Passing the light on of understanding, tolerance and international friendship
Timeline
1883 – Harry Edmond is born in Elmira New York State on March 11th
1886 – Harry’s mother dies when he is 2 1/2 years old
1900 – Harry attends Leigh University to study Civil Engineering
1902 – Harry meets Florence Quay whilst at Leigh
1904 – Harry and Florence marry
1904/5 – Head of the Canton Christian College (now Lingnan University) tries to persuade Harry to come to https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/49309341.pdf p13 shows what the college looked like in 1904 if Harry had gone
1905 – Harry comes to NYC to work for the Christian Student Movement – with medical students and lives at 143rd St and Lenox Avenue
1909 – Harry meets the student on the steps of Low Memorial Library at Colombia University in September
1909 – Harry and family living at 2310 Andrews Avenue University Heights
1909 – Harry and Florence host the first Sunday Supper at their ‘country’ home in University Heights for 8-10 students
1910 – Sunday suppers move to Earl Hall in the Fall and they have 8 or 10
1911 – Spring Harry and Florence to Constantinople to attend the World Student Christian Federation at Robert College – Sunday suppers pause
1911 – Fall – Sunday suppers resume and they held 18 or 20 in total
1912 – Harry forms the Intercollegiate Cosmopolitan Club NY
1912 – Harry and Byard Dodge rent 554W 114th St as the location for the Intercollegiate Cosmopolitan Club and Sunday suppers held there
1914-1918 – WORLD WAR I
1915 – Harry gets his first car
1915 – Intercollegiate Cosmopolitan club moves to 4th floor – 2929 Broadway and Sunday suppers go back to Earl Hall
1918 – Harry spends 8 weeks on a special mission to France and England as part of the war effort
1918 – Harry and Florence move with their children to 527 Riverside Drive
1919 – With the help of Byard Dodge and his family land for International House is purchased
1922 – Survey of International Students – The Foreign Student by W. Rainald Wheeler shows c8300 international students in US colleges or universities
1924 – I-House NYC opens
1928 – Harry and Florence go round the world from March – September
1929 – Delilah Beasley a black reporter for the Oakland Tribune passionately defended the concept of having an International House at Berkeley to protestors who were against any racial integration https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delilah_L._Beasley
1930 – I-House Berkeley opens
1932 – I-House Chicago opens
1933 – Florence Edmonds dies on January 3rd
1936 – Margaret Edmonds (Harry’s 2nd daughter) marries Rainald Lewthwaite on January 3rd at Riverside Church NYC
1939-1945 -WORLD WAR II
1952 – International House Japan – opens funded by the Rockefeller Foundation
1966 – Harry goes on his last world tour aged 83 leaving 5th January and returning 104 days later having met over 1000 alumni of International Houses
1969 – Alice Lewthwaite – Harry Edmonds great granddaughter is born in London on March 11th
1979 – Harry Edmonds dies aged 96
2019 – Alice Lewthwaite re-creates Harry’s 1966 world tour