Agnes Scott Alumnae Association

In 1930, Agnes Scott offered horseback riding as a physical education class. At the time there was enough room on campus to ride, as neither McCain Library nor the science quad had been built. Students were able to take horseback riding as a physical education class until 1948, when there was a brief hiatus. The activity was picked back up again in 1956 and continued until 2011, however, it was moved off-campus sometime during the 1970s.

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May Day was an Agnes Scott tradition of the school’s earliest years, back when it was still called the Agnes Scott Institute. The tradition was formally introduced as a college activity in 1913, when May Day became an annual activity with a May Queen and a May pole. The May Queen was chosen through popular election by the entire student body.

The last May Day was held in 1960 in the Amphitheatre (now the Julia Thompson Smith Chapel stands, and a larger performance of “Electra” was put on by Blackfriars in Gaines Chapel. You will notice that the women in the photos are dressed in Grecian peplos, this is because many of the scenarios written by students were drawn from stories about mythological characters.

2026 Senior Toast!

We are so blessed to welcome the Lightning McQueen class of 2026 into the ASC Alumnae Association!

We hope you had an amazing four years!

Agnes Scott College’s first-ever commencement ceremony took place in June of 1891 when the school was still called the Agnes Scott Institute.

Commencement initially took place at Decatur Presbyterian Church, but moved to the Bucher Scott Gymnasium once it was built in 1925. When Presser Hall was built in 1940, the ceremony was moved to Gaines Chapel. In 1970, commencement was held outdoors on the Presser Quad, as has been held there ever since with one small exception in the early 2000s, when the ceremony was held on the Science Quad).

This Saturday marks the college’s 137th commencement ceremony, and we welcome the class of 2026 into the Alumnae Association to join the classes that celebrated before them.

One last Student Alumnae Ambassadors meeting as we say goodbye to our seniors (pictured in the second photo, check out those nice chords!).

We welcomed our newly-elected Executive Board for the 2026-27 academic year (photo 3).

Aurora Harkins ‘26 (photo 4), has been President of SAA for four years, and has worked with the Alumnae Relations team for just as long! We are going to miss her and our SAA seniors, and we wish them all the best!

Thank you SAA for a marvelous year!

This week, we are going back in time to 1905 to visit Agnes Scott’s Tie Club! This photo was found in the 1905 issue of the Silhouette.

Clubs like the Tie Club make me wonder if 120 years from now, people will look back on our yearbooks and laugh at the names of our clubs!

You can find digital copies of past ASC yearbooks dating all the way back to 1902 at https://dspace.agnesscott.edu/.

Congratulations to our student workers and volunteers who won awards on Wednesday’s Student Awards Celebration! We are so proud of you all!

Welcome back to ! Today’s post features golf at Agnes Scott, which has flipped back and forth between being a physical education class and an intramural activity since 1928. It used to be played exclusively on campus, but as students became more advanced players, it moved off-campus to clubs like the Venetian Club and the Forest Hills Golf Club.

The featured photos are of the Golf Club circa 1902 and 1903, just a couple of years after American Margaret Abbott brought home the gold for individual golf at the 1900 Paris Olympics.

And that’s a wrap for AW 2026!

Thank you to all of our volunteers who made everything possible, and of course to our amazing alumnae for coming back to campus to reconnect and celebrate with us!

We hope you all enjoyed your weekend, and we hope to see you next year!

The Gazebo is a campus landmark, and it is deeply ingrained in the history of the college. When it was first built in 1891, it was located in front of Main and was sometimes called the Summer House. In 1926, the Gazebo was moved to the west end of Rebekah and enclosed, serving as a Day Student Hut and then as a meeting place for groups on campus. It was converted into a Meditation Chapel in 1957 in memory of Charlotte Bartlett, a member of the class of 1950 who passed away in 1955. During the years the Gazebo was enclosed, it was known as the Round House.

In 1987 the Gazebo was restored to its original open-air condition in preparation for the College Centennial. It was finally moved to the main quad south and east of Rebekah, where it sits today.

If you would like to learn more about the Gazebo and other buildings on campus, visit libguides,agnesscott.edu.

See you for next week’s !