Amherst College Student and Alumni Publications Collection

Amherst College students have been recording their news, literary endeavors and witticisms from the earliest years of the institution. The first student publication on record is La Critique, a handwritten review in five issues penned in 1829, a mere 8 years after the founding of the College. Its first printed publications were The Sprite (1832-1832) and The Shrine (1832-1833), which contained original essays, stories, and poetry as well as reprinted material from other publications. Horae Collegianae (1847-1840) and the Amherst Collegiate Magazine, or Ichnolite (1853-1862, named after the College's celebrated collection of fossilized footprints) were other early publications in the same vein. The mid-nineteenth century saw the origin of some of Amherst's longest-running publications: The Olio, its yearbook, first appeared in 1855 and continues today. The Amherst Student, its student newspaper, has run nearly continuously since its first printing in 1868, weekly and in some periods more frequently. The Indicator, a political and humor magazine, ran from 1849-1851 and was revived in 1996. Curiosities of the late 19th century include, among others, a single issue publication entitled The Electric Pen (1878), printed and duplicated using Thomas Edison's eponymous device.

The Amherst Literary Monthly, later the Amherst Monthly, Amherst Writing and then Amherst Literary Magazine, ran from 1886 until 1932 and was Amherst's longest-running literary magazine. The Amherst Literary Magazine was resurrected 1955 and remained in publication until 1973. In the first decades of the 20th century, other publications at Amherst were mostly short-running humor magazines; many did not make it past the first edition. They included The Amherst Muck-Rake (1908 and a product of its era) and The Four-Leaf Clover (1912-1913). The Lord Jeff revived the humor and campus-interest genre in 1920, running until 1935. (For selections from publications during the mid-20th century, see Analekta.)

Touchstone, an illustrated magazine (1936-1949) chronicled the activities of the college's diminished student body during the war years, as did The Gazette of Amherst College (1943-1944) and The Jeff (1944-1946). The Sabrina continued the humor and photography of Touchstone in themed editions, running intermittently between 1956 and 2001. The 1950s also saw the advent of Scrutiny, a collection of student reviews and rankings of professors, which continues in website form today. A Review, later Amherst Review, another long-running literary publication, began in 1958 and ran with some gaps through 2005.

The 1960s and 1970s saw several experiments in creative and literary magazines, including one called Experimental Magazine (1963); the most prominent were Io (1965-1967) and Paideia (1965-1974). The advent of the internet has brought easier access to outside publications and has brought the focus of the remaining student publications more squarely on campus life and student literary and artistic work.