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Quiz'more

How well do you know your alma mater? Give this the ol’ College try!

1. What was Crum Creek originally called by the Lenni Lenape who lived on its banks?

2. For producing what recording did Don Mizell ’71 win his 2005 Album of the Year Grammy Award?

3. In what work by what author—with an original copy available in McCabe’s Rare Book Room—is a violent orangutan revealed to be a murderer?

4. In 1949, what was the approximate volume of correspondence to and from the office of Swarthmore College President John Nason?

5. 1967’s “Creeque Alley” by the Mamas & the Papas goes, “When Cass was a sophomore, planned to go to Swarthmore.” Where’d Cass Elliot actually attend?

Answer Key

1. Ockanickon. In the early 18th century, Swedish settlers renamed it Crumkill, meaning “crooked creek.”

2. Ray Charles’s Genius Loves Company. Mizell helped lead efforts to establish the Black Cultural Center, where the Grammy now resides. Mizell also made history in 2016, when he and his family successfully lobbied to name Florida’s Von D. Mizell–Eula Johnson State Park to honor local civil rights pioneers, including his uncle.

3. “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” by Edgar Allan Poe. Visitors may view an 1843 copy of the tale published in Philadelphia—Poe’s home during his most prolific period.

4. 10,000 letters, according to a glowing February 1949 Garnet Letter profile of Emma Abbett, who masterfully handled most of it as secretary to the president, as she had for Nason’s predecessor, Frank Aydelotte. “Her friends know no finer person,” the Garnet Letter wrote, “and her contribution to Swarthmore College is such that only two men [Nason and Aydelotte] can fully measure its importance.”

5. American University. In a 2006 Daily Gazette article, Lauren Stokes ’09 wrote, “I ascribe to my mother’s theory ... [Elliot] planned to continue her education at Goucher, a women’s college near her home in Baltimore. ‘Goucher’ is a tricky word to rhyme, though, so ‘Swarthmore’ was used instead.” (Thanks for the question, Nancy Yuan ’20!)