Row, Row, Row Your Boat

What do whaling dories, Longfellow, Bizet’s opera Carmen, and the Whitin Observatory have in common? They are all part of the story of Float Night.

The story began in 1875, when Wellesley co-founder Henry Fowle Durant purchased three ungainly boats for the College. With these “queer-looking hulks” that resembled whaling dories, Durant launched the first collegiate women’s rowing program in the United States.

Wellesley’s first oarswomen were chosen for their voices, not their athleticism. Their primary purpose was to entertain distinguished Wellesley guests by serenading them from boats while wearing elaborate boating costumes, and sometimes rowing visitors on the lake.

The first guest honored with a boat ride was poet and educator Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Though a frequent campus visitor, he refused any further rides after a particularly choppy initial experience.

Float began in the early 1880s, with Lake Waban providing a magical setting. “[A]s twilight deepens, Lake Waban is covered with a gay flotilla, hundreds of colored lights on the boats adding beauty to the scene. On shore, scores of lanterns hung in trees transform the place to a veritable fairyland,” according to a 1901 article on “A College Girl’s Life” in Cosmopolitan.

Float included class crew races and a gathering of boats to form a star (later a Wellesley W). Each class crew sang original songs, and students rowed elaborate floats with actors on stage sets across the lake. In 1941, for example, reported the Wellesley College News, “The float parade will start with a colorful scene from The Mikado and the eight other floats will follow immediately in turn …  : William Tell, Don Giovanni, Louise, Falstaff, Carmen, Barber of Seville, Pinafore, and finally Hansel and Gretel.”

Widely known and popular, Float was highlighted in publications including the New York Times, Illustrated American, Scribner’s, and more. At its peak, it attracted over 7,000 attendees, including the governor of Massachusetts and the mayor of Boston.

Though discontinued in 1948 after a fireworks snafu and several weather-driven cancellations, Float had a lasting impact on the College. A conversation at the 1896 Float led newly elected Wellesley trustee Sarah Elizabeth Whitin to donate a 12-inch telescope and the funds to build a dome to house it: the Whitin Observatory.

Learn more about Float and other Wellesley traditions at the Davis Museum’s spring 2026 exhibition Only To Be There: Student Traditions at Wellesley, part of the College’s 150th anniversary celebrations.