The Headquarters
The MLA . . . of Baltimore City?
Volume 1 of PMLA (then published under the title Proceedings of the Modern Language Association) documents the naming of the association, stating “We, the undersigned, form ourselves into a Society that shall be called ‘THE MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA.’” However, the 1900 certificate of incorporation reveals that the MLA’s original legal name was the Modern Language Association of America of Baltimore City.
The academic office of the executive director served as the unofficial MLA address until 1928. Since the first executive director was a professor at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore was designated as the first home of the MLA.
With this same certificate of incorporation the MLA indicated its intention to drop “of Baltimore City” from its official name and became the Modern Language Association of America.
Traveling Headquarters
Though the MLA was incorporated in Maryland in 1900, the association had no official headquarters for its first forty-five years. The executive director’s academic office served as the transitory headquarters, resulting in a change of the association’s address with every change of director.
It was not until 1928 that executive director Carleton Brown opened the first MLA headquarters on the New York University campus in the South Building on Washington Square on West 4th Street. In 1933 Brown recalled the “Wanderjahre” (years of wandering) with “a shudder.” At the new headquarters the MLA hired its first full-time employee, Ruth Olson, a teenage assistant recently graduated from secretarial school. One NYU employee stated in a letter preserved in the MLA archives that he believed Manhattan had been selected for the MLA headquarters because of “Mrs. Carleton Brown’s desire to live in New Jersey, where she has friends.” Whatever the reason, eighty-eight years later the MLA remains in New York City.
The Addressograph
One piece of equipment has traveled with the MLA since the association acquired its first headquarters in 1928: the addressograph. This machine, long out of use, has been something of a mystery to many staff members and visitors.
A personal essay by former executive director John H. Fisher, titled “MLA Days,” describes the machine’s original home: “Ruth Olson and her addressograph occupied the old pantry at the back, along with mailing tables and mailing supplies.” In the 1986 summer issue of the MLA Newsletter, former executive director George W. Stone, Jr. (1956–63) also recalled the machine. He described a visit to former executive director Percy W. Long in 1934: “A small office, in which [Long] and Ruth Olson sat, backed by a large room filled with metal stacks on which were quantities of PMLAs and the over orders of MLA book publications, quite dust covered even then. Ruth, the Secretary’s secretary, did the correspondence, and worked on the stencil addressograph machine.”
Today the addressograph is dustier than the PMLAs, but it still has a home in the MLA headquarters.
MLA Postage Stamp
In preparation for the MLA’s 75th anniversary in 1958, executive director George Winchester Stone, Jr. (1956–63) wrote to the United States Postmaster General in an effort to create a commemorative MLA stamp.
Despite the support of a number of senators, Stone’s request was denied. Petitions for commemorative stamps would only be considered to mark 50th, 100th, and 150th celebrations (and so on).
In 1983 William D. Schaefer, a retired executive director (1972–78), once again wrote to the Postmaster General requesting a commemorative stamp for the MLA’s 100th anniversary. Though the reason remains unknown, it seems the MLA was yet again denied a postage stamp. However, the MLA was successful in obtaining a centennial “slug.”
The MLA Eyes a Chocolate Factory
Since 1928 NYU had provided the MLA with office space. By 1962 the MLA staff had expanded significantly and had outgrown its headquarters. One proposed solution to the space issue, which the MLA “engaged upon in all seriousness, [was] participation with NYU in buying the six-story chocolate factory adjacent to one of the NYU buildings just off Washington Square.” The move to the chocolate factory was approved by all, but the plan fell through, and the MLA eventually relocated to 60 5th Avenue in 1967. Two years later the MLA and NYU amicably severed ties.
MLA Mascot
From 1971 to 2000 the MLA circulated a staff newsletter that included humorous cartoons, crossword puzzles, and office-wide contests, in addition to staff member updates. In the fall of 1994 the association held a contest to select the MLA mascot. Unfortunately, the winner is not recorded in the archives.
A Close Call
In a personal essay titled “MLA Days,” John H. Fisher, executive secretary of the MLA from 1963 to 1971, describes a very close call he had at the MLA headquarters during the 1950s.
“We made coffee on a hotplate just beside my desk. One Monday morning I came in and the hotplate had dropped through a hole just its size in the wood floor. I peered through, and there it was, hanging from its cord, red hot. Someone had neglected to turn it off on Friday. By that much of a hair, we had not burned down the whole building.”