the NMH Library Reading Room Weblog

This Week in NMH History 2007-2008 #25

120 Years Ago

We’ve already welcomed the Year of the Rat, but in 1888 New Year’s came later when compared with the Julian calendar. Henry Rankin noted the event at Mount Hermon that year in his history.

from HAND-BOOK OF THE NORTHFIELD SEMINARY AND THE MT. HERMON SCHOOL, Chicago, Fleming H. Revell, 1889, p. 172.

February 21, on the evening of this day, which was the Chinese new year’s anniversary, the nine Chinese students gave a dinner to the faculty. It was a pleasant and unique occasion.

Note that the zodiac is a twelve year cycle so that the day in question also ushered in the Year of the Rat. To get some idea of the school in these days, there were 16 teachers and 247 students when classes began the previous fall.  –ed.

Peter H. Weis, '78
Archivist

This Week in NMH History 2007-2008 #24

115 Years Ago

This week we note the close of one era (Washington’s Birthday concerts) and the opening of another (Washington’s Birthday oratorical contests). Intramural and interscholastic debates were a staple of winter activity into the 1960s. Today they are year-round fare.

from The Hermonite, vol. VI, no.11, p. 94; March 11, 1893. 

No student now questions the fact that the abolishment of the entertainment on Washington’s birthday, which has been formerly given each Senior Middle class, [today’s Juniors –ed.] was a wise movement on the part of the faculty. The amount of time, energy and money, which was necessarily expended in arranging and giving the concert, certainly did not warrant the continuation of the custom, when some other equally interesting, yet less taxing entertainment could be substituted for it.

The success and interest taken in the contest between the two literary societies would lead us to think that hereafter the twenty second will be given to the annual contest or debate between the two societies. At least we will hope so.

A remark which was made by one whose authority is not questioned, goes to show the class of oratory the evening produced, "it would do honor to any college."

Peter H. Weis, '78

Archivist

This Week in NMH History 2007-2008 #24

115 Years Ago

This week we note the close of one era (Washington’s Birthday concerts) and the opening of another (Washington’s Birthday oratorical contests). Intramural and interscholastic debates were a staple of winter activity into the 1960s. Today they are year-round fare.

from The Hermonite, vol. VI, no.11, p. 94; March 11, 1893. 

***

No student now questions the fact that the abolishment of the entertainment on Washington’s birthday, which has been formerly given each Senior Middle class, [today’s Juniors –ed.] was a wise movement on the part of the faculty. The amount of time, energy and money, which was necessarily expended in arranging and giving the concert, certainly did not warrant the continuation of the custom, when some other equally interesting, yet less taxing entertainment could be substituted for it.

The success and interest taken in the contest between the two literary societies would lead us to think that hereafter the twenty second will be given to the annual contest or debate between the two societies. At least we will hope so.

A remark which was made by one whose authority is not questioned, goes to show the class of oratory the evening produced, "it would do honor to any college."

Peter H. Weis, '78

Archivist

This Week in NMH History 2007-2008 #16

15 Years Ago

    From their founding through the early 1930s, smoking was prohibited at both the Northfield Seminary and the Mount Hermon School. Students pledged to refrain from the habit even during vacations, and a single offense resulted in dismissal. As smoking became more widespread and socially acceptable, the rules regarding smoking were gradually relaxed. First, the penalty was reduced from expulsion to suspension, the young poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti being one of the earliest to benefit from the rule change. Later, Mount Hermon seniors were allowed to smoke in a lounge – popularly called “The Blue Cloud” – in what is now the music building. The strictures at Northfield remained tougher, with no smoking allowed on campus. Through the 1960s girls traveling to and from school were only permitted to smoke on trains and buses which were traveling north of Brattleboro or south of Greenfield. At the merger of the schools in the fall of 1971 smoking was extended to allow any student with written parental permission to smoke within specially designated areas on campus. By the early 1990s, with the risks of smoking and the dangers second-hand smoke well-documented, and with prohibitions against obtaining tobacco by those under 18 now law, campus smoking again became verboten.

