By Donna Boen '83 MTSC '96

The first in her family to attend college, Myldred Boston Howell '49 was also the first of two African-American women assigned to live on campus at Miami University. When she showed up freshman year to find her room in the basement of Oxford College next to the "smoker," she opted instead to live with a couple in town.

Howell's recollection of her student years has been captured through the Miami Stories Oral History Project, a Bicentennial Legacy Project produced by Miami University Libraries and housed in University Archives. She told interviewer Curt Ellison, professor of history and American studies, about the experience when she returned to Oxford during Reunion Weekend 2006.

Before her sophomore year, Howell was "really excited" that she and a white female student would be rooming together in Tallawanda Hall.

"Prior to Tallawanda, there was a young student who asked me to become her roommate, and when that got back to her parents, they went berserk. They said to her, ‘Are you crazy? What is going on here?' And she was taken out of school, and I never saw her again.

"However, the young people who lived in Tallawanda Hall were those young ladies whose parents were called and asked if they knew that there would be a black living in that residence hall. Those who lived on the first floor were all of those whose parents consented.

"And we all lived through that."

As Miami prepares to celebrate her Bicentennial in 2009, students, alumni, faculty, and staff are working together to compile her history, both through the oral history project, coordinated by Valerie Edwards Elliott '75 and Jenny Presnell '83 of the University Libraries, and in a new history book coming out next year - Miami University, 1809-2009: Bicentennial Perspectives.

The book is another pet project of Ellison's, who coordinated its 55 contributors and wrote its narrative, in cooperation with associate editors Andrew Cayton of history, Kate Rousmaniere of educational leadership, Robert Wicks of the art museum, Peter Williams of comparative religion, and Robert Schmidt PhD '84 and Valerie Edwards Elliott '75 of University Archives.

"It's not a muckraking book, it's not an exposé, but it doesn't shy away from pointing out that the institution faced many challenges, and sometimes the response to those challenges was rather dramatic. For example, at one point in the 19th century the board of trustees fired the president and all the faculty at one time."

Filled with photos and several timelines, the book covers five eras: Old Miami, 1809-1885; New Miami, 1885-1941; National University, 1941-1970; Public Ivy, 1970-1996; and Corporate University, 1996-2009.

Just as a parent who loves all his children equally, Ellison can't pick one favorite section. He does, however, chuckle over several of the anecdotes, including one by Ethelbert Dudley Warfield's son written 50 years after Warfield's brief presidency.

Miami's youngest president, the 27-year-old widower arrived in 1888, bringing with him several young professors, derisively referred to by the president of Oxford College as the "dude" faculty. Warfield introduced football to the campus and organized the first football game west of the Alleghenies, which ended with Miami tying the University of Cincinnati 0-0.

In his brief, three-year tenure, Ellison said, Warfield and three other faculty members "scandalized" the town when they started courting female professors from Western College.

Warfield's son takes up the story: "On occasion the good people of Oxford were duly horrified to see a horse-drawn buggy coming down the street, two hitherto irreproachable young ladies with the president and the mathematics professor of Miami University sitting on top of the buggy with their feet dangling. This in 1889 was clearly compromising, and the next spring the men made honest women of them, to wit: Mrs. E.D. Warfield and Mrs. Guyot Cameron."

Quoted in the new history, Oxford writer Carl Greer adds to this story: "Even more delicious perhaps was an incident at the 'very acme of their indiscretions.' It occurred 'one autumn evening when the young professors and their sweethearts were discovered broiling beefsteaks over a picnic bonfire in the lower campus.' "

As you might expect of an institution about to celebrate its 200th anniversary, Miami is replete with history. Her past will be recognized throughout the yearlong celebration next year, as will her present and her future.

The kickoff event will be the Bicentennial Charter Day Ball Feb. 21, 2009, in Millett Hall. Miamians everywhere are invited to come, said Ray Mock '82 MS '83, executive director of the Alumni Association.

Recognizing that not everyone will be able to attend the black-tie event, as much as he would like them to, Mock hopes that alumni chapters across the country join in by hosting Miami Charter Day dances in their own communities. There might even be a simulcast from the Oxford campus to make Miamians feel as though they are here.

"Let's say for argument's sake that the evening begins at 7:30 and you're in Chicago," Mock explained. "We send you a live feed from Lewis Place, the president's home, where the Hodges welcome you to the Bicentennial celebration. Then later we come back with a live feed from Millett, and we have the opportunity to show you what's going on and to meet a few students."

The year will be highlighted with "wow" events including big-name speakers and performers, publication of a special edition of the alumni directory titled Miami University Alumni: Today, Bicentennial Edition, and creation of Bicentennial merchandise.

Preview events this summer and fall include the September unveiling of "How the Miamis Live," an art show collaboration between the Miami Tribe's Office of Cultural Preservation and the Miami University Art Museum; and the launch of a Bicentennial Web site, which will feature upcoming events, school history, alumni profiles, and a Google Earth map of the Oxford campus. Click on a building or section of the campus or town, and you'll be able to see how it evolved from 1809 to today.

The Alumni Association board is also planning events specifically for alumni, including a giant guestbook for everyone to sign, an RV packed with Miami memorabilia to travel the country, and a quilt that "weaves Miami's story."

So why is Miami celebrating her Bicentennial?

Jerome Conley, Bicentennial coordinator, has the answer.

"We're celebrating two things. We're celebrating the 200 years of Miami and the contributions that Miami has made to America and indeed the world.

"But at the same time we want to use this very special occasion to begin looking toward the future and what Miami wants to be as she enters her third century. How will we continue to be the engaged, premier educational institution that we are? Dr. Hodge has asked us to use this very special occasion to begin having that dialogue."

Donna Boen '83 MTSC '96 is editor of Miamian. Rendering by Patton and Miller shows campus plan from 1904.

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