Cleveland Colby Colgate Archives

04/28/2025

As the semester draws to a close and students are busy studying and writing for finals, this end-of-year post is dedicated to Scholar’s Day!

Scholar’s Day is a day for graduating students to showcase their work that they have worked on throughout this year. It is a day to celebrate student accomplishments and to share them with the community.

The respective photos range from as early as the late 1990s to 2017-2019. Throughout the college’s history, the school has been dedicated to cultivating and nurturing student development and success, which becomes abundantly clear on days such as Scholar’s Day.

03/28/2025

As we have celebrated this past month of March as Women’s History Month, we have found that it is most fitting to talk about one of the first prominent women of our school: Susan F. Colby Colgate.

Susan F. Colby Colgate (1817-1919) lived a long and wonderful life here in New London. She was born in 1817 to Anthony Colby (former Governor of New Hampshire) and Mary Everett Colby. When our school first opened in 1837 as New London Academy, 21-year-old Susan became the first principal and teacher of the institution. She married her husband, James Boorman Colgate, in 1851 and moved to Yonkers, New York, where they started a family and spent their lives together. Throughout her lifetime, Susan’s financial and developmental support for the school continued until her passing in 1919. To this day, her descendants are determined to support the school that their ancestor was instrumental in developing and sustaining the school we enjoy today.

As we move forward, let us remember that the hard work and determination of women of our school and around the world must be remembered and recognized. It is of upmost importance that we recognize and reflect not only about women of our past, but of our future.

02/21/2025

In honor of Black History Month, we would like to share with you a piece in our collection that is undeniably a piece of amazing history - a letter from one of the most famous social reformers and abolitionists, Frederick Douglass.

Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in Maryland in 1818. He primarily learned to read from other children in his neighborhood as well as reading posts and the writings of men he worked with.

Douglass then met his future wife Anna Murray in 1837. In 1838, he would make his escape on the Baltimore Railroad and later by boat to make it to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. From 1840 up until his death in 1895, Douglass was one of the biggest activists for the freedom and equality of African Americans.

This brings us to the letter written above. The letter was written on November 14th, 1883, to one Parker Pillsbury of Henniker, who was a major part of the abolitionist movement here in New Hampshire. The letter entails a longing sentiment for Douglass to see Pillsbury, especially after the Supreme Court decision of 1883. The Supreme Court decided on October 15th, 1883, that the Civil Rights Act of 1875 was unconstitutional.

Frederick Douglass is arguably one of the most famous figures of American history, especially when discussing racial injustice and discrimination in our country. As we look back, it is most important to look at the failures of our past in order to understand and be caretakers of our present and future.

For a transcription of the full letter, follow this link:
https://archives.colby-sawyer.edu/uncategorized/IO_f3d1e2ca-15a0-47b0-b542-d207e20e0a18/

For more information, visit:
Supreme Court Case: https://calendar.eji.org/racial-injustice/oct/15 #:~:text=In%201875%2C%20Congress%20passed%20the,protecting%20Black%20people%20from%20discrimination:

Frederick Douglass: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Douglass

02/14/2025

Who needs a valentine when you’re fighting the undead… right? Let us take you on a journey back to spring of 2011. While most campuses were prepping for classes, CSC students were preparing for that and more. A tragedy had struck the Colby-Sawyer campus... A zombie outbreak! 

Humans vs. Zombies was a campus wide game of tag… but it was much more elaborate. A zombie had to find a way to tag a human, thus infecting the human and becoming a zombie themselves. Humans were allowed to carry Nerf toy guns and “stun” the zombie for 30 seconds in order to run away. Humans wore a yellow bandana on their arm while zombies were the same in their head.

While the game wasn’t allowed to occur in buildings, reports from faculty say that students would es**rt each other from class to class to keep each other alive! There were multiple ways to win the game: either the humans are available to evacuate through a helicopter (defending a light on the soccer field), finding a cure (a vile), or mass consumption by zombies (no more humans alive). This was more than a silly game… students competed for numerous prizes, such as zombie movies and other related media as well as a trophy. This event from nearly 14 years ago shows us the bond and strong community that Colby-Sawyer embodies.

