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<p>There is a coffee-table book, “Richard Walton’s Swarthmore College: An Informal History” published in 1986 for some kind of endowment campaign. It is long ago out of print, but my wife has a friend who dabbles in used books. He had tracked down a copy of it for a niece attending Swarthmore a few years back. When he heard that our daughter had been accepted to Swat, he tracked down a copy for her. </p>
<p>Because the Honors Program is so integral to the unique history of the school, there is a whole chapter on the President Frank Adylotte and his creation of the Honors Program. It was really the thing that put Swarthmore on the map, giving it the reputation for being an academic powerhouse. (along with the Swarthmore team winning the popular College Bowl tv game show in the 1950s). Not only do you have the Swarthmore students interacting with the outside examiners, but the 100+ professors at other schools get a first hand look at Swarthmore and its students. Probably goes a long way towards explaining why Swarthmore is so well respected in the academic community.</p>
<p>There is very cool stuff in the book. One of the more interesting pictures is Swarthmore benefactor, Eugene Lang, as a teenage undergrad in the 1930s, sitting on a chair on the porch of Parrish in the background of a picture of Albert Einstein, visiting campus. The pictures of Parrish with out a tree in sight except for the row of saplings just planted along McGill walk is kind of interesting. The whole campus was originally open farmland.</p>
<p>I’m sure that McCabe Library has copies of the book.</p>