Tag Archives: from the argives

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From the Argives: OverheardAtWes, 19th Century Edition

Twitter accounts like @OverheardAtWes and @WeirdWes chronicle some of the wackiest things that Wesleyan students can be heard saying on a daily basis. Private conversations being subject to publication in campus-wide media may seem like a phenomenon exclusive to the internet era, but the concept of OverheardAtWes existed long before twitter. In fact, ridiculous student quotes were often featured in The Argus during the 1800s!

Here are some of the best original OverheardAtWes quotes from the 19th century after the jump:

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From the Argives: Valentine’s Day Boycott

While some of us look forward to celebrating Valentine’s Day each year, others among us see February 14th as just another ordinary day. But, for some people, this romantic day is a holiday worth actively avoiding.

On Valentine’s Day in 1989, The Wesleyan Argus printed a column whose author had decided to boycott Valentine’s Day that year. The author, Adam “Sheep” Long, declared, “I am boycotting Valentine’s Day for reasons of my own.” When I read this, I was curious about these reasons. Was he frustrated by his own romantic difficulties? Angry about American consumerism? Convinced that romantic love is merely a social construct?

The author explained his reasoning like this:

     Every year I like to boycott at least one holiday (I never boycott Christmas). Recently, I have decided to start boycotting St. Patrick’s day (and I’m part Irish) and for a long time now I have boycotted Halloween. Halloween has never been a very good time for me: I generally associate it with things scary, gross, and violent. I can only remember one Halloween that I really enjoyed. When I was five, I went as Batman, which in retrospect doesn’t make a lot of sense, because I wasn’t old enough to read the comic book, and I was terrified of the TV show. I used to watch the cartoon part of the introduction and then leave the room. Only my immediate family knew about this strange behavior. With the kids at school, I just pretended I watched the whole show…

Okay, but why boycott Valentine’s Day? More after the jump:

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From the Argives: “The Tally”

1959: “Conn College Girls Get The Whistles; Holyoke, The Dates; But Wellesley Chicks Get The Men”

These days, it’s not uncommon to take surveys about things like our use of campus spaces, our views regarding fossil fuel divestment, the quality of our academic courses, and other exciting and important topics.

In 1959, The Wesleyan Argus gave some Wesleyan students a very different kind of survey.

On Friday, October 23rd, 1959, the Argus’ front page shared the results of a questionnaire asking Wesleyan students (“Wesmen”) to rank women from other New England colleges on the basis of their beauty, personality, intelligence, desirability for blind dates, and potential to be wives. In their article, the writers explained their bizarre experiment:

With its usual interest in the cause of public enlightenment, the Argus recently offered Wesmen the opportunity to pass judgment on girls from five of the major New England colleges. The young lovelies were assessed via questionnaires on their looks, personality, intelligence, and desirability by 200 coldly calculating Wesleyan students.

And so, these students filled out the survey, sharing their “cold, calculating” judgments of the women of Connecticut College, Mount Holyoke, Smith, Vassar, and Wellesley. The results became front-page Argus news.

More after the jump:

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Football Team Loses… in the late 1800s

the football team on November 27, 1885 in New York, before losing to Yale 61-0 (from Wesleyan Special Collections & Archives)

the football team on November 27, 1885 in New York, before losing to Yale 61-0 (from Wesleyan Special Collections & Archives)

Wesleyan isn’t really known for its athletics, despite our sports teams being pretty good. (I think… why–when I know nothing about sports–do I keep doing this?) This year’s scheduling probably isn’t helping matters: homecoming has been conveniently scheduled during fall break. In any case, in honor of tomorrow’s homecoming game against Amherst, wherever you are to experience/ignore it, here’s a look into Wes Football’s (pretty embarrassing) early history, including a spectacular 136-0 loss to Yale and a triumphant 26-0 win… against New Haven High School.

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From the Special Collections and Argives: An Awesome Picture of Richard Nixon at Wesleyan in 1956

Yes, the same Richard Nixon.

Do you keep up with the library’s Special Collections and Archives blog? If that’s a no, you may have missed archivist Leith Johnson’s “Pick of the Week,” which depicts then-Vice President Richard Nixon’s momentous visit to Wesleyan on October 18, 1956. Here’s your bi-weekly reminder that an institution of higher learning can change a lot in 50 years or less, and that Martin Benjamin ’57 once looked like this.

Shot by Fraser M. Lyle ’58, the above photo finds Tricky Dick on a Connecticut campaign stop less than a month before Eisenhower securely won reelection:

The Argus reported that Nixon spoke to about 400 students who crowded around him on High St. Suzy Taraba included this photograph, taken by Frazer M. Lyle ’58, in her recent presentation on alumni gifts of archival materials to the University Relations major gifts team. This photograph is particularly remarkable because it’s a color print, something that is rare among our photographs from this time period.

