Hasty Pudding Club

The Hasty Pudding Club is a social club for Harvard students. It was founded on September 1, 1795 by Horace Binney, who was then 15, by calling together a meeting of 21 juniors in the room of Nymphas Hatch. The club is named for the traditional American dish (based on a British dish) that the founding members ate at their first meeting. Each week two members in alphabetical order had to provide a pot of hasty pudding for the Club to enjoy. The Hasty Pudding Club was originally established to bring together undergraduates in friendship, conversation, and camaraderie. It is the oldest collegiate social club in America. Originally, the Club engaged in holding mock trials, which became more elaborate throughout time. This culminated in a member, Lemuel Hayward, secretly planning to stage a musical on the night he was to host the Club's meeting. On Friday December 13, 1844 Hayward and other members staged Bombastes Furioso in Hollis 11, which began the Hasty Pudding Theatricals. Throughout its history the Hasty Pudding Club absorbed many others, such as the DKE and the Med Fac. In 1925, the Hasty Pudding Club absorbed the Institute of 1770, which was a similar social club. To this day, the Institute name is sometimes still used.

The Pudding is currently the only social club on campus that is coed and has members from all four years. Membership to the social club is gained through a series of lunches, cocktail parties, and other gatherings, which are referred to as the "punch process". In the past, membership in the Pudding was obligatory to joining waiting clubs and, eventually, final clubs. This tradition is no longer upheld. The Pudding holds its social activities in a clubhouse near Harvard Square. These include weekly "Members' Nights", dinner and cocktail parties, as well as its elaborate theme parties, such as "Leather and Lace".

The current clubhouse contains multiple rooms with specific purposes. Among these rooms is "The Arena", which is a room with no windows or openings to the outside world. "The Arena" is designated as the club's game room.

The club counts three U.S. Presidents (Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy) among its noteworthy members. The club also considers Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams as alumni. Although graduating before the founding of the Club, they were members of organizations that were later absorbed by the Hasty Pudding Club.

The Hasty Pudding Theatricals, the Radcliffe Pitches, and the Harvard Krokodiloes were founded at the Hasty Pudding Club. All of these groups are part of the Hasty Pudding Institute of 1770 and share clubhouse space as well as retain various social affiliations with the Pudding; their activities are focused on the performing arts, and they select members through open auditions.