From the Editor

This summer, my Green Hall colleagues and I packed everything in our offices to relocate to temporary space across campus before critical repairs began in Green. It was a formidable undertaking. Those of you who have moved after decades rooted in one spot can imagine the scale of the job.

Alumnae Association staff members and one efficient and cheerful student worker (thanks again, Ella Smith ’26!) emptied bookshelves, filing cabinets, junk drawers, storage rooms, and a hidden closet within a closet. It was sweaty, dusty work, but it was punctuated with joyful discoveries: A cast-iron paper embosser with the Alumnae Association’s seal. Maps of the campus from long before Alumnae Valley and the Lulu Chow Wang Campus Center were twinkles in trustees’ eyes. Record books from the class of 1905 at its 60th reunion.

The experience was a reminder of the metric tons of history that surround us at Wellesley, which feel especially present this sesquicentennial year. Maybe it’s all the time I’ve spent in Wellesley College Archives for 150th projects, but this year it seems easier to imagine College Hall on what is now Severance Hill and to imagine co-founder Henry F. Durant proclaiming, “Women can do the work. I give them the chance,” speaking not just of the students but also of the College’s nearly all-women faculty and its first president, Ada Howard.

I hope this 150th anniversary issue of the magazine—mailed in print to all alumnae to mark the special occasion—gives you a little bit of the feeling of discovering photos and record books in Archives and in storage closets in Green Hall, digging up objects from the College’s past (sometimes literally: see “Unearthing College Hall”), and taking in Wellesley’s living history in the Botanic Gardens (see “Gardens Without Borders”).

In working on this issue and other sesquicentennial projects, I’ve realized that there is not one Wellesley history—there are many Wellesley histories. I encourage you to learn about more of them through Now & Ever: 150 Years of Making a Difference, published by the College (and edited by yours truly) and available at bkstr.com/wellesleystore, and through the “Wellesley in 150” project. We were delighted to select a handful of these stories from alumnae to print in the Class Notes section of this issue. The College is accepting submissions through the end of the calendar year. Please consider adding your voice to the celebration.