The Commencement Collection, 1822 to date, includes materials such as Amherst College commencement programs, news articles, speeches, class week programs and schedules of events, tickets for events held during class week and commencement, poems and student addresses. The material in this collection dates from the institution's first commencement ceremony in 1822 when it was known as the "Collegiate Charity Institution." Commencement material is added to the collection annually.

This collection is organized into three series:

• 1. Commencement Materials (chronological), 1822-
• 2. Commencement Materials (general), 1909-
• 3. Duplicates, 1836-

Each series is arranged chronologically by commencement year and then by type of material within each year.

Please use the following format when citing materials from this collection:

[Identification of item], in Commencement Collection [Box #, Folder #], Amherst College Archives and Special Collections, Amherst College Library

Additions are made annually to the collection.

This collection is made up of materials from a variety of sources. It has been assembled and organized over the past several years and continues to grow annually.

NOTE: In January 1996, Commencement materials which had formerly been dispersed in other collections were brought to this collection. The arrangement was modified slightly to correspond to the specific components of Commencement and to facilitate the addition of materials formerly dispersed or newly acquired.

The chronological/alphabetical arrangement is retained, except that the Commencement category for each year begins with a "Commencement-General File" for collecting ephemera (e.g. menus, concert programs, isolated correspondence) which cannot be assigned to any of the specific categories, as follows: Baccalaureate; Class Day; Commencement - General File; Commencement Program; News Articles; Publications (officially issued, e.g. 1836).