Finding Their Voices - Amherst College

Amherst College Glee Club 3
Years active: 1865 Spring to 1942; 1947 to present [2013].
Founder: Thomas E. Babb ‘1865
Founded as an octet in the spring of 1865 by Thomas E. Babb '65. Though the
group lost nearly all its members after 1867 when all but one lone sophomore graduated,
the club managed to resurrect itself after one lone year of inactivity. It continued to flirt
with dissolution - some years being quite active and successful (notably '71) and some
years apparently quite near death ('72, '74 and '75) - until the fall of '76 when the
professional direction and training of Professor Zuchtmann, a vocal instructor from
Springfield hired by the Amherst Musical Association to improve the quality of the
College's singing, gave it new life. From that date on, the Glee Club was insured as a
permanent feature of Amherst College, and in the ensuing years has come to enjoy
immeasurable success. It is one of the most well-traveled groups in the country, having
visited over 57 countries over the past 100 years. Its unusually old age (148 years as of
Spring 2013) marks it as one of the oldest Glee Clubs in the United States.
Some particularly notable events in the group’s history:
1865, spring - Founding.
1876, fall - Professor Frederick Zuchtmann hired as the "Instructor of Vocal
Music" by
the Amherst Musical Association. Under his direction, the Glee Club
became a much more stable organization, and began to gain a fair amount
of success.
1879 - The Glee Club puts on Amherst's first musical, the Gilbert and Sullivan
production "H.M.S. Pinafore," in June to great success.
1894 - The Club, along with the Mandolin and Banjo Clubs, make a tour of
England.
This act was lauded as the first time an American collegiate chorus ever
visited Europe.
1902 – James S. Hamilton – eventual writer of the college songs “Lord Jeffery
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3 For more information see:
Sumner Salter, “Early Days of the Glee Club,” The Amherst Student (17 January 1891): 102-103;
Michael Burnham, “Musical Amherst—Past and Present. A Plea for a Department of Music and Arts by
Alumni,” The Amherst Student (3 March 1893): 169-178;
“History of Musical Clubs,” The Amherst Student (27 March 1897): 177;
“The Molasses Candy Trip of 1868,” The Amherst Student (19 September, 1868): 121.
Many of the histories written about the Glee Club during the 1960s are incorrect. They did not form as a
“rebellion” against a repressive administration, although that does make for a good story. They were not
formed by a merging of previous singing groups. Although the dissolution of the Donizetti Glee Club the
year prior may have allowed the new group room to form, the new group did not in any way represent a
continuation of the previous group. The Amherst College Glee Club was formed as a new and unique
group in a non-hostile collegiate environment.
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