Next time you walk down Main Quad, have a look at the outside of the West Union building. Running along the top of the wall you’ll see a series of shields. These heraldic panels feature the crests of some of the greatest universities across the United States and the world, including the University of North Carolina, the University of Texas, Yale, Harvard and Oxford.
Are we advertising for these other schools? Is it merely a list of scalps on which we’ve counted coup?
In fact, it is neither.
In a 1676 letter, physicist Isaac Newton said, “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” And this, coming from one of the most celebrated and influential scientists in history.
Similarly, the shields around the West Union pay homage to many of the great institutions that have come before us, and on whose shoulders we have stood in our effort to establish ourselves as one of the premier universities of the world.
Such payment of respect takes many forms.
In the Gothic Reading Room, 33 portraits of past Duke dignitaries grace the walls between which we study. The Duke family, from whose coffers Duke emerged. Julian Abele and Horace Trumbauer, from whose pens our Gothic Wonderland developed around a magnificent chapel. Past presidents and benefactors, whose vision and leadership carried our University into the future. As we, the next generation of Duke, go about our business, their legacy surrounds us.
And Duke certainly has modern day giants upon whose shoulders we stand. In my four years, two Duke professors—Dr. Robert Lefkowitz and Dr. Paul Modrich—have won Nobel prizes in chemistry for work done on our campus. A generation ago, Dr. Paul Farmer used Duke as his launching pad toward revolutionizing the delivery of global health care. These giants, among others, are still around to guide, push and support us as we go through Duke.
Such tribute happens all over the place. In academia, when research builds upon the theories of prior generations. In pop culture, when musicians sample songs, or movies visually quote previous work. In politics, when existing groundwork and relationships allow current leaders to keep forging ahead.
So what does this mean for the self-made man, that central pillar of the American psyche?
It’s not hard to realize that individualism is a key American value. In fact, it is one of the ties that bind the various components of the American Dream together. The image of a lone cowboy riding the plains, the parable of the self-made man rising from rags to riches, the single mother who raises a family on her own. Americans love a success story, all the more when they can identify a lone hero. How often do you see talk about making your way for yourself, not taking handouts, and being responsible for all your success and failures?
Do these two beliefs—that we stand on the shoulders of giants and that we really do forge our own path—necessarily stand in opposition?
I don’t think so. And here lies the key. It’s not that everything has been done before. We can still maintain our individualism. Sitting here in the Gothic Reading Room, my column is my own original thoughts. But I am able to sit here because of the work that these great men and women in the portraits did before I even arrived. And they, in turn, were able to do what they did because of the work other universities had done for centuries before them. We are all catalyzed by those who have come before us.
It’s a nice feeling to think that someday, somewhere, someone may go further than me for having stood on my shoulders.
Max Stayman is a Trinity senior. His column normally runs on alternate Fridays.
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