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reative writing and literary ventures have long been a part of
the college’s history. As one example, Lycoming College and its
predecessor institutions have long boasted student publications in the
way of both newspapers and literary magazines — and for a time, the two were
one and the same.
The school newspaper has had many names and formats through the years.
At first, student publications were based in their literary societies (Tripartite
for the women, and Gamma Epsilon or Belles Lettres Union for the men). These
societies, dating back to the 1850s, offered the chief scholarly and social extra-
curricular activities for the campus. Saturday evening meetings consisted of
a discussion of chapter business, and a literary program that might feature
debates, orations, and extemporary speeches. The societies’ publications, of
which we have very few still in existence, regularly featured short stories, poems,
and essays, and thus were, in a way, the predecessors to today’s The Tributary.
BY JANET MCNEIL HURLBERT, PROFESSOR EMERITUS
c
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LYCOMING COLLEGE 2015 SUMMER MAGAZINE
F E AT U R E S