Hello, welcome to the blog!

This week I’d like to talk about my newly discovered love for the Archives. My findings shall be documented here. This is a space for us to learn and discover together! 

A lithograph of the Amherst College campus in 1821.

The Archives are a great resource for students. If you can’t find time to physically go into the Archives, they have a blog where you can explore different topics. I recently read two articles there: one about Black men of Amherst from 1877-1883 and the other about perceptions of women at Amherst in the early 1970s. 

Wiley Lane, Amherst class of 1879.

The above blog post provides information (mostly derived from yearbooks and student publications) about when and where each alum was born, where they studied pre-Amherst, and when they attended Amherst. I was very excited to see how much information is currently available about each alum, and I would recommend reading more by clicking on the provided link!

A female student at Amherst wearing jeans and a button-up shirt lounges on a sofa chair.

The second article draws upon archived editions of the Amherst Student (our student newspaper) to examine how women were perceived at the College during Amherst’s “pre-coed” years. Among other things, it analyzes the implications of two images commonly used when discussing coeducation/male-female relationships at the College. The above photo, for example, was used to show how some women were seen as “one of the boys.” If you would like to explore more about co-education at Amherst College, click the link above.


Thank you for reading my post. Stay curious! If you have any questions, feel free to email me at amakun26@amherst.edu