Archives at Cornell

President's chair note and motto

Collection — manuscript box: 8 - folder 1

Identifier: 3-1-m.34

Scope and content

Note, written in German script, dated at Spandau, German, September 24, 1868, with translation by George Lincoln Burr, 1928: 'Go out into all the world and testify to what is born, even in prison walls, from strength, from patience, and from loving toil. The United Workmen."

Dates

1868, 1928

Creator

Cornell University (Organization)

Language of Material

In English and German.

Biographical / Historical

The carved oak "President's Chair" was built by prisoners at Spandau, a prison located outside Berlin. Andrew Dickson White purchased the chair during his 1868 trip to Europe, and presented it to Cornell. The note was discovered in 1928, tightly folded, wrapped in tin foil, and hidden in a hole bored in the back of the chair.