The Sheldonian Theatre was the setting for Harry S. Truman’s honorary degree ceremony at the University of Oxford on June 20, 1956. Within its formal academic space, Truman—who had never attended college—was admitted to Oxford’s fellowship before an audience of more than a thousand people, and the ceremony’s three-minute applause gave the occasion its emotional climax.

Setting and Ceremony

The Encaenia, conducted in Latin, took place in the theatre, which was three hundred years old and designed by Christopher Wren. More than a thousand people gathered as Truman, wearing Oxford’s traditional crimson robe and crushed black velour hat, walked at the head of the procession beside the Public Orator. The ceremonial setting placed a former president without a college education at the center of one of the world’s oldest and most distinguished universities.

The Degree and Reception

Standing in the theatre’s center and facing Oxford’s crimson-robed professors, Truman heard the Public Orator present him as Harricum Truman for the honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law. The university’s chancellor, the Earl of Halifax, then admitted him into Oxford’s ancient fellowship and praised him in Latin as a steadfast ally, direct in speech and writing, and an example of courage.

The audience applauded for a full three minutes. Moved to tears, Truman searched beneath his academic gown for a handkerchief, then recovered himself and smiled broadly. An elderly professor, who told a reporter he had attended many such convocations, said he had never heard applause like it. The theatre thus frames the ceremony not only as an award but as a public expression of affection and esteem for Truman.