Hamp History Blog @hamphistory - Tumblr Blog

The march is on! 45 weeks until Hampshire’s 45th Anniversary celebration, June 5-7, 2015. We’ll be posting Throwback Thursday images for the next 45 weeks. More info.

elliottsmithob

Elliott’s Hampshire College ID photo, 1987

#Hampshire College #hampshire #elliot smith

bklyninfocommons

Folks out in W. Mass — this looks like it’s going to be a great exhibit — from the time that James Baldwin spent teaching at Hampshire College. If you’re in NYC and can’t make it up to MA, check out our great collection of works by James Baldwin at the Brooklyn Public Library.

#Hampshire College #james baldwin

mhc-asc

Old school PVTA! Student getting off Five College bus, with South Rockefeller Hall in the Background :: Mount Holyoke Archives and Special Collections Digital Images :: circa 1970-79 Students boarding bus on College Street :: Mount Holyoke Archives and Special Collections Digital Images :: circa 1970-79 The Five College Bus at a bus stop :: Mount Holyoke Archives and Special Collections Digital Images :: circa 1970-79

#Hampshire College #umass #mount holyoke college #smith college #amherst college #5 college consortium

jacoblefton

I was recently commissioned by Hampshire College to make these awards for Chuck & Polly Longsworth. Chuck was the second president of Hampshire, in 1971, and the college decided to honor him and his wife with these. I made two frog sculptures (frogs are a sort of mascot for Hampshire), each is a standalone piece, but they fit together.

#Hampshire College #hampshire

The mini model of Hampshire college from our trip to the archives!

#hampshire #hampshire college #hampshire history

Naming the College

Would you like to attend Hitchcock College? Or perhaps Johnson College? Or Hadley College? These were three of several names in the running for Hampshire College when it was being founded. In 1965, when Harold F. Johnson had just made his $6 million gift to start this new institution of higher education, the first trustees were faced with the necessity of choosing a name. Johnson had vetoed the idea of naming it after himself early on. (Except that Toby Dakin claims that , the trustees gave him "the bum's rush", and named the library after him instead.) "New College" (after The New College Plan, one of our founding documents), was already taken by an institution in Florida. When the first employee of the college, Charles R. Longsworth (our first vice-president and second president), set out to purchase land in South Amherst and Hadley, he set up an organization called the Trustees of Tinker Hill to acquire the land. Tinker Hill College didn't seem an altogether suitable name for a college, so the trustees met to debate a number of suggestions in the spring of 1965.

Hitchcock College would have honored Edward Hitchcock, President of Amherst College in the mid-1800s, a founding trustee of Mount Holyoke College, and the first Massachusetts State Geologist. Mount Hitchcock in the Holyoke Range is named after him, as is glacial Lake Hitchcock, which at the end of the last Ice Age occupied the area where the college now stands. Hadley College would have been named after one of the towns where Hampshire owns land (Amherst being already taken!), and Hampden and Hampshire come from the Massachusetts county names in this part of the state. After much debate and serious thought, the college became officially known as Hampshire College in May 1965.

~Curtsey of the Enchiridion to Hampshire History

#Hampshire #Hampshire College #hampshire history #college #camp hamp #Hadley #hitchcock

Hampshire College v.s. Harvard University: Rivals since 1762? (Well not really)

In 1762 there was almost a Hampshire College!! The people who had settled Hampshire County valued higher education and wished to create a college of their own that was free of any religious beliefs that the puritans and pilgrims had founded Harvard and Yale on. They had been sending some students to Harvard but the journey to Cambridge was long and tuition was expensive. They secured money to create a college in Hampshire county and then requested a charter from the Governor of Massachusetts in the King's name. Ultimately they were not granted the charter because it would weaken the already established educational institution, Harvard, by forcing it to compete with Hampshire for students, gifts, and bequeaths. Ironically 208 years later, in 1970 Hampshire College admissions were more competitive than Harvard, and for the first few years of Hampshire College's operation it was harder to get into Hampshire than it was to Harvard.

#Hampshire College #hampshire #hampshire history #harvard #harvard college #harvard university #rivals #massachusetts

The Saga Saga

In President Lash's February update, he announced a new Healthy Food transition for Hampshire College Campus. This entails an overhaul of the food service in the Dining Commons, as well as rethinking the way food is dealt with on the campus at large. In light of this I though it would be fun to take a look at some history of the dinning commons.

Students have never been quite that fond of the food served in the dinning commons, as you can see in this video from 1972 called the Saga Saga (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulRpGRhY4G4&list=PLn9LOfKoIkIT-Pu4jRY4A5Y-OmyGcIqy_) The dinning commons was original run by Saga Corporation from its opening in 1970 until 1986 when Saga corp was sold in a hostile takeover to the Marriott Corporation. Have you ever stayed in a Marriott Hotel? You may have eaten at Saga there too. Marriott Corp also ran food restaurant chains such as A&W, Roy Rodgers and Big Boy. In 1998 the food service branch of Marriott merged with the French food service corporation Sodexo, that services many schools across the United States from elementary to university. Sodexo also services government agencies, military bases, correctional facilities and assisted-living facilities.

