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Turissini Writing Assignment 02
27 September 2011
In the mid-1800s, a faction of intellectuals and academics parted from Williams College in northeastern Massachusetts on a mission to found a new college. Eventually settling in the Pioneer valley, Amherst College came to be in the year 1821.
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Amherst was innovative in itself, yet from
1820 to the American Civil War, the growth of higher education had become quite commonplace.
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Colleges were progressing democratically, re-locating to the frontier, and in essence, becoming one with the natural environment.
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The architecture, design, and aesthetic quality of these colleges became a crucial aspect in the establishment process. Through the inquiry and analysis of historical photographs and drawings, Amherst College’s visual transformation to the present day can be compared.
Through photography and drawing, the creator alters the perspective of Amherst College.
The initial historical piece was a photograph shot by J.L. Lovell from the northwest. The photograph depicts the apexes of both the college row and the Octagon. Lovell captured the image from a lower elevation, gazing up upon the college. Additionally, a dense cropping of trees conceals the foundations of the buildings, appearing as if the structures are much taller than they actually are. Indeed, the fact that there is a rise at all is lost, save for the white fence that leads the eye casually up the gentle slope. The lack of human life represented in the first image is countered by both the second and third historical pieces. The second piece, also a photograph by Lovell, and the third piece—a drawing—portray Amherst College from the southwest. Once again, Lovell’s photograph stares up upon the College, with Johnson Chapel framed as the centerpiece. However, the drawing’s perspective differs from the elevation of Lovell’s photographs, with the college row
1 “A History of Amherst College,” Amherst College , 26 September 2011, https://www.amherst.edu/aboutamherst/ history.
2 Paul Venable Turner, Campus: An American Planning Tradition , (Cambridge: MIT, 1990 rev. ed.), 1.
3 Paul Venable Turner, Campus: An American Planning Tradition , (Cambridge: MIT, 1990 rev. ed.).

2 on the same level as the artist. The college is hidden behind a grouping of houses in Lovell’s photograph, yet the drawing illustrates the college at a higher elevation than the surrounding houses.
The “past” architectural qualities of the campus are evident through the analysis of the photographs and the drawing. The drawing is more difficult to evaluate, due to the fact that the artist might have chosen to not include the entire scene as it was. Furthermore, photographs can also lead astray, especially if the photographer purposely neglects to include a vital component of the scene. In Lovell’s first photograph, the spires of Williston Hall, Johnson Chapel, and the
Octagon Observatory dominate the bleak skyline. Yet today, the buildings themselves tower alone, absent of tree cover, and the Williston spire is not longer present. In addition, the drawing displays the octagon and college row, but absent is Appleton Hall. Yet, Lovell’s second photograph, also portraying the college from the southwest, includes Appleton Hall. Opposite the buildings is the long gradual incline leading to the crest of college row. Today, that climb is more violent— sharply ascending in smaller increments. Overall, the “past” that is observable in both the drawing and the photographs only slightly differs from the present.
On the whole, the photographs and drawings of the past have only slightly amended my perspective of the Amherst College community and campus. Presently, I tend to recognize the freshmen quad, or Robert Frost Library, as the centerpiece of Amherst College. Rather, the historical evidence demonstrates that Johnson Chapel was the primary focus of Amherst.
Additionally, the photographs and the drawing describe the Octagon as a prominent edifice on campus. Nowadays, I perceive the Octagon as a building of the “past”, or a showpiece, rather than a functional observatory. Lastly, the historical images compelled me to imagine Amherst College

3 as just college row. This is a difficult idea for me to grasp, as I very seldom spend time at North,
South, or Johnson Chapel.
Turner Abstract
In Campus: An American Planning Tradition , Paul Venable Turner argues that the placement, architecture, and function of American colleges were dependent upon the expanding frontier and progressive democratic thinking of the student body. The vastness of the American landscape, combined with a general suspicion of city-life, aided the expansion of colleges in the mid-nineteenth century. Contributing to the movement to the countryside was the transcendental belief that nature is not only mystical, but also a natural environment meant to be interacted with.
Additionally, the architecture and campus design furthers the notion that the colleges were uniquely American, rather than a product of British methods. Freestanding structures, symmetrical buildings, and Greek and Gothic revival carved out the distinctive American college. Through the use of floor plans, maps, and images, Turner promotes the individual identity of the American style of college planning. Contrary to the belief that American higher education expanded with the population, the creation of the colleges near the uninhabited frontier transcended this idea.
Turner’s confirmation of the thought that mid-nineteenth century college architecture was directly influenced by the early colonial colleges (Harvard, William & Mary, Yale, and Princeton) was precise. Overall, Turner’s argument of expansionism through progressivism and the relationship to the natural environment is in harmony with the development of nineteenth century higher education.