2021 Founders Day Remarks
January 19, 2021
Winter Convocation is also Founders Day, an occasion to reflect upon the people whose vision, leadership, and hard work gave rise to this university, in which we take pride and to which we now devote our own energy.
We also reflect upon the purposes and the values that abide as the common thread connecting the members of this community across decades and centuries during which so much else has changed. And we reflect upon our motto — non incautus futuri, not unmindful of the future — which expresses our commitment to honor the past, not from a desire to remain frozen in time, but rather as a source of inspiration to direct our own efforts for the benefit of those who will follow us in the decades and centuries to come.
At the heart of Washington and Lee University lies the conviction that the future is best served by education. From that conviction grows the communal ethos to devote ourselves to cultivating the considerable potential of our students, so that they in turn may contribute powerfully to making the world a better place.
The two men for whom our school is named exemplified this ethos, as have thousands of other individuals who have sustained the quality, character, and success of this university over the 272 years of its existence.
Today, our mission is to provide a liberal arts education that prepares our students for lives of responsible leadership, service to others, and engaged citizenship in a global and diverse society. That mission has never been more essential than at this moment in our nation’s history. Every four years Founders Day is held within days, sometimes hours, of the inauguration of this country’s president. The 46th president of the United States will be inaugurated tomorrow at noon. The peaceful transition of power is a hallmark of American democracy. But recent days have shown us not to take it for granted. Democracy requires vigilance. And it requires education.
In 1749, Benjamin Franklin wrote “the good Education of Youth has been esteemed by wise Men in all Ages, as the surest Foundation of the Happiness both of private Families and of Commonwealths.”
George Washington concurred, asserting in his presidential address to Congress in 1790 that the security of a free Constitution depends upon an educated citizenry. “Knowledge,” he said, “is in every country the surest basis of public happiness.”
At W&L, we are dedicated to preparing our students for responsible, engaged, democratic citizenship. The investments of time, resources, and love that our faculty and staff make in our students are paid forward by the positive differences that they make on our campus, in our community and to our democracy.
It is now my pleasure to introduce our distinguished speaker, Dr. Michael J. Barsanti.
In 1731, Benjamin Franklin and several fellow members of a discussion club called the Junto (who-n-toe) founded the Library Company of Philadelphia to provide its members with ready access to books that they could not afford to purchase individually but could afford to purchase collectively. It became America’s first successful lending library and its oldest cultural institution.
Today the Library Company is an independent research library concentrating on American society and culture from the 17th through the 19th centuries. Its extensive non-circulating collection includes more than 2,000 items that once belonged to Mr. Franklin.
Michael Barsanti became the 30th individual to lead the Library Company in January 2017.
Dr. Barsanti holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Williams College, a master’s degree in English from the University of Miami, and a Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Pennsylvania, where he specialized in the works of James Joyce.
He has led a distinguished career in the Philadelphia cultural community holding positions at the Rosenbach Museum and Library, the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, and the Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation prior to being named to his current position. He has taught Arts Administration at Drexel University and has served on the Boards of several nonprofits, including Pig Iron Theatre, Independence Charter School, and the Abraham Lincoln Foundation of the Union League of Philadelphia.
While at the Rosenbach Museum and Library, he curated the 1998 exhibition, “Ulysses in Hand: The Rosenbach Manuscript,” which was presented at the Chester Beatty [beety] Library in Dublin and marked the first time any part of Joyce’s manuscript was seen in his native city.
Dr. Barsanti is also an entrepreneur, having founded Throwaway Horse, a small software startup company that produces online, mobile-optimized comics that are based on literary works. The flagship project of Throwaway Horse was ULYSSES “SEEN,” a graphic novel adaption of Ulysses.
Franklin’s mission for the The Library Company was to improve the community through the sharing of knowledge. Under Barsanti’s leadership, the Library Company aims to advance this mission by bringing innovation to the practice of American history and by reimagining history’s place in the making of informed American citizens. His address this evening -- “Friendship, Franklin, and the Future of Democracy” – is a contribution to this timely project, which is wholly in keeping with our own mission and efforts at Washington and Lee.
Please join me in welcoming Michael Barsanti.