of College Hall and Saints' Rest? Was something more sinister afoot, such as mental illness? Was it merely a case of him becoming too bossy, too covetous, too controlling of a school he might rightly have considered "his own"? I have found no record that addresses these speculations.
I have submitted Holmes' biography here not only because Wikipedia needed one and so that it may reach a wider audience, but also as something of a honeypot — I would very much like to know the whole story, if one exists, of John C. Holmes' fall from grace at Michigan State. Professor Harold Lautner, who as the official Director of Campus Planning (1945 - 1969) was a direct successor to Holmes, is the only author I have found who even broaches the question of what might have happened. Lautner even goes so far as to contrast Holmes' legacy with that of John Harvard, whose donation of a modest library and four hundred British pounds led to a major university that bears his name, in effect implying that MSU's debt to Holmes is far greater. Yet Lautner, who pored through the official minutes of the Board to write his comprehensive history of campus planning, could find nothing more than the basic facts of Holmes' appointments and dismissals. For all I know, the truth may be lost to the sands of time.
Kevin Forsyth 16:47, 20 November 2006 (UTC)
Kevin,
This is a very good article. I think I will nominate it for Did You Know?, which features new Wikipedia articles. My only criticism is that it may violate the No Original Research rule. I think that a few footnotes (along with the current references) would go a long way. I'll try to work on it myself over the long weekend. In the mean time, keep up the good work!
Lovelac7 18:13, 21 November 2006 (UTC)
Lovelac7,
Thank you for the positive feedback, and I'd really enjoy being nominated for DYK!
As far as the sources go, everything I wrote is based on something in the references. I've added proper footnotes.
Best regards, and Go State!
Kevin Forsyth 19:39, 21 November 2006 (UTC)
Feedback:
Overall, a good start. I'm going to put a hold on on this and have you fix it... you aren't that far away from a GA. IMHO. Balloonman 09:30, 29 November 2006 (UTC) PS... feel free to accept/reject my comments as needed. Balloonman 17:04, 29 November 2006 (UTC)
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John Clough Holmes has been listed as one of the Social sciences and society good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
|
This article is rated GA-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
The original draft of this article was written for my site, A Brief History of East Lansing, Michigan. While browsing through my usual sources for a quick biographical sketch of Holmes, I stumbled across these glaring, unanswered questions: Why, after his years of dedication and ceaseless work in getting the school founded, was he so abruptly dismissed? When Joseph Williams gets a hall named for him after a mere two years as college president, and H.G. Wells has had 3 (!) halls named for him just for being the first president of the Board of Agriculture (the first even while he was still alive), why did it take more than 100 years for Holmes — who spent more than ten years of his life getting the school founded and giving it, as his contemporary President T.C. Abbot said, "a right start" — to have his name attached to what is, no offence to the architect, basically a glorified dormitory among several?
Was he caught with his hand in the cookie jar? Was he the scapegoat for the faulty construction of College Hall and Saints' Rest? Was something more sinister afoot, such as mental illness? Was it merely a case of him becoming too bossy, too covetous, too controlling of a school he might rightly have considered "his own"? I have found no record that addresses these speculations.
I have submitted Holmes' biography here not only because Wikipedia needed one and so that it may reach a wider audience, but also as something of a honeypot — I would very much like to know the whole story, if one exists, of John C. Holmes' fall from grace at Michigan State. Professor Harold Lautner, who as the official Director of Campus Planning (1945 - 1969) was a direct successor to Holmes, is the only author I have found who even broaches the question of what might have happened. Lautner even goes so far as to contrast Holmes' legacy with that of John Harvard, whose donation of a modest library and four hundred British pounds led to a major university that bears his name, in effect implying that MSU's debt to Holmes is far greater. Yet Lautner, who pored through the official minutes of the Board to write his comprehensive history of campus planning, could find nothing more than the basic facts of Holmes' appointments and dismissals. For all I know, the truth may be lost to the sands of time.
Kevin Forsyth 16:47, 20 November 2006 (UTC)
Kevin,
This is a very good article. I think I will nominate it for Did You Know?, which features new Wikipedia articles. My only criticism is that it may violate the No Original Research rule. I think that a few footnotes (along with the current references) would go a long way. I'll try to work on it myself over the long weekend. In the mean time, keep up the good work!
Lovelac7 18:13, 21 November 2006 (UTC)
Lovelac7,
Thank you for the positive feedback, and I'd really enjoy being nominated for DYK!
As far as the sources go, everything I wrote is based on something in the references. I've added proper footnotes.
Best regards, and Go State!
Kevin Forsyth 19:39, 21 November 2006 (UTC)
Feedback:
Overall, a good start. I'm going to put a hold on on this and have you fix it... you aren't that far away from a GA. IMHO. Balloonman 09:30, 29 November 2006 (UTC) PS... feel free to accept/reject my comments as needed. Balloonman 17:04, 29 November 2006 (UTC)
Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified one external link on John Clough Holmes. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
This message was posted before February 2018.
After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than
regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors
have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the
RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{
source check}}
(last update: 5 June 2024).
Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot ( Report bug) 11:04, 27 November 2017 (UTC)