This Week in NMH History 2007-2008 #14

110 Years Ago
from The Hermonite, vol. XI, no. 6, p. 87; December 4, 1897.

HEAR YE! HEAR YE!

The case of Commonwealth vs. Alice M. Brereton, for the larceny of a piece of cake from the store room of East Hall, came up before Judge C.I. Scofield in the winter session of the Northfield Seminary Superior Court, at Marquand Court House, Tuesday afternoon, November 30. The Commonwealth was represented by District Attorney Eliza S. Halsey, and the defendant by Lawyer Eldridge. The witnesses were sworn in by Clerk Elizabeth Aitken and the prisoner was brought in by Sheriff Julia Rieser.

This Week in NMH History

25 Years Ago

from The Bridge, vol. XIV, no. 5, p. 1; November 3, 1982.

Transition Year Begun: Ms. Shoemaker Appointed Head

Northfield Mount Hermon School was recently awarded a three-year grant from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation to conduct a “transition year program” at the school. English Department member, Pamela Shoemaker, has been appointed to coordinate the program.

The program, which will be called “The Dodge Transition Year Program,” has according to Ms. Shoemaker, the goal of “helping capable minority students bridge the gap between an inadequate secondary school education and college work.”

This Week in NMH History 2007-2008 #06

85 Years Ago

While the four-year seniors of the class of 2008, are the only students here who have experienced the daily joys of Northfield, they are not the only ones who keep alive the Northfield spirit today. Here’s how one Northfield student defined that feeling eighty-five year ago. Leaving aside the gendered language to be expected at the Northfield Seminary, may all of us do our part to follow the advice herein, to help keep said spirit alive for the next eighty-five years.

from The Northfield Star, vol. VII, no. 1, pp. 6-7; October , 1922. 

A Spirit Gift

Northfield’s greatest gift cannot be defined, not even by a logical definition. It is freer than the air, yet to those who possess it, it is priceless. Every girl may have it if, of her own free will, she desires it, and by honest, purposeful effort strives to obtain it. This gift is not the Northfield "N," but is generally known by the name of The Northfield Spirit.

Think back to the days when you were a new girl, shy, homesick, and everything seemed so strange. Everywhere you went girls smiled at you and called out a merry greeting. Old girls showed you where you were to take your examinations, where you were to go to have your schedules made out, and helped you solve the puzzles which stared you in the face during those first days. Did you ever stop to think why they were so thoughtful, helping you with the little things which meant so much to you? There is only one answer to this question and that answer is the Northfield Spirit.

Go down on the athletic field when there is a challenge game being played and get acquainted with this same Spirit. Even if no one else is there, you may be sure of Her presence on the field watching the game. She creates the atmosphere of good sportsmanship and it is because of Her that the players can smile at defeat.

That fine spirit of sincere, thoughtful endeavor shown in the classroom, that spirit of constant helpfulness in the halls, that spirit of self-forgetfulness toward one’s friends, the Spirit herself, is waiting to bestow. Do you not want for your very own all these splendid things which make Northfield worthwhile? Just take them, for they are your heritage. They are all embodied in the words Northfield Spirit, and when Northfield has given you that she has given you her best.

(Last) Week in NMH History 2007-2008 #05

80 Years Ago

Due to an oversight, last week's "This Week in NMH History" went unpublished. So with apologies, here is last week installment, this week's to follow shortly. It may seem oxymoronic to speak of a new tradition, and at the very least it is a risky enterprise. This week shows you why with a description of a "new tradition" which never became an old one.

from The Hermonite, vol. XLI, no. 3, p. 1-2; October 1, 1927. 

Senior Class Starts New Tradition

Coil of Rope is to Signify "Pull Together"

At Chapel service on September 27, the senior class inaugurated a new tradition by handing a coil of rope to the junior class.

