<e upon a time, The Carletonian had a “Raiders of the Lost Archives” where the college archivist wrote in about some obscure event or tradition that occurred in Carleton’s past, but as many “traditions” on this campus, that column has come and gone. But the value of those columns still remain, and they can be looked up, just like everything else published by The Carletonian, through the Archives website.
There are so many interesting pieces of Carleton’s history that probably aren’t even known by most of its current students. For example, unless you were at last night’s town hall meeting, you probably didn’t know that in the early part of the 20th century there was a freshman hazing tradition called Bouncing Day, whereby upperclassmen would literally toss freshmen high into the air and catch them on their way down.
Another fun fact, that I just learned today,is that apparently Carleton has a Coat of Arms, which was adopted by the college in 1898. The college thought that the Coat of Arms came from the family of the colleges namesake William Carleton. It turns out, however, that they took the Coat of Arms from the wrong side of the Carleton family. Woops! To go along with the athletics theme, we officially became the “Knights” by a student vote in 1950.
There have also been numerous famous people who have come to campus for various reasons, just to name some of the current and former Presidents who have visited: Dwight Eisenhower filled Laird Stadium in 1952, Bill Clinton gave the Commencement address in 2000, and in 1999 a little known Illinois Senator named Barack Obama delivered the Black History Month convocation.
Did you also know that Carleton’s first Observatory set the official time for over 12,000 miles of railroad? Or that it was taken down in 1905 to build Laird Hall? The new Observatory (Goodsell) was one of the most prominent in the world when it was first built in 1887 and the major astrophysical journals were published from there. Or what about Carleton’s first non-western graduate, Tsune Watanabe 1891, who was from Japan? There are so many fascinating events and facts about this school that most people simply do not know. At some point before you graduate (or even if you’ve graduated, or never even gone here), check out some of the history and fun things that the archives has to offer, you’ll be amazed what came before you.
-The editorial represents the views of The Carletonian editors.