Afterword
I began this project in 2005 when, as English department chair, I was told that Thomas H. McIntosh had endowed a chair in the name of Charles Crow, and that the position would be coming our way in the near future. I also knew that I would be a candidate for that position.
I had heard of Charles Crow, his name was on our reading room, but I knew almost nothing about him—and I felt I should. I arrived at the University of Pittsburgh in the Fall of 1975, after Crow had retired. He died in 1976; we never had the opportunity to meet. And so I went to the University Archives to see what I could find.
At this point, the archive consisted of paper, lots of paper--files in boxes and books on shelves--, and I felt the pull to dig in and to see what I could learn, not only about Crow and his very productive and influential career, but about its larger context, including his teachers and colleagues. In the following year, 2006, Anna Redcay, my research assistant, began to assemble materials and to outline a full history of the English department—or, more precisely, of English language and literature, its study and practice at the University of Pittsburgh from its opening days in 1787, since there was no English department at the university until 1886. There have been several research assistants since then, and the University Library system has been busy digitizing many of the materials that were (and continued to be) central to our research: chancellor’s reports, alumni magazines, course catalogs, yearbooks, photographs, collections of student writing. The online archive is a remarkable resource. You can find it at “Documenting Pitt.”
This history ends with the 1960s. I’ve been asked why I stop there. The answer is simple. I arrived in the department in 1975. I know both too much and too little to continue on as an historian, and I’m not ready (or inclined) to be a memoirist. I have deeply enjoyed the opportunity to see my department and my profession (and my teaching and research) as part of the story made up by the cast of characters we’ve listed on these digital pages.
This history is dedicated to all those who have promoted the literary and rhetorical arts on our campus.
September 1, 2014
David Bartholomae
Professor and Charles Crow Chair
Department of English
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260