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Items of Interest from Amherst College History
2006-07 Edition

Published each week during the academic year in the Daily Jolt by the
Office of Alumni and Parent Programs and the Amherst College Archives and Special Collections.


2005-06 Edition
2004-05 Edition
2003-04 Edition

This year, "Amherst's Attic" celebrates the recent 150th anniversary of the Amherst College Olio.
Join us as we draw frequently on past issues of the Olio as a reflection of Amherst College history.

Amherst College announced in November 1974 that it would become coeducational. Female students were admitted as transfer students beginning in the fall of 1975 and as first-year students the following year. The first female graduates received their diplomas in the spring of 1976. These pages show how the Olio, in 1975, commemorated this historic new milestone.
[2006 Oct 26]

Judging by this advertisement in the 1931 Olio, raccoon coats really were in fashion.
[2006 Oct 19]

Amherst House was a large 4-story hotel that stood at the southwest corner of Pleasant and Amity Streets in downtown Amherst. (It is currently the site of Bank of America.) It and its predecessor at the same corner, which burned to the ground in 1879, were the main lodgings for visitors to the town for much of the 19th century.

Interestingly, the Jones Library (the town's public library) leased space here in the 1920s. When the Amherst House was destroyed by fire (again) in December 1926, Amherst College students came to its aid by forming a line and transporting many library materials to safety.
[2006 Oct 5]

The House of Walsh was a longtime local merchant that catered to the "college man." As this advertisement from the 1931 Olio boasts, it was, indeed,"a college institution." From its store on Main Street adjacent to the Amherst town common, it sold a variety of men's clothing, including varsity sweaters, fraternity neckties, coats, jackets and hats as well as other memorabilia to generations of Amherst men. The Walsh family also operated similar stores in Williamstown, upstate New York and Connecticut.
[2006 Sep 28]
The Lord Jeffery Inn was only five years old when this advertisement appeared in the 1931 Olio. Originally it was owned and operated by the Amherst Inn Company, a private corporation. One notable original gift to the Inn was the Plimpton Collection of French and Indian War Items, presented to Amherst by George A. Plimpton, Class of 1876, consisting of a large number of maps,letters and other documents, many of which were exhibited in the Inn. These items were later transferredto the Amherst College Library for safer preservation.
[2006 Sep 21]
Here is an advertisement from the 1931 Olio for Brooks Brothers clothing.
[2006 Sep 14]
The College Olio made its first appearance on campus in October 1855 in tabloid newspaper format. This first issue more closely resembled a college catalogue than a yearbook, containing mainly lists of faculty and students.
[2006 Sep 7]

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© 2006, Amherst College, Amherst, MA, 01002-5000. All rights reserved. No part of this page may be reproduced without the written consent of Amherst College Archives & Special Collections.