College Hall Lives on Instagram

Margaux Delaney ’20, creator of the Instagram account @collegehallrevivalists, started the account in fall 2019. As she mourned the loss of her senior spring, Delaney turned to combing the College’s digital archives to share material related to campus life. She’s amassed over a thousand followers on her journey into Wellesley’s past. “One of my favorite images … is [a] photo of a statue of Elaine, the Lady of Shalott. I was fascinated by the inclusion of this tragic figure in the pantheon of the College Hall statuary, so at odds with the optimistic images of learned womanhood that you see in the statues of the Reading Girl, Diana the huntress, and Harriet Martineau. All were lost in the fire.”

Thesis Notes

To be a senior writing a thesis is to live and breathe your topic, but Isabella DeHerdt ’21—a jazz and world music major—has lived hers more than most. Her magnum opus, titled “Music in the Time of Coronavirus: An Exploration of Remote Collaborations, Artistic Innovation, and the Post-COVID Industry,” explores how the music industry pivoted during the pandemic from live performance to internet venues. DeHerdt interviewed musicians, label owners, sound engineers, and others to learn how they worked to survive. “Artists had the opportunity to focus on writing instead of touring, gaining new skills instead of leaning on ones they already knew,” she says. And that’s exactly what she did, too. A professional musician who is part of an indie-folk duo called High Tea, DeHerdt and vocalist/percussionist Isaac Eliot cut the album that is part of her thesis project, Hell of a Ride, in 2020. “We realized that the pandemic summer was our best shot at being able to actually record an album together, so Isaac and I podded up,” DeHerdt says. They wrote songs in June and July, and began recording in August. “The entire album was written, arranged, recorded, and mixed from our small apartment. We learned how to do all of the production necessary since COVID-19 made recording at a studio practically impossible.” Like the musicians she interviewed, DeHerdt is eager to get back to live performances post pandemic, with High Tea and her all-girl rock band Kalliope Jones, as well as appearing as a solo performer.

High Tea’s album is available on Bandcamp: highteaband.bandcamp.com/album/hell-of-a-ride