By Shannon Zeltmann, Staff Writer
This week in 1899, The Gettysburgian called for students to write a song for the annual college song contest. In years past, many students participated in writing heart-felt songs about the college, and The Gettysburgian urged students to take part once more. Students in 1899 seemed not as excited for the song writing contest, as the contest had been open beginning in March, and only a few students had submitted entries. The editors also stated the top songs would end up in the Gettysburg College Song Book. After the May 15th deadline, the editor mentioned not too many people did the song contest that year, but there were many strong entries.
This week in 1919, there was a call to ROTC members to go to the six-week summer camp at Camp Lee, VA. They stated that men will leave the camp in their best possible shape after the “intensive and progressive” training they will go through. Any ROTC members could go, but juniors who had not gone previously had to attend the summer camp, which began in late June.
This week in 1984, an exhibition in Schmucker Art Gallery was still taking place of images of Abraham Lincoln. Based on the book The Lincoln Image by Holzer, Boritt, and Neely which had recently published, the exhibition featured 64 images of Lincoln. It illustrated how Lincoln’s image changed throughout the period of an unknown Illinois politician to a national saint figure. The book was praised as an important new angle on Lincoln and the exhibition was going on tour after it left the college in September that year.
This week in 1999, students from college finished tutoring 3rd and 4th graders in R. Coleman Elementary School in Baltimore. It was part of a program to begin to “plant the seeds” of the idea of higher education for students in public schools with high levels of poverty. The Gettysburgian published some of the thoughts of college these elementary school students had about college. One student talked about the many different classes and clubs one can be in. Another said you must work hard to get into college and you must read and do math well. A final student called Gettysburg “the greatest school in the world” and people should go to college.