To see videos (yes, videos!) and other artifacts from the Humans vs. Zombies War, come check out the display case in the Cleveland Colby Colgate Archives Reading Room!

01/31/2025

12/24/2024

A little throwback to spread some holiday cheer 🎄Students decorating a tree in front of the windows of Wheeler Hall!

From the Archives, we would like to wish everyone a Happy Holidays, and a Happy New Year!

10/31/2024

Happy Halloween everyone 🎃👻 cheers to the Halloweens of the past, and to the future!

10/25/2024

College students are known to party... But a themed faculty party? Our college did it!

Back on November 13th, 1949, faculty and staff got together and had a “Middle Ages” party. In their lively hall of festivities, faculty mingled and ate food together in their comical costumes. They also made valiant speeches and had grueling duels against one another!

Slide 3 contains the following caption: “William Holst, chairmen of the art department, presents himself to King Leslie as Will Shakespeare. Here he is trying to remember some of his lines. Part of his trouble may come from the fact that his leg has been tied to his chair by one of the court jesters.”

Slide 6 also has the following caption: “The Turkish Knight, alias Sally Kleindienst, science instructor, leaves the presence of King Leslie. During the course of the evening, the Knight is vanquished in a duel with St. George.”

While we don’t know much about it, it’s always fun to see a glimpse of our past that you may never expect.

10/16/2024

The air is crisp, and everyone’s spirit on campus is high as the new academic year is well underway. This rings true especially for our athletes, whose cries can be heard all across campus. Sports are infused into the lifeblood of our campus, which includes our football team.

Based on photographic evidence, the college offered football from 1893 until the 1920s. Although we don’t have an official football team today, the last photo shows students from 1971 playing a fun and friendly game. We also have a flag football club team currently running though the recreation department.

In these photos, we can see the team comradery and enthusiastic spirit that can still be seen on the sports teams today. Whether you are an athlete or watch from the stands, sports is, and always has been, an integral part of our college community.

10/04/2024

Campus is buzzing with excitement over the new cafe that fully opened this last Thursday in the new Janet Udall Schaefer ‘52 Center for Health Sciences. A cafe-style space to hang out is not new to our campus, however.

The Colby Curb may look a little familiar to some - although it doesn’t exist anymore, it was housed in what now is the lobby of Sawyer Center. Sawyer Center was dedicated to President H. Leslie Sawyer and his wife in 1959. The Curb, based on the photographs, was a place for students to relax and get coffee, milkshakes, and much more.

The college’s dedication to creating a fun atmosphere for its student is evident through the relaxing cafe spaces, both new and old.

09/23/2024

We’ve all had the same thought as a student while in a class: “How is this relevant to me? When am I going to use this is the real world?” Our school answered these questions with the Home Management class.

The Home Management Class was taught during the days of Colby Junior College by Mr. Roy London. The above pictures date from 1950-1953. In this course, students would learn skills to manage and maintain a home. Activities included shopping at the local store, reupholstering furniture, cooking, and even dressing a turkey!

Although we don’t currently offer a course called “How to Dress a Thanksgiving Turkey 101”, our school continues foster skills that are beneficial to life outside of the classroom.

Photos by Don Sieburg

05/03/2024

Colby-Sawyer’s Class of 2024 Commencement is just on the horizon. Tomorrow, graduates will move on and travel on many different paths in the coming years. Today and tomorrow is not only a step towards the future, but a time to reminisce on all of the good times.

Above are photos from various graduation milestones from the past… Class of 1924, 1994, and 1999. The class of 1924 graduated 100 years when our school was called Colby Academy. In 1994, we saw the first co-ed class graduate from Colby-Sawyer. This year also marks the 25th anniversary of the class of 1999.

To the Class of 2024…. Congratulations! Enjoy your special day! We here at the archives wish you all the best!