1913 Richard Rummell View of Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts

This is a c. 1913 Richard Rummell view of Smith College, a private liberal arts women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. Founded in 1875, Smith College is the largest member of the Seven Sisters collegiate league. Looking west over the campus from the intersection of Elm Street and West Street, College Hall, Smith's first building, appears front and center. To the left of College Hall, some of the buildings that are still stand on campus include Pierce Hall, Seelye Hall, Lilly Hall, Alumnae Gym, Lawrence House, Morris House, Tyler House, and Neilson Library. Forbes Library, which houses the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library today, appears in the lower left. Identifiable buildings to the right of College Hall include Dewey Hall, Stoddard Hall, and Gillett House. St. John's Episcopal Church, which is not affiliated with Smith College, is also illustrated.

Rummell University Views

Rummell was an American landscape artist known for his drawings of American universities. At the turn of the century, Littig and Company commissioned Rummell to prepare watercolors of some of the nation's most prestigious colleges. From these watercolors, copper-plates were engraved, and a limited number of engravings were issued. Most of Rummell's university views are strikingly similar in style, reveling the entire campus in panoramic splendor. The views are uniformly issued from an altitude of about 300 feet, suggesting the Rummell most likely worked form a balloon.

In more recent times, Arader Galleries acquired many of the original printing plates for Rummell's college views and issues restrikes, but the original printings, as here, have become extremely rare. This is the first time we have encountered Rummell's view of Smith College.