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From the Argives: Headlines

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These are some headlines that I have come across while perusing the Argives, more or less at random (and for most, there were dozens of other articles like it I could have included). If you’d like to read more about one, go look it up! The Argus archive is located along the North wall of the main stacks section, floor 3A, Olin Library.

“A look at the bare facts of nude modeling at Wesleyan,” by Yinka Bogdan ’88, published 23rd September 1986

“Celebrants stampede coat room at end of Senior Cocktails,” by Bobby Zeliger ’03, published 13th February 2001

“Students spared slaughter,” by Jon Dube ’94, published 1st November 1991

“Should Attendance Upon Recitations Be Compulsory?” by a mysterious H.C., published 12th February 1876

“Why Austerity: Wesleyan Must Cultivate New Income,” by B. Kent Garlinghouse ’63, published 24th April 1962

“Students disrupt campus tours to speak about sexual assault at Wes,” by Linda Wong ’90, published 4th November 1986

And two dozen more:

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From the Argives: Student Caught “Tanning”

That almost-mythical not-corner of Olin 3A.

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Back in 1985, being spotted exiting a Middletown tanning salon was evidently enough to land you on the front page of The Argus. On Friday, 6th November 1985, the front-page headline quite seriously pronounced “Winter break to be shortened by two weeks,” and vaulted into rote Argus material. Just below that, however, still on the front page, Argus ran one of the most bizarre articles my eyes have ever traipsed across in the great (worthwhile) time-suck that is the Argives. The headline: “Wesleyan student spotted in downtown tanning salon.”

So goes the story: one particular freshman had a crush. To look good for his crush, he wanted a tan. But it was almost winter, and the Connecticut sun was rapidly retreating to the Southern hemisphere. So he went to a local tanning salon a few times. After one fateful zap-session, a group of girls — crush included! — spotted him leaving the establishment, at which point he looked away and walked off as quick as he could. And everyone, except the freshman himself of course, that the whole affair was uproariously funny. A Wesleyan student! In a tanning salon! How preposterous! (Oh, the huge manatee!)

The author proceeds to quote the crush (who thought it was funny, and was flattered, but felt objectified), the crush’s friend (who couldn’t stop laughing), the freshman’s roommate (who felt for his roomie), the freshman’s mother (who wondered if she could take a message), the freshman’s RA (who sympathized), and the owner of the tanning salon (who worried that the freshman’s tan was still at a delicate stage).

Seriously, this must have been a joke issue. Subsequent pages, detailing an argument between the Editor and Staff about drinking on the job, seem to support this hypothesis. Any 1985 Argus staffers want to weigh in, in the comments? Author Chris Chester ’86? Editor Aaron Schloff ’87, perhaps?

Article text (and subsequent pages) post-jump.

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From The Argives: “100 Cars Towed as a Result of Snowstorm”

Or, Why Wesleyan in 1983 Was Basically Just Like Europe in 1415.

About a month ago, in the aftermath of the megablizzard, Public Safety came under criticism for threatening to tow cars buried under mountains of snow that made it rather difficult for their owners to reach them. If retweets are endorsements, a handful of students echoed the complaint.

There’s not much that’s interesting about the history of Snow Parking Bans (side note: we’re more than midway through March and as I look out my window right now, it’s again snowing), but piecing through the Argives last week I was oddly enthralled by an Argus story that ran 30 years ago last month with the headline “100 Cars Towed as a Result of Snowstorm.” After this particular 1983 storm, Middletown Police Sergeant Wood was unforgiving: “If they’re not off streets, they’re towed. It’s as simple as that,” he told the Argus.

But as then-Argus reporter (and current literary agent) Linda Loewenthal ’85 tells it, the problem was that many students simply weren’t aware that the parking ban was in effect. Why would they be? In 1983, before email or Pinterest or Friendster or whatever, it was damn hard to get information out quickly on a college campus:

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From the Argives: In 1975, Colin Campbell Successfully Ducked Two Cream Pies

Leafing through the Argus archives earlier this month for information on past WSA presidents, my comrade A-Batte happened upon this bodaciously amusing nugget from a “University Convocation” in the fall of 1975.

On Thursday, September 4, President Campbell gave a thirty-seven-minute address, during which he called for a reevaluation of the grading system and noted that “diversity and innovation were ‘expensive qualities’ that Wesleyan may no longer be able to afford” (sound familiar?). Apparently Campbell also called for the establishment of a generalization requirement (sup, gen-eds) and a “coordinated multi-disciplinary program for freshmen” (spell check seems to want to make that “mulch-disciplinary”).

According to Argus writer Jane Eisner ’77 (who later became editor of The Forward and returned to Wes as a Koeppel Fellow in Journalism), “two unidentified individuals” had a different idea:

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