Hampshire Students never bothered to stop calling the dining commons Saga, so even though it is still run by Sodexo today you'll still hear Saga around campus. However, there was a movement in the early 2000s to change the Dinning Commons name to Roberta's in honor of the long time employee Roberta Tudryn. You can watch a documentary on Roberta called Roberta's Saga here http://vimeo.com/13912626

#Hampshire College #hampshire #hampshire history #saga #dinning commons

These pictures are what have come to be known as the "Motto Memo". Winthrop "Toby" Dakin (who the dorm would be named after) wrote the memo on behalf of the board of trustees, detailing why they chose "Non Satis Scire", to know is not enough, as Hampshire's motto.

#Hampshire #Hampshire College #camp hamp #hampshire history #motto #to know is not enough #dakin

This is Robert "Bob" Stiles, affectionately known as The Father of Hampshire College

Bob was born in 1906, in the building that currently houses the Admissions Office (Yes the building is that old!). At the time, the campus was a dairy and vegetable farm, and a trolley ran along Rte. 116 from Holyoke to Amherst. Bob's family kept a herd of 40 Holsteins, as well as horses and chickens. He sold eggs and apples to Mount Holyoke College. His family valued education (his brother Wayne graduated from Amherst College), so when Chuck Longsworth (the first college employee and the second president of Hampshire) came looking to buy his land as the site of a new college, Bob was very receptive. When the deal was struck, Bob moved with his sister to the building which now houses the Human Resources Office, and Stiles House became the first tenanted building of the new college.

Bob worked first on preparing the land and existing buildings for Hampshire--among other things, rolling up miles of barbed wire from the former cow pastures. After the campus was built, he worked for the post office, delivering mail to college offices. He was well known for his wry sense of humor, and his generosity to students, faculty and staff. At a college of mostly young people, he supplied a presence and a connection with the history of the land. At age 79, he still processed 75 quarts of tomato juice every summer from tomatoes grown in his garden, and his applesauce sundaes were legendary. On his 80th birthday, President Adele Simmons read a resolution of the college senate naming him "Father of the College". Bob worked for the college almost until the day he died, at age 80, in 1986.

Here is a cartoon from taking root documenting the historic occasion upon which Longsworth and Stiles met:

~Credit to the Enchiridon to Hampshire History and the Taking Root

#Hampshire #Hampshire College #camp hamp #robert stiles #hampshire history #amherst #mount holyoke #farmer

A history of Jan Term!

The idea of having an academic session in between the fall and spring semesters was first seen in The New College Plan (1958). The New College Plan would become the basis for Hampshire's educational philosophy that founders of the college would write ten years later. The Plan calls for a mid-winter term by, "providing a month in the middle of the year when everything will be different. All regular courses and projects [will give way] while the college, along with invited guests, turns itself into a conference. To bring students of all four classes together in common intellectual enterprises should have an important effect on the general atmosphere that is crucial in an academic institution". During Jan Term students would participate in two unique courses: one on a western topic and the other a study of a non western topic, both of which would focus on key concepts within cultures. In addition administration (such as the Dean of Faculty and the President), outside academics, lecturers and recently graduated young scholars would host a series of discussions, panels, lectures, seminars and workshops for the students to engage with.

In 1966 the Educational Advisory Committee for the newly forming Hampshire College would revisit the idea of a mid winter term, however they felt differently on its function. Their proposal, referred to as the "Interim" would be of much more flexible design, where students should feel free to "choose to work independently, or to work with other students, or to participate in a faculty- directed project, or indeed to engage in some activity that might not be considered academic work." The Interim would be much more project driven and would function as a change in pace from the normal academic semester and encouraged students to, "give free rein to their individual interests"

Ultimately Franklin Patterson and Charles Longsworth decided that a Mid Winter term would be included in The Making of A College (1966), Hampshire's founding document. They wrote that Hampshire would offer many options for students to choose from for the mid winter term, "Hampshire certainly accepts the latter possibility, too, and would equally pass no moral judgment on the student who chose to spend the month surfing in Hawaii, on the student who decided to work at Gimbel's and earn some needed money, or the student who earnestly pursued a directed or independent study on campus." The would also add to the Educational Advisory Committee's design with unique faculty run projects and courses and work-service/community service opportunities. What ever a student chose to do they would be asked to write a self evaluation reflecting on, "his motivations to do what he did and how they appeared after the fact; how he felt about how he did the things he did; what, if anything, they meant as part of the process of his life; what his choice and his response to it added up to." (Side note: the use of pronouns in the making of a college largely reflected the patriarchal society at the time in which Hampshire was founded. Hampshire has been since its founding and continues to be a college that accepts all genders to the college, however that does not mean that Hampshire has not struggled with issues of oppression in regards to gender identity that are specifically ingrained into society and the institutions within it)

Since then the mid-winter term has continued to be apart of Hampshire's academic year eventually turning into what jan term is today (although you do not have to write a self evaluation if you chose to do something outside of Hampshire). Originally four weeks long Jan Term in more recent years has been shortened due to Umass moving their spring semester to start earlier in January.

#Hampshire College #hampshire history #Hampshire #jan term #January Term