How did the Russian bells get to Lowell House? (part 1)

The story of the bells of the Danilov Monastery picks up in 1927. In February, Whittemore had written to Crane, “I am secretly trying to go to Russia” and in May Whittemore, now in Paris, sends a cable to Crane in New York: “Just arrived from Athos, find waiting for me extraordinary opportunity [Stop] go Russia [Stop] advantageous denouement of our work [Stop] could Friendship Fund make it possible for me to go [Stop] please reply Bankers Trust Paris.” (Figure 1) The Friendship Fund seems to have been a resource established by Crane from which cash could be withdrawn to support a number of ventures. These frequently involved Whittemore. Crane had supported a monastery at Mt. Athos and for two years during the Great War assured that the monks had food.

Figure 1

We don’t know whether Whittemore got to Russia in the summer of 1927 but on June 26, 1928, a year later, matters seemed to have firmed up, for Whittemore sends another cable from Paris to Crane saying: “Go Russia July first to get bells.” (Figure 2) And then, two days later, he asks for “one thousand [dollars] for bells,” “credit Barings London.” (Figure 3) Which bells? Did Crane know before Whittemore set off for Russia that the bells of the Danilov Monastery were available? It is logical to speculate that the “extraordinary opportunity” referred to in the 1927 cable was the availability of the Danilov bells and furthermore a fair conjecture that Crane and Whittemore had discussed “the bells” when Whittemore was a guest in the Crane home during the winter of 1928. On February 28, 1928 Crane had written to his son, John, “Hope Whittemore can get into Russia.” He was doubtful because of Whittemore’s continued, overt as well as clandestine support for the White Russians both inside and outside of Russia.

Figure 2

Figure 3

Probably Whittemore did get to Moscow the summer of 1928. The evidence is indirect though tantalizing. In early July, on his own account at Barings Bank London he made a substantial draft to Thomas Cook, a travel agent in Paris. In late July, Barings Bank sent a cable to him in Berlin where one might guess that he was enroute to Russia. The archivist of Barings Bank recently offered the following opinion: “It was in fact unlikely that Whittemore [in 1928] would have paid [for the bells] with a check or bankers draft in Russia since it would not have been [at that time] accepted by a Russian bank . . . the transaction would have been in some other currency [neither dollars nor pounds] for example gold.” Did Whittemore or Crane have access to gold?

There is no record I can find that either Crane or Whittemore ever asked President Lowell, or anyone else, whether Harvard would accept “the bells.” It comes as a surprise, therefore, that at some time in December 1929, Harvard has knowledge of the gift, either accepted or proposed. President Lowell seeks advice about “Russian bells” through A. T. Davison, of the Harvard Department of Music. This generated several responses, for example from Serge Koussevitsky among others. (Figure 4)

Figure 4

Late in December (1929) the architect orders the contractor now building Lowell House to stop construction on the clock tower. Nevertheless the architect’s plans of early January continue to show a clock tower. On January 22, new building plans emerge and now show the steel girders to be placed in what has been reconfigured as a bell tower, “the bell deck to support a load of about 35 tons.” There is an undated slip of paper among the Lowell papers in the Harvard Archives with a cryptic message, perhaps written by Lowell’s secretary, “Mr. Whittemore’s message – 67, 727 pounds – He will be in Boston Thursday, and again the 26th and the 27th.” In Lowell’s distinctive cursive there is noted a single word at the top of the page, “Carillon.” The number on the document in pounds is 33.8 tons, obviously the aggregate weight of the bells. At the end of January 1930, Whittemore is given an architectural drawing of the space available in the proposed bell tower and he takes off to Russia in order to measure the bells and determine whether they will fit in the tower. He tells Crane by letter (January 30, 1930) that “if the bells will not fit in the tower, Harvard has agreed to provide another tower,” a promise of doubtful validity, but probably a necessary reassurance since in all probability Crane now owns the bells.

By late February 1930 President Lowell knows that the zvon (the Russian term for an aggregate of church bells) will entail 18 bells. But only in June 1930, five months later, Whittemore, now in Moscow, sends a letter to Gano in Boston for forwarding to President Lowell, saying, “I have bought the bells.” Are these the same bells he identified in his cable to Crane in June 1928? Did Lowell redesign the tower before the bells had been bought? Did Crane buy the bells before he had a place to hang them?