WELLESLEY, MASS.- As Wellesley College celebrates 150 years of educating young women from around the world, a new exhibition, Only To Be There: Student Traditions at Wellesley, pays tribute to those longstanding rituals that make the school unique and treasured by alumni. The traditions - from hooprolling to stepsinging to Flower Sunday and Float Night - are captured in photos and memorabilia that are on view at the Davis Museum from Feb. 6 to May 24.

“Wellesley's traditions are threads that tie together generations of alumni and highlight the lighthearted, playful, and sometimes rebellious sides of our students,” said Lisa Scanlon Mogolov, Class of 1999, who co-curated the exhibition and is editor of Wellesley alumni magazine. “They foster belonging, mark important moments on campus, and are touchstones for generations of alums—as evidenced by the packed Stepsinging event at reunion every year. As the College marks 150 years, I hope students are inspired to maintain existing traditions, revive defunct traditions (although perhaps without setting papers on fire), or start entirely new ones.”



Among the time-honored traditions are “hooprolling,” when hundreds of seniors roll wooden hoops in a mad dash down Tupelo Lane. The first to cross the finish line is carried into Lake Waban. For the tradition known as “stepsinging,” students from all classes crowd Houghton Chapel’s steps and sing college songs—including “The Wellesley Composite,” with the line, “Wellesley, Wellesley, only to be there; drives away each melancholy care.” There is also “Tree Day,” when classes plant trees on the campus, using the same spade from generations before them. Among traditions that no longer exist, “forensic burning,” required juniors to throw graded exams into a bonfire deep in the woods and “Float Night” featured students performing pageants on decorated boats on Lake Waban.



These are just a few of Wellesley College’s traditions from the past 150 years. Students still embrace many, while others are long forgotten. Only To Be There highlights a wide range of Wellesley traditions with objects and photographs from the Wellesley College Archives. From afternoon tea to Float Night, these community rituals weave together generations of graduates and evolve over time, revealing much about the eras in which they occur.

“This exhibition gives us the opportunity to share with alumni and current students a wide range of objects that reveal different aspects of Wellesley’s history, from its founding by Pauline and Henry Fowle Durant to the present day. Some of these objects will be familiar, and others will not, but all of them speak to the unique experience of student life at Wellesley,” said Wellesley College Professor of Art Jacqueline Marie Musacchio, Class of 1989, who also co-curated the exhibition.



For Wellesley College’s 150th Anniversary, the Davis honors an extraordinary history, looks forward to an exciting future, and celebrates the College’s enduring commitment to providing an excellent education to women who will make a difference in the world. Dr. Amanda Gilvin, Interim Co-Director, Sonja Novak Koerner ’51 Senior Curator, and Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs, also helped co-curate the exhibition, along with Sara Ludovissy, Wellesley College Archivist.

The curators offer special thanks to the Wellesley alumnae who responded to our survey and label authors Ava Galbraith ‘25 and Deborah Blumberg ‘00. The exhibition is supported by the Office of Communications and Public Affairs, Wellesley College Archives, Wellesley College Friends of Art at the Davis, and the Constance Rhind ‘81 Fund for Museum Exhibitions.



The Davis Museum is free and open to the public Tuesdays to Sundays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, please call 781-283-2051 or visit https://www1.wellesley.edu/davismuseum/visit/directions.