The News Never Sleeps

Photograph of MHN staff members (Elizabeth Colburn ‘29, E. Claire Groben ‘31, Margaret Pascoe x‘30, and Roxane Eberlein ‘30) working in a dorm room, June 1928.

Until 1929, when an unused storage room in Mead Hall’s basement became the staff headquarters, the newspaper’s production took place in the editor’s bedroom. Though Mead Hall’s basement office proved useful to the staff, the College’s curfew of 10 pm restricted them from using the space late into the night. If they weren’t finished by the curfew, they had no choice but to take everything to their dorm’s common room and resume working there. Despite the obstacles of curfew and even a hurricane in September 1938, the editors worked hard to make sure the paper was published on schedule.

Cartoon of MHN office, Mount Holyoke News, October 9, 1942.
Preface. The lord created heaven and earth, the sky and the sea, and all that in them is. And the first day that Eve, strolling in the Garden of Eden, sayeth, "Wherefore art thou Adam and what thickest thou that thou doest?" -- news was born. From that time forth sundry of the seed of Adam grindeth many teeth and beateth out many brains, seeking to bequeath to the multitudes, news of yet other multitudes. And the lord created editors. We, the present editors, have torn out much hair by the roots. We have all too often wandered blithely in the fogs of ignorance. We have been in and out of hot water more times than we like to contemplate, although probably not more times than is customary. Now, from the heights of our wisdom, impatiently acquired, we survey out past year as guiding lights of the News. What, of that year, should we bequeath to our descendants? Shall all of said wisdom and knowledge be lost to the world, while you who are to come repeat the struggle? We have decided in the negative. Ignorance is not bliss! You, my children, shall inherit from us the ins and outs of the press, the Emily Posts of journalism, the facts of an editor's life, the little gems that dawned upon us month by month. We have wracked such brains as we have left so that you will find no question unanswered, no detail omitted. What we have learned we are preserving for posterity and for you. We, the present editors, have tried to put out a good News and we have had a lot of fun. Now you have our blessings and our Bible. Go thou and do likewise. RG, JP
Page from “Editor’s Bible” written by Rosalind Graves ’44, editor-in-chief, and Judith Pellett ’44, managing editor, circa 1944.