University of Chicago dedicates new bells on campus

As work is being done on the tower, the change-ringing group, which is made up of College and graduate students, alumni and community members, has been meeting in a classroom at Eckhart Hall to practice on handbells. The ringers hope to sound the new bells for more University events and special occasions when they are in place.

Tom Farthing, the UChicago ringing master, said that he hopes “students grow, as I have, through my involvement in change ringing. I hope they get a respite from the demands of the university. I hope they feel the comfort of the community we create.”

Farthing is always thrilled when people learn about the bells and begin to appreciate change ringing.

“I love teaching people how to ring,” he said. “I love sharing something that has meant so much to me. I love the process of learning to precisely control a massive hunk of swinging metal. I love to see people working together to create something challenging and beautiful.”

Challenges and rewards of ringing

There’s a special bond among the change ringers and they are passionate about the practice.

Natalie Nitsch, who graduated from the College in June and is working on a master’s degree at the Divinity School, said she initially started ringing because her boyfriend is an enthusiastic ringer. “I stayed, though, because it’s an all-around excellent hobby. It challenges you physically—a person needs strength and coordination to ring the multi-ton tower bells successfully—as well as mentally.”

The patterns that they ring follow a set of rules, and fully immersing herself in a pattern while ringing requires her to enter a kind of “numerical flow state,” she said.

“I study religion, so I don’t do much of that kind of thinking in my day-to-day life. It’s really nice to have a hobby that uses that part of my brain. It’s also a helpful way to give myself breaks from studying. … Also, if you are an academic and do not see a whole lot of progress in your work from day to day, a hobby like change ringing, where there are many clearly defined benchmarks for doing something well and lots of discrete chunks of things that you can learn, is very gratifying.”

A global club of ringers

Isabella Scott, a UChicago graduate student who studies mathematics and is the president of the change-ringing guild, said at the ceremony that they became interested in change ringing while attending St. Andrews in Scotland as an undergrad. One of the special things about learning change ringing is that you always have like-minded peers in other places, they said.

“Any time you have a change-ringing tower, you have friends.”

Find out more about the bells and learn how to ring them.

The new Mitchell Tower bells are dedicated to these notable people:  

• Georgiana Rose Simpson, AB 1911, PhD 1921, (1865–1944) was a philologist and the first African American woman to receive a Ph.D. in the United States. Simpson, who earned a doctorate in German from UChicago, is also honored with a bust in the Reynolds Club.
• Jane Addams (1860–1935) was the founder of Hull House, the first settlement house in the United States, and was known for her dedication to improving the lives of Chicago’s poor and immigrants, especially women. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931.
• Steve Goodman (1948–1984) and Studs Terkel, PhB’32, JD’34, (1912–2008): Goodman was a folk singer and songwriter, known for songs such as “City of New Orleans” and “A Dying Cub Fan’s Last Request.” Terkel was a Chicago-based writer of 18 books and a radio broadcaster for 45 years. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1985 for “The Good War: An Oral History of World War II,” won a Peabody Award and received the National Humanities Medal.
• Bruce and Eileen Butler are a crucial part of the history of the North American Guild of Change Ringers. Bruce was president of the guild at the time of his death in 2022; Eileen, a longtime ringer, took over the presidency.
• Carl Sandburg (1878–1967) was an American poet, biographer, journalist, and editor. He won three Pulitzer Prizes—two for his poetry and one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln.
• Timuel Black, AM’54, (1918–2021) was a historian and civil rights activist who marched with Martin Luther King Jr. and mentored President Barack Obama early in his political career. In his honor, the University’s Office of Civic Engagement established the Timuel D. Black Community Solidarity Scholar Fund, given each year to an outstanding University undergraduate or graduate student who exemplifies Black’s spirit.
• Barack Obama was the 44th president of the United States. Prior to his presidency, he was a U.S. senator, an Illinois state senator and a senior lecturer in the University of Chicago Law School.
• William Rainey Harper (1856–1906) was the founding president of the University of Chicago. A noted Hebrew scholar, he established much of the University as we know it today.
• Arthur H. Nichols (1840–1923) learned to ring at a young age, at a time when there were very few change-ringing towers in North America. About a third of the approximately 50 towers now across the continent are the result of his unflagging efforts.
• Jean Baptiste Point du Sable (1745–1818) was the first known permanent, non-indigenous settler in Chicago. He lived along the north bank of the Chicago River, where he developed a prosperous trading post and farm.