That Time Charles Adams Streaked Across Harvard Campus

This week we are discussing how the son of a president may have streaked across the campus of one of the most prestigious universities in the United States.

To be completely transparent, there wasn't a lot of reliable sources for this story. I don't remember when I first heard it, but it has intrigued me since then. Most of the sources I found were blogs or online articles. No primary sources.

This will be a short post, but as it's a story that has intrigued me for years, I want to tell it

To clarify, this is about Charles Adams, son of President John Adams and younger brother of President John Quincy Adams. If you came looking for Charles Addams, creator of The Addams Family, this is the wrong place. Sorry.

Charles Adams was born in 1770 to John and Abigail Adams, who would later become President and First Lady in 1797. He began attending Harvard University in 1785, at the age of fifteen.

Several sources have all stated pretty much the same story. Charles had been involved in a scandal while at Harvard where several boys were reprimanded for running across campus naked, which is known as streaking. This very well might be one of the first streaking events at a university on American soil.

When people think of the time the United States was established, a lot of the time people imagine uptight proper people, but they were just as human and rambunctious as we are today in 2020. To think the son and brother of two presidents streaked across the campus of one of the most prestigious universities in the country is just so funny to me.

Charles seems like someone I could have gone to college with. I love stories that humanize these icons who people idolize.

Charles would go on to live a short life. He died in 1800, a the age of 30, leaving behind his wife and two daughters Sadly, his father disowned him two years before his death. John Adams wrote to his wife, that their son was "a Madman possessed of the Devil".

I would like to go deeper into Charles' life and maybe write a biographical post about him, because his short life intrigues me. He apprenticed with Alexander Hamilton. There is speculation that he may have been queer.

That Time the World Believed Paul McCartney Had Died and was Replaced by an Imposter

Comments

Zac Efron and Garrett Clayton are Basically the Same Person

I, a 21-year-old adult, is still a HUGE fan of the High School Musical franchise. In high school, had I been a better planner, I would have asked Lucas Grabeel to be my prom date. And even though I was older than most viewers, I did love Teen Beach Movie when it came out. In this post, I am going to explain how Zac Efron and Garrett Clayton are basically the same person. Let's start at the beginning. You may know Zac Efron as Troy Bolton in the Disney Channel Original Movie (or DCOM), High School Musical and it's franchise. He is the attractive blue-eyed, protagonist of all three HSM movies. And I will admit that I was a huge fangirl for him in my youth. Honestly, now I can't stand him. But that's for another post. Zac portrayed Troy in all three HSM films, but he only sang in the last two. That's right. Zac Efron did not sing in the first HSM movie. That was the amazingly talented Drew Seeley whom I will love till the day I die. Similarly, Garrett Clayton pl...

Is Marvin from Falsettos Abusive? And Why is He Such an Easy Character to Hate?

Is Marvin abusive? Short answer: yes. Long answer: You've come to the right place. "I love my tight-knit family. I love the way they cook linguine." Let's get this out of the way, this blog, as all of my blog posts are, is 100% my opinion. Unless stated directly that it is fact, this is all what's going on in my mind. Thoughts from a fangirl, if you will. Also I have to use Spotify to link the songs, because the entire 2016 revival cast album is not on YouTube and I know the revival album better than the original albums. Also this post is going to be long because I'm actually going through actual lines from the musical. I am going to try to sprinkle some photos into this post. "Lovers come and lovers go." Listen to "Marvin Hits Trina" on Spotify. Let's start with the most obvious: Marvin hits Trina after learning that she's going to marry Mendel. Where can you find this scene? In "Marvin Hits Trina". It'...

That Time A President Conducted Meetings from the Toilet

Happy Monday! Another week ahead. This week's weird moment from history is how President Lyndon B. Johnson conducted meetings and interviews while on the toilet. I learned way too much about LBJ while doing research for this post and it is going to be a LONG time before I write another weird history post about him. But there will be at least another one in the future. Man was weird. Quick history lesson for my non-Americans who may not know who LBJ is. Lyndon Baines Johnson was the 36th President of the United States. He assumed the position following the assassination of John F. Kennedy. He was president from 1963 til 1969. NOW if you're like me and you grew up with the rewatching the movie Forrest Gump over and over again your first introduction to LBJ might be when Forrest was being honored with the Medal of Honor and showed the president where he was "shot in the buttocks" during the Vietnam War. I haven't watched Forrest Gump in years, but if you haven't...

The Invisible Queer

Search This Blog