Hampshire College. Planning Bodies

Hampshire College, an experimental institution founded under the auspices of Amherst College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College and the University of Massachusetts, admitted its first class in 1970. This record group contains files from planning committees involved in creating the new college. The first committee, Committee for an Experimental College, was formed by the four neighboring institutions in 1958 to gather and synthesize ideas for this new departure in higher education. The committee's first publication, The New College Plan (1958) was widely read and influenced the planning for other experimental colleges of the 1960s and 1970s. The pledge of $6 million by Amherst College alumnus Harold F. Johnson in 1965 made Hampshire College a reality, and planning began in earnest that year.

From the guide to the Hampshire College. Planning Bodies Records CG3., 1958-1977, 1958-1970, (Hampshire College Archives)

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