A belated but very happy Commencement to Amherst’s graduated seniors! We in the Archives are happy to have gotten to know so many of you through your coursework, personal research and thesis research. We wish you all the best out there!
It has been a good long while since we wrote an update of what’s new in our Digital Collections and now the entire run of Amherst Student newspapers from 1959-1977 is entirely digitized and available in ACDC. Thanks to the hard work of our Digital Programs, Technical Services and IT departments, we are able to draw your attention to the Commencement issues of the Amherst Student from past decades.
These Commencement issues of the Amherst Student include information specific about commencement happenings – for example, Eleanor Roosevelt gave the Commencement address and received an honorary degree in 1960 – but also includes reflections from students about their years at Amherst and significant events on campus – such as the 1968 Moratorium that led to the creation of the Black Studies Department in 1970 or the first co-ed graduating class of 1976.
The Amherst Student is interesting for its documentation of campus-centric events, but also serves as an interesting lens to view how national and international events, politics, and conversations played out at Amherst.
The years 1960-1977 were selected for an early digitization pilot because of their relevance to this year and the coming years’ 50th reunion classes, however we are working on digitizing and making available the entire run of Amherst Student newspapers beginning in 1867.
All issues of the Amherst Student 1959-1977 are available in our Digital Collections: https://acdc.amherst.edu/search/amherst+student/collection/asc/topic/College+student+newspapers+and+periodicals.
See previous updates of our Amherst College Digital Collections here and here and here.