As a footnote to your piece [in the January Bulletin] about the connection between Swarthmore and the railroad, may I offer an image that has stayed with me all these years?
Oh, yes, the train was our link between Swarthmore and the wider world of Philadelphia. Cars were not allowed at the college, but we [...]
I really like “Poem for Swarthmore, 1864,” which appeared in the April 2014 sesquicentennial column by Christopher Densmore, curator of the Friends Historical Library. I’m glad you printed it and will save it in my poetry folder.
Susan Barker Gutterman ’59
New York, N.Y.
Several articles in the April 2014 Bulletin were especially interesting to me. Keith Reeves ’88 and his students’ work at the State Correctional Institution in Chester, Pa., is meaningful to me. I have spent many hours there as a prisoner advocate in my volunteer capacity with the PA Prison Society. So I was happy to [...]
I was pleased to see two articles about global warming in the April Swarthmore College Bulletin. The local activism of Fran Hostettler Putnam ’69 is inspiring, and I had already begun promoting Years of Living Dangerously before I learned from the Bulletin that it was put together by David Gelber ’63. I was especially encouraged [...]
I thoroughly enjoyed the railroad pieces in the January Bulletin, and I’m delighted that Sara Morrell’s campaign to save the Media/Elwyn Line was successful, since that’s my preferred mode of transportation to campus for reunions. My daughter lives in Lawrenceville, N.J., and there’s a nearby commuter rail station so that I can visit her family [...]
Interesting and informative as I found the article about the Underground Railroad [in the January Bulletin] I was surprised that no reference was made to John Woolman (1710-1772), the Quaker whose leadership on the evils of slavery had considerable influence on 18th-century Quakers.
As was noted in The Journal and Essays of John Woolman, he “was [...]
My daughter is a graduate of the Class of 2012, and her education at Swarthmore was the greatest gift I could have given her. We retain our connection and bond with Swarthmore through her and, importantly, through the Bulletin.
While I was not selected for the survey that you mentioned in your October editor’s column, I’d [...]
The alumni mentioned in the October Bulletin had “encore careers” that were more meaningful to them than their original careers. But, what about those of us who worked beyond retirement age because we couldn’t afford a life of leisure? During a 50-year working life as editor, teacher, and translator, some of the jobs I had [...]
I graduated from Swarthmore in 1949. In 1950–51 I moved to Baghdad, Iraq, to teach at the Queen Aliyah College for Moslem Women. That was a long time ago, as was the formation of the state of Israel.
I was surprised to see the Bulletin publish a letter opposing a proposed Swarthmore trip to Israel that [...]
I was quite delighted to read the interview with Prof. Aurora Camacho de Schmidt in the July issue of the Bulletin. Aurora has been an inspirational figure to me. If it were not for her encouragement, her teachings, and her presence in my life at Swarthmore, I would not have been where I am: teaching [...]