Rinehart
Encyclopedia
The cry of Rinehart! was a part of Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 student and alumni culture in the early decades of the 20th Century.

The cry references an unknown undergraduate's call, from ground to dormitory window, for James Rinehart (Harvard class of 1900). His cry of "Oh, R-i-i-i-n-e-HART!" drifting across Harvard Yard was inexplicably and spontaneously taken up by hundreds of students and echoed from the open windows of dormitories surrounding the quadrangle
Quadrangle (architecture)
In architecture, a quadrangle is a space or courtyard, usually rectangular in plan, the sides of which are entirely or mainly occupied by parts of a large building. The word is probably most closely associated with college or university campus architecture, but quadrangles may be found in other...

.

For the next forty years or so, cries of "Oh, R-i-i-i-n-e-HART!" could be heard at random times wherever Harvard men traveled or congregated, reportedly being heard at locations as far from Harvard as Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...

.

The call was included by journalist George Frazier
George Frazier
George Francis Frazier, Jr. was an American journalist.Boston-raised, Frazier was graduated from Harvard College in 1932. He wrote for the Boston newspapers and for Esquire magazine, as well as many other venues, including the New York papers...

 in his 1932 song "Harvard Blues" (music by Tab Smith), recorded in 1941 by Count Basie
Count Basie
William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...

 and included on the compilation The Count Basie Story, Disc 3 - Harvard Blues (2001, Proper Records).
Currently, a descendent of Rinehart, Nicholas T. Rinehart, is a member of Harvard's class of 2014.

Origin

One version of the origin of the chant is explained in an undated newspaper clipping (presumably from the Harvard Crimson
Harvard Crimson
The Harvard Crimson are the athletic teams of Harvard University. The school's teams compete in NCAA Division I. As of 2006, there were 41 Division I intercollegiate varsity sports teams for women and men at Harvard, more than at any other NCAA Division I college in the country...

of either June 1899 or 1900) contained in the Harvard University Archives scrapbook of R. R. Kent, '00. (Harvard Archives HUD 900.44 F).
HARVARD CALLS HIM
“RINEHART, O RINEHART!” THE CRY IN THE YARD.
WATCHMAN POWERLESS TO INTERRUPT THE VOLUME OF SOUND.
SIMPLE HAIL OF FRIENDS IRRITATES MEN WHO WERE TRYING TO STUDY


John Gordon Brice Rinehart of Waynesburg Penn, a senior at Harvard College, has sprung into notoriety the past few days, due to no action of his own. Rinehart, who is an earnest student, has been in great demand as a tutor to other men in his courses. As he lives at the top of Grays hall his friends have sought to find out whether he was in or not by directing plaintive cries of “Rinehart, O Rinehart” at his windows.

This made the studiously inclined who swell in the neighboring dormitories very tired and they determined to quell Rinehart, so promptly at dark for the past three nights the college yard has resounded with the cries of “Rinehart, O Rinehart.”

First one end of the yard and then other would send up the plaintive cry, and then all the buildings would swell as if in chorus with the same old plaint.

Last night the college police tried to stop the racket, but the boys by a little teamwork kept them running from one dormitory to the other.

One man with a megaphone was particularly offensive, but despite the police vigil of three hours the megaphonist was still summoning Rinehart in tearful tones.

As to Rinehart? Well, he took it philosophically, even good-humouredly. He was born in the Pennsylvania coal region, he said, and was used to the noise. It was a good advertisement for him in his business as a tutor, also. And he said he had no kick coming.""

(This version is disputed, as other versions of the origin exist, see external reference material.)

External links

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