{"id":55042,"date":"2025-07-21T09:40:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T13:40:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/?p=55042"},"modified":"2025-07-30T18:17:56","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T22:17:56","slug":"stump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/stump\/","title":{"rendered":"When ‘the Stump\u2019 Was a Campus Landmark\u2014and Soapbox"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
The remains of a mighty tree felled by Dutch elm disease, it became a nexus of news and opinion during a turbulent era<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By Joe Wilensky<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
At first, it was simply called the \u201cgraffiti tree\u201d\u2014having been painted the month after it was cut down. But students quickly discovered it could be much, much more than that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
Posters were tacked on it; it was painted and decorated for various occasions. And most notably, it became a well-positioned perch and soapbox for political speeches, rallies, and demonstrations, as an era of student unrest kicked into high gear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before it was “the Stump,\u201d of course, it was a tree\u2014one of dozens of majestic American elms that lined Central and East avenues and graced the Arts and Ag quads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Dutch elm disease (along with another common malady, phloem necrosis) claimed at least 1,000 of the Hill\u2019s trees during the \u201960s and \u201970s\u2014a quarter of those on campus at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n<\/div>The Cornellian<\/em><\/figcaption>Colorfully painted in 1974.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTree Trauma: Trees stricken with Dutch Elm Disease are felled in front of the Straight,\u201d announced a Sun<\/em> headline on October 23, 1968, above a photo of several being dismantled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To this day, it remains unclear exactly why one of them\u2014just to the right of the Straight\u2019s main entrance\u2014was left as a six-foot-tall stump. Was it meant to serve as a memorial to its departed brethren?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A retrospective in the Sun<\/em> years later claimed that it had been meant to \u201cpacify students who had bitterly protested the tree\u2019s removal\u201d\u2014though no records of such activities have been found.<\/p>\n\n\n\nStately elms line Central Avenue in the 1920s. More than 40 years later, the second from the front would become the Stump.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Nevertheless, for nearly a decade, that lone stump became \u201cthe Stump.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was heavily posted with announcements and notes that, in today\u2019s world, would be on social media,\u201d says Douglas Yoder \u201969, recalling that the Stump was once even the subject of a satirical write-in campaign for student body president. \u201cBack then, we only had the Stump.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
It was heavily posted with announcements and notes that, in today\u2019s world, would be on social media.<\/p>\nDouglas Yoder \u201969<\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
The elm\u2019s remains gained more widespread fame in April 1969, when it appeared in national news coverage of the Straight Takeover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In one of the Stump\u2019s most iconic moments\u2014captured in the Daily Sun<\/em> photo at the top of this story\u2014the then-co-chair of Cornell\u2019s chapter of Students for a Democratic Society stood on it with a bullhorn, rallying support for the occupation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Daily Sun<\/em><\/figcaption>In 2012, students briefly revived the tradition with a hexagonal wooden box outside the Straight.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\n
More than 55 years later, David Burak \u201967, MFA \u201980, recalls that the Stump didn’t just offer a conveniently elevated platform for his oratory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At one point, he says, it helped safeguard him from counter-protesters who were trying to prevent him from speaking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLuckily, I had worn some sturdy Western boots,\u201d he recalls, \u201cwhich, along with the circumference and height of the Stump, provided protection.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Stump later resumed its more pedestrian life as a campus bulletin board, graffiti canvas, and meet-up spot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cornellians often painted it to mark friends\u2019 birthdays, or to advertise Greek events.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Stump was a no-tech, college version of a Times Square billboard,\u201d says Moira Hearne Hintsa \u201974.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was dynamic, with a new appearance just about every day. It had the perfect central location, in the middle of the heavy traffic to the Ivy Room for lunch and study breaks\u2014plus, it was on the way to the Straight desk, which was the Google and ATM of the era.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
The Stump was a no-tech, college version of a Times Square billboard.<\/p>\nMoira Hearne Hintsa<\/strong> \u201974<\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
One morning, Hintsa was delighted by the Stump\u2019s newest d\u00e9cor: two friends, she says, had \u201cspent a dark and frigid January night\u201d painting it in honor of her birthday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the beginning of the end came on November 5, 1975, when the Stump was vandalized.<\/p>\n\n\n\nProvided<\/figcaption>As it appeared on the morning of Hintsa\u2019s birthday in 1973.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
In what might have been a genuine but misguided effort to solicit a donation to UNICEF, a group of students lopped off a three-foot, 1,300-pound chunk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
They later ran a classified in the Sun,<\/em> suggesting a ransom for the Stump\u2019s return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The amputated section was later found in nearby Treman State Park; no ransom was paid, as a Sun<\/em> reporter had been tipped off as to its location. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\nStudents examine a vandalized Stump in 1975, and its last remnants are removed in 1977.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Workers made several attempts to reattach it with steel rods, but vandals knocked it over again a month later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lopped-off piece was eventually abandoned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And by April 1977, the University had removed the remaining stump and planted a gingko tree in its place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\nThe replacement tree at the Stump’s original site, and in its current location.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
A small plaque noted the tree’s provenance and connection to the bygone elm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the mid 1990s, the replacement tree and plaque were relocated several feet away as part of the Central Avenue and Ho Plaza reconstruction project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But at least one small piece of the Stump endures. <\/p>\n\n\n\nOne tiny slice remains, with paint chips still clinging to it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Carefully preserved, it resides in the University Archives\u2014along with such treasures as a Shakespeare First Folio and a handwritten copy of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Top: David Burak \u201967, MFA \u201980<\/em>, atop the Stump in April 1969 (Daily Sun). All images courtesy of Rare and Manuscript Collections, unless otherwise indicated.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Published July 21, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Do you remember the Stump?<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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