Bicentennial Corner

There are many traditions that mark the end of the school year and in the 19th century, Amherst students held mock funerals to mark the end of their academic labor. The funerals were elaborate affairs that included programs and dramatic recitations, and ended with ceremonial textbook burnings. In 1883, which Amherst student and future famous playwright staged an extravagant mock funeral that ended with a long and original poem?

Submit your answer! We will give a copy of Eye Mind Heart to three randomly chosen people with the correct response! To mark Amherst’s Bicentennial, the College has commissioned three keepsake books. Visit the Bicentennial website to learn more.

Amherst has one of America’s longest continuous histories of weather observation. Ebenezer S. Snell, a member of the first graduating class (1822), started and maintained the weather station while serving as professor of mathematics and natural philosophy. All of the Amherst data, starting with that collected by Snell, is held in the College’s Archives, and recent data are available on the Amherst website. In what year did Ebenezer Snell start collecting weather data at Amherst? Submit your answer!

We will gift a copy of Eye Mind Heart to three randomly chosen people with the correct response! To mark Amherst’s Bicentennial, the College has commissioned three keepsake books. Visit the Bicentennial website to learn more.

You probably know about Joseph Hardy Neesima, class of 1870, the first Japanese citizen to graduate from any American college. Several other Japanese students attended Amherst in the decades after Neesima.

Do you know the name and class year of another Japanese graduate that went on to found the Non-Church Movement in Japan and become an influential intellectual and pacifist? Submit your answer here. We will give a copy of Eye Mind Heart to three randomly chosen people with the correct response!

The last Amherst College Knowledge question: On what date was the cornerstone laid for South College? Answer: August 9, 1820.

At the top of Stearns Steeple hang nine bronze bells, first played at Amherst’s 50th anniversary celebration in 1871. Stearns Steeple is all that remains of Stearns Church, and until 1965, bell-playing was a paid student job. What year was Stearns Church demolished to make way for the Mead Art Museum?

We will give a copy of Eye Mind Heart to three randomly chosen people with the correct response!   
 

To mark Amherst’s Bicentennial, the College has commissioned three keepsake books: Eye Mind Heart, by Nancy Pick ’83; Amherst College: The Campus Guide, by Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic Blair Kamin ’79; and Amherst in the World, a digital collection of essays edited by Professor Martha Saxton. Visit the Bicentennial website to learn more.

When were the American Sycamore trees in front of Seelye House planted?

Answer: The trees were planted in 1821 to serve as landscaping for the first president's house. That building made way for Psi Upsilon fraternity, now Seelye House. The question came from a mention in Eye Mind Heart: Amherst College at 200.

Congratulations to three people with the correct answer. They received a copy of Eye Mind Heart .

To mark Amherst’s Bicentennial, the College commissioned three keepsake books: Eye Mind Heart, by Nancy Pick ’83; Amherst College: The Campus Guide, by Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic Blair Kamin ’79; and Amherst in the World, a collection of essays edited by Professor Martha Saxton. Visit the Bicentennial website for more information on the books, as well as a video message from President Biddy Martin.