Students Learning 1906-1930

James Waddell Tupper.

James Waddell Tupper taught in the Department of English from 1906 to 1947. In 1906, the Board of Trustees had reported that the philological study of English at Lafayette was being emphasized at the expense of practical writing. Tupper was invited to Lafayette to carry out the Trustee mandate to put into practice the Harvard University method of instruction in freshman composition. The freshman courses become known as “Tup’s English” and focused on more rigorous theme writing.

The letter with which Lafayette President Ethelbert D. Warfield welcomed Tupper to the college in 1906.

A letter of congratulations to Tupper on his appointment at Lafayette, from James W. Bright, Class of 1877. Bright was one of Francis March's best students and went on to be a professor of English at Johns Hopkins.

Click on the image at left to
read a PDF scan of a profile of
Tupper from a 1944 issue of
The Lafayette Alumnus.