The Significance of Our Name and the Importance of Our Logo
The goal of a name should be to capture the essence of one's identity and vision. As such, our designation is derived from the thoroughfare which serves as a partition between Radcliffe Yard and the Cambridge Common, within Harvard Square and Cambridge, Massachusetts. While on a walk and during an obvious moment of serendipity, I decided this concept would need a name before it could move forward. I looked up and found the answer. I have since grown to appreciate and realize the significance of what had begun to emerge at that moment in time.
Not only does the name have a noticeably pleasant ring evoking ideals and images of rejuvenation and renewal, but appropriately this street and the immediate surrounding area is rich in the history and evolution of the American ideal and the pursuit of intellectual freedom, effective and responsible citizenship, and personal liberty. It was on the aforementioned Common where General George Washington first took command of the Continental Army in July of 1775, and William Dawes, the less-heralded co-star of Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride, trekked directly across this path and along the Common on his way north and west of Boston to warn the residents of the Massachusetts countryside of approaching British soldiers on that infamous night in April of the same year. This occasion precipitated a course of events which forever changed the course of Western civilization.
The physical embodiment of Garden Street is central to the environs which include the former Radcliffe College (now the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study) as well as Harvard University. It is unmistakably rich with the historical presence and manner of those luminaries and remarkable personalities, world leaders, former (and current) U.S. presidents, scientific and literary achievers and leaders of industry and leaders in the humanities who have studied and taught, trained and matured here and ultimately made immeasurable contributions to both the American and global experience over the past four centuries.
It is with confidence that this name and the places, values and descriptions associated with it render this institution a logical installment and an appropriate descendant and future envoy of the ideals, philosophies and aspirations which have heretofore been conceived and incubated in this locale.
~The Butterfly
Our logo represents and integrates the distinction and importance of the ‘butterfly effect’. Scientifically defined as a ‘sensitive dependence on initial conditions', in common parlance it is recognized as the idea that a butterfly flapping its wings in sub-Saharan Africa can result in a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico or similar concepts.
In the Garden Street context, it is interpreted to mean that one mind, properly cultivated, challenged and developed at such an impressionable time in life can have a rippling and resonating influence on the overall betterment of quality of life issues for fellow inhabitants of our global commonwealth.
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