… [I]t is hoped that the Courant may serve not only as literary gymnasium and as a memory in ink, but that it may become, as well, an open channel of communication between students of earlier days and the College in whose history they have borne an active part.
– The Wellesley Courant, College Edition, September 21, 1888
In the years prior to 1888, the College sent news of campus events to the local town paper, the Wellesley Courant. The interest was so great that coverage expanded in 1888 to include an entire sheet (four pages) in the paper named the Wellesley Courant – College Edition. The College Edition editorial staff–with representatives from the faculty, the Alumnae Association, and upper class students–had complete literary control.
The Courant was issued weekly during the academic year 1888-1889. It contained news of college events, alumnae notes, literary pieces, news gleaned from publications of other colleges and universities, notes of world events, and humor items.
The Courant is the most recent collection from the Archives to be digitized and made available through the Wellesley College Digital Scholarship and Archive. The digitization was done by the Internet Archive as part of Wellesley College’s collaboration with The Boston Library Consortium.
Jane Callahan,
Assistant Archivist