Perhaps there is no school in the country whose traditions have become a part of its makeup as Mount Hermon. The existent traditions have come to us through the efforts of student and Founder of this institution. We live here as man with man; we get to know each other, but the time we really know and understand each other is the time when traditions are recalled or handed down to us.

We have at present two outstanding traditions, which embody a great deal – the spade and the one-tine fork. The spade, presented by the class of 1890, [Actually it was first presented by the class of 1889. – ed.], symbolizes digging; the one-tine fork symbolizes doing the impossible – eating soup with a fork. At this time the class of 1928 wishes to institute a new tradition symbolizing the idea of pulling. No organization can attain the greatest success unless there are men who are willing to pull. This tradition is embodied in a rope which was used in the recent rope pull, and which is 56 inches long, an inch for every man who pulled for the class. The class of ’28 hopes that this rope will be received in the spirit in which it is given. We ask that the rope be presented at West Hall to the winner of the rope pull the night of the contest. If by chance the seniors should win, the rope should be presented to the sophomore class, but, of course, if the juniors win the rope belongs to them for the year, and so on. Each class as it wins the rope should place its class colors on either end of the rope. We hope that each year the spirit of Mount Hermon will increase and become more beneficial to all concerned. It is not the "pull" we want, but we want to pull together in the spirit of Hermon. This tradition we introduce that the spirit of Mount Hermon might take its proper place in the student life on the campus.

The bit of rope donated by the class of 1928 was won by the junior class of 1929 at the rope pull that fall. A year later, the juniors won again and newspaper accounts indicate that the rope went to the class of 1930, but from that moment the tradition disappears from view. –ed.

This Week in NMH History 2007-2008 #04

100 Years Ago

The Canning Factory, later, Rikert House

This week we note the 100th birthday of not one, but two campus buildings.

From The Mount Hermon Alumni Quarterly, vol. VI, no. 1, p. 2; September 1907.

New Buildings

In schools, as in other communities, one of the clearest signs of progress is increase in number of buildings. The returning old student looks to see the changes in this line, even before he greets his friends. And this summer he is not disappointed. At the south, in the rapidly growing cluster of houses about Dwight's Home, is to be seen a nearly completed residence known as Harris Cottage, from the name of the donor. This cottage will be occupied by Mr. Richard L. Watson. At the rear of the laundry is rising the new canning factory. Special interest centers here because the work is done wholly by Hermon labor, because the material is concrete blocks made on the place, and because the building means improvement in one of Hermon's specialties, the industrial system.

Today Harris Cottage is home to the Dowdys. Mr. Dowdy can tell you more about his house than your editor can. Direct all questions to him, but when you do, be sure to wish his home a sweet centennial. As for the canning factory, it is now better known as Rikert House. After it was a canning factory, and before it became student housing just about 40 years ago, it served for many years as the headquarters of Plant and Property. It is therefore fitting that when the building began its new life as a dormitory, it was named for the longtime director of Plant and Property, Carroll Rikert, class of 1913. –ed.

Peter H. Weis, '78
Archivist

This Week in NMH History 2007-2008 #02

The Hermonite, the school newspaper, renamed The Bridge in 1969 and The Hermon Echo in 2005, has been published every year since 1888. It is perhaps the best source of information about our history particularly our first half century. Despite its name the paper served both the Northfield Seminary and the Mount Hermon School for Boys through the middle of the 1910s. More will be written on this subject but for now read about a presidential visit from its pages.

from The Hermonite, vol. XVI, no. 1; September 20, 1902; pp. 1-2.

THE PRESIDENT”S VISIT TO MOUNT HERMON

IT was an auspicious day for Hermon when for the first time in her history she was honored by a visit from the President of the United States, and Hermonites in general believe that Theodore Roosevelt has ample cause to remember the hearty welcome he received during the few minutes which he spent here.