After the Harkness Gift: A History of Phillips Exeter Academy Since 1930, a modern history of Phillips Exeter Academy, was published this spring by the University Press of New England.

The book provides a historical perspective on the Academy in the years following Edward S. Harkness’ bequest in 1930, and the Harkness table is a central metaphor in this work. The book does not strive to be an all-inclusive narrative history in the manner of some earlier histories of Exeter. Rather, it is a series of related historical essays that focus on key topics and themes in Exeter’s history, especially the impact of the Harkness gift, as a way of penetrating the school’s operations and providing a clearer understanding of Exeter’s development, operation and achievements.

The origins of After the Harkness Gift go back more than a decade, when the Academy Trustees retained the Winthrop Group, Inc., a Cambridge, MA, consulting firm that specializes in institutional histories, to conduct a series of oral history interviews with members of the Academy community in preparation for writing a new history of the school.

The trustees had several motives in authorizing this work: A generation of faculty hired when the Academy expanded in the 1930s had retired in recent decades, and the trustees wished to honor their achievements and capture their experiences while memories were as fresh as possible.

In addition, the most recent history of the Academy—The Story of Phillips Exeter by Myron R. Williams—had been published in 1957 and had wound down its narrative with the retirement of Principal Lewis Perry soon after the end of World War II. Therefore, much that had happened at the Academy since the mid-1940s had not yet been the subject of serious historical inquiry.

During the 1990s, Davis Dyer and Jeffrey F. Rayport of Winthrop Group carried out several dozen oral history interviews with faculty and emeriti, faculty spouses, staff, and trustees and former trustees of the Academy. Dyer and Rayport also outlined an approach to a new history of the Academy that served as the genesis of the book: while it would cover the Academy’s evolution since its founding in 1781, the book would focus on the period since the Harkness gift in 1930.

The trustees accepted the book proposal and gave the Winthrop Group historians access to materials in the Academy Archives. Decision makers at the Academy, as well as the Winthrop team, felt that conventional histories of independent schools did not examine the larger story of how these institutions evolve over time. This new book, they agreed, should explore recent Academy history against the backdrop of fundamental changes in American society, including demographic shifts, changing career prospects for young women, and the emergence of the “post-industrial” or “information-age” economy.

Following the initial round of interviews, the project underwent a hiatus of several years while Exeter raised funds to support it and the Winthrop team experienced changes of its own. By the time work resumed, Jeffrey Rayport had moved on to other pursuits. He was succeeded by Julia Heskel, a Winthrop historian and classicist, who assumed a leading role on the project.

After the Harkness Gift was written by Heskel and Dyer, but many other people had a hand in its making. An Academy advisory committee composed of faculty members and trustees oversaw the venture from inception through the completion of a draft manuscript. And scores of Exonians past and present participated by sharing their memories, historical materials and advice about the project.

The book is available at the Phillips Exeter Academy Bookstore. For information on how to order, contact the Bookstore...