When Wellesley College opened in 1875, College Hall sat atop of Severance Hill and served as the college’s main building. College Hall contained student and professor housing, classrooms, laboratories, and more. This huge building however, burned down on March 17, 1914. The rubble was buried underneath gravel and dirt (increasing the height of Severance Hill) and Tower Court was built on top of the wreckage. In many ways, the burning of College Hall represented the beginning of a new era in Wellesley’s history. New dorms and academic buildings were constructed to replace College Hall, and so many more parts of Wellesley have changed in the last hundred years or so— Back in 1913-1914, the course offerings were called the “Bulletin Calendar”! What was it like to be a student at that time?
The Wellesley College Course Browser Archive is intended to serve as an accessible introduction to the Wellesley College Hall Archaeology Project (WCHAP) and help members of the Wellesley College community engage with archival material about College Hall, prompt reflection on departmental change and the progression of multiple fields, and compare and contrast historical course offerings with current ones.
<aside> 💡 By default, the courses are sorted into the 26 different departments. You may search by keyword or filter for department, semester, hours of class per week, and whether or not the course has been withdrawn. Click on the course title to see its information in page format.
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1913-1914 Course Offering Data
<aside> 🔑 Departments are listed alphabetically, to see more departments click “view # more groups.” The last department is Zoology and Physiology.
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If you were a student in the 1913-1914 academic year, what would you register for?
From the Scrapbook of Eleanor Blair
From the Scrapbook of Mary Cole
From the Scrapbook of Eleanor Blair
From the Scrapbook of Eleanor Blair
From the Scrapbook of Mary Cole
From the Scrapbook of Mary Cole