As a member of The Bennington Lens (formerly The Bennington Beacon) for the last three years, I recently found myself going down a historical rabbit hole on past student-run newspapers at Bennington College. Bennington College offers a unique and distinguished writing program, where students are given a rare amount of freedom to write. This results in the founding of a lot of independent student literary projects, including Silo and campus newspapers. The Bennington Lens is not the first newspaper to report for the Bennington community; there have been many many iterations, and I am going to rank them in order of my personal favorite.
#5 The Original Bennington Beacon
The first official newspaper at Bennington was the original Bennington Beacon. First published on April 10th, 1951, the paper starts a new chapter for Bennington. In one of the original stories published, the Beacon states that this paper “may serve as a catalyst for further experimentation” which was certainly true with the many and varied newspapers to come to fruition later. Between articles of current news, updates on faculty projects, and announcing newsworthy performances, the Beacon provided a fascinating platform to hear the perspectives of the generation of students’ at the time. My favorite column in the Beacon is one by Miriam Marx titled “Re: Marx”; a column where Miriam talked about Bennington students. In her final submissions before graduation, she published a truly shocking piece about the seniors of that year. Miriam called her classmates “ogres and ghouls” who terrorized the lower classmen. Along with this fun column, another aspect I enjoyed was the old ads. Many of the ads have fun slogans targeting “The Bennington Girl” and many of the store’s advertising are ones still in town today like the Bennington Bookstore and the Country Store.
#4 The Collective
While digging through the Crosset Archives trying to sort the long timeline of newspapers, I stumbled upon a one-issue paper called The Collective. This attempt at a paper published in 1982 gave me a glimpse into Bennington at the time. Between many articles on war and mediation, there were a few sprinkled in about the college. What was most interesting about this paper was its graphics. At different intervals, drawings of hands appeared, and an attempt at a comic section was presented. This short-term paper had its own burgeoning personality and it shows in the small, carefully crafted details.
#3 Pastiche
Following the beginning of the campus newspapers, there was a long hiatus until 1968 when Pastiche was created; a new periodical that was a newspaper in name but looked and felt very different. In the first issue of Pastiche, it states that “we have been disturbed for a long time about the problem of communication at Bennington: the fact that there is only a small group of people who know what is going on; the wealth of unread mimeographed material that fills the wastebasket near switchboards and the bickering that characterizes most meetings on campus and blocks the implementation of many ideas and proposals.” Pastiche lasted two years before ending, which is surprisingly a good run for the campus papers at the time.
#2 Tool and Die
Tool and Die takes the second spot for the name alone. A paper that wanted what the other papers wanted: to host better communication at Bennington. They wrote articles addressing enrollment problems at the time, and also the dire need to reform the student council. Published only once in 1984, this reiteration of the paper seemed to have the right idea in talking about administrative news in a way that was transparent, and in Bennington spirit, even a little edgy.
#1 The Bennington Free Press
While this version of the paper was not known for its aesthetics or special in its mission, this one stuck out to me. From its first issue, you get the sense of a unique perspective. The Bennington Free Press was not the only newspaper at that time and it didn’t want to be. With a fresh and direct voice, the paper said, “It would be pointless to expend our precious and overused time to come up with a reason for existing. This is the way it is, so just ride the wave.” This was not the only reason it came in first place for me. Hosting some fun articles like “Clothing Optional? : Naked Students Share a Frisbee and Themselves” and interviews with Donna Tartt; this paper is an especially intriguing read.
Honorable Mention: Weekly World Commons
In this parody edition of The Commons, a paper that ran from 1988-1989, many fun articles are shown. From the article “Toads in Biology Apartment Talk to God” to the article “Elvis Alive and Well at Bennington College!” this special edition is filled with hilarious articles that are worth taking a look at.
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