HISTORICAL ROW: “THE FIRST 100 YEARS ARE THE HARDEST…”

2006 Issue 3September 20, 2006May 5, 2014

HISTORICAL ROW: “THE FIRST 100 YEARS ARE THE HARDEST…”

This sage tidbit was uttered by Dartmouth President Ernest M. Hopkins during his speech at Wesleyan’s Centennial Celebration in October 1931. Hopkins was among the leaders of 38 colleges and universities who attended the three days of festivities, along with about 3,000 other revelers. Institutions …

2005 Issue 4December 20, 2005May 5, 2014

HISTORICAL ROW: CAME HELL AND HIGH WATER

More than 65 years ago, on September 21, 1938, Alma Mater and Mother Nature struggled for dominance. Alma Mater was battered and bruised, but not destroyed. The headline in a special issue of the Hartford Courant summed …

2005 Issue 3September 20, 2005May 5, 2014

HISTORICAL ROW: DOC FAUVER’S LEGACY

Wesleyan's former playground, Fauver Field, bears the name of Doctor Edgar Fauver, a central figure in the physical welfare of an earlier generation of Wesleyan men. Perhaps best known to today's students and more recent…

2005 Issue 2June 20, 2005May 5, 2014

HISTORICAL ROW: EINSTEIN IN THE ARCHIVES

In 1929, Wesleyan became the first American university to own an Albert Einstein manuscript. Olin Library was barely a year old, and its "treasure room" was still relatively empty. What better gift for the splendid new l…

2005 Issue 1January 20, 2005May 5, 2014

HISTORICAL ROW: KEEPING SECRETS

Whether your tastes run to bestsellers such as The Da Vinci Code and The Rule of Four or you prefer the New York Times' coverage of the Presidential inauguration, you probably have been reading recently about secret soci…

2004 Issue 4December 20, 2004May 5, 2014

HISTORICAL ROW: POLITICS AS USUAL: THE ORIGINS OF STUDENT POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS

Wesleyan students' long tradition of social activism is well known and well documented. From the missionary zeal of the earliest students to the more recent "Justice for Janitors" movement (to name just two of the many, …

2004 Issue 3September 20, 2004May 5, 2014

HISTORICAL ROW: COUNTING CALORIES

While Wesleyan can't really take credit (or blame) for the South Beach Diet, we do count "the father of American nutrition" among our alumni. Wilbur Olin Atwater, Class of 1865 and professor of chemistry, was one of the…

2004 Issue 2May 20, 2004May 5, 2014

HISTORICAL ROW: FOOD FOR THOUGHT

In Wesleyan's first years, when most students boarded in town or lived in the Old Boarding Hall or the Dormitory (now known as North College), food was simple and plain. Many students were of relatively modest means, and…

2004 Issue 1January 20, 2004May 5, 2014

HISTORICAL ROW: OLIN LIBRARY TURNS 75

Olin Library, dedicated in 1928, has reached the ripe old age of 75. Built by the well-known New York firm of McKim, Mead, and White, and based on original plans by architect Henry Bacon, Olin was constructed during a pe…

2003 Issue 4August 4, 2003May 5, 2014

HISTORICAL ROW: WEST MEETS EAST, WESLEYAN AND THE CHINESE CHRISTIAN CHURCH

In the early part of the 20th century, many Wesleyan alumni traveled to China as part of a movement to introduce Western-style education to the East. Their influence, and the influence of other Western educators and miss…