This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Swarthmore College Bulletin, which first appeared under this name in December 1952.

The magazine evolved from Swarthmore’s original alumni publication, The Garnet Letter, which first appeared in 1935. Writing in its inaugural issue, William Tomlinson ’17, then president of the Alumni Association, described The Garnet Letter as “an effort to bring the College and her alumni into a closer relationship through a better understanding of the aims, objectives, and activities of Swarthmore today ... [and] to develop a more closely knit alumni organization [that] can play a greater part in the future success of Swarthmore."

This objective is remarkably consistent with the mission statement under which we publish the Bulletin today: “The Swarthmore College Bulletin seeks to strengthen and extend the positive connections that are part of the college experience and to promote a sense of responsibility for the future of the College."

The Garnet Letter was published occasionally through the late 1930s (it continues today as a newsletter and was last published this spring). It went to glossy paper and added photographs in 1938, beginning to look more like a magazine. In October 1939, it added its first Class Notes. These included information on “senior alumni" as far back as the Class of 1881—the year that Parrish Hall burned and Science Hall (now known as Trotter) was built.

After World War II, The Garnet Letter continued under the supervision of Joseph Shane ’25, vice president for alumni and development. In 1952, for reasons that apparently had more to do with postal regulations than an editorial decision, The Garnet Letter was renamed the Swarthmore College Bulletin. Its first editor was Kathryn “Kay” Bassett ’35.

Three years later, a new name appeared on the masthead, when Shane asked a young assistant dean—Maralyn Orbison Gillespie ’49—to become assistant editor. Within a year, she was appointed editor, a position she held for the next 36 years.

Gillespie made the Swarthmore College Bulletin what it is today. Until she came along, the Bulletin still had the feel of a newsletter, but she gradually gave it a broader focus, not only reporting what was happening on campus but also reflecting on the concerns, careers, and issues faced by alumni around the world. The magazine started to take on national and international issues, with articles about politics, foreign affairs, culture and travel, social change, education, literature, and the arts. But always at the center of the action were Swarthmore alumni, faculty, and students. The College was—and remains—the star of the show.

Gillespie also became a leader in a movement. In the 1960s, alumni editors around the country were learning to serve their institutions in a different way—through the interests of their readers. Gillespie and her colleagues at schools like Penn, Brown, and Johns Hopkins reinvented the alumni magazine, setting standards of excellence that endure to this day. Under Gillespie, the Bulletin became a sort of continuing seminar, where the kind of thinking, analysis, commitment, and involvement that alumni found at Swarthmore remain the central concerns of the publication.

I had the opportunity to work alongside Gillespie as managing editor for two years before her retirement in 1992, after which I was appointed editor—just the third in the last half-century. I inherited a magazine that was at the top of its game, and my aim has been to build on that success.

The Bulletin continues to celebrate the special relationships among students, students and faculty, and alumni that bind community members together and cause them to care about the future of the College. Its purpose is not only to inform you about the College but to constantly remind you of the quality of those relationships, the value system that lies beneath them, the quality of the education that nurtured them, and the impact that they have on your lives—and on the world. T