Orangemen

The College Archives also place the Orangemen’s founding, the rival society of the AOH, in 1890.1  The Orangemen were based on a fraternal order, the Irish Protestant group, the Loyal Orange Association, which dated back to 1795 Ireland. The Orangemen did similar activities as the A.O.H. They wrote songs and also wore their cloaks to parade around campus.2

“Orangemen in Back of the Neilson Library,” undated, Orangemen, c1908-1936, 1986, Student Clubs and Organizations records, Box #3004.4, Smith College Archives, CA-MS-00022, Smith College Special Collections, Northampton,
Massachusetts.

New students in the Orangemen were initiated into the group in what was described as “mild hazing” of doing chores for an older student. 3

The Orangemen also wore glengarries, a type of hat, at times.4 Only one is available in the archive and belonged to the head of the organization in 1936.5

An orange hat with a blue gingham ribbon on a wooden mannequin head.
Anne M. Tuck’s (‘1936) Orangemen Hat, Orangemen,
c1908-1936, 1986, Student Clubs and Organizations
records, Box #3004.4, Smith College Archives,
CA-MS-00022, Smith College Special Collections,
Northampton, Massachusetts.
Photograph by Lily Stowe-Alekman, April 14, 2022.

According to the Smith College Archives, the Orangemen also accepted 12 members from each class.6

Image credits.7

Footnotes

  1. “Orangemen, C1908-1936, 1986,” Smith College Finding Aids, accessed March 27, 2022, https://findingaids.smith.edu/repositories/4/archival_objects/14825. ↩
  2. Orangemen, c1908-1936, 1986, Student Clubs and Organizations records, Box 3004.4,  Smith College Archives, CA-MS-00022, Smith College Special Collections, Northampton, Massachusetts, https://findingaids.smith.edu/repositories/4/archival_objects/14825. ↩
  3. Elizabeth Shedd Mykrantz, “re Orangemen,” Orangemen, c1908-1936, 1986, Student Clubs and Organizations records, Box #3004.4, Smith College Archives, CA-MS-00022, Smith College Special Collections, Northampton, Massachusetts. ↩
  4. “Secret Societies,” Smithipedia, accessed February 23, 2022, https://sites.smith.edu/blog/smithipedia/student-life/secret-societies/. ↩
  5. Note on owner of hat, Orangemen, c1908-1936, 1986, Student Clubs and Organizations records, Box #3004.4, Smith College Archives, CA-MS-00022, Smith College Special Collections, Northampton, Massachusetts. ↩
  6. Orangemen, c1908-1936, 1986, Student Clubs and Organizations records, Box 3004.4,  Smith College Archives, CA-MS-00022, Smith College Special Collections, Northampton, Massachusetts, https://findingaids.smith.edu/repositories/4/archival_objects/14825. ↩
  7. Photograph of the Orangemen, 1913, Orangemen, c1908-1936, 1986, Student Clubs and Organizations records, Box #3004.4, Smith College Archives, CA-MS-00022, Smith College Special Collections, Northampton, Massachusetts; Photograph of the Orangemen, 1922-1923, Orangemen, c1908-1936, 1986, Student Clubs and Organizations records, Box #3004.4, Smith College Archives, CA-MS-00022, Smith College Special Collections, Northampton, Massachusetts; Photograph of the Orangemen in front of Alumnae Hall, 1928-1929, Orangemen, c1908-1936, 1986, Student Clubs and Organizations records, Box #3004.4, Smith College Archives, CA-MS-00022, Smith College Special Collections, Northampton, Massachusetts; Photograph of the Orangemen from Helen Sargent’s album, Orangemen, c1908-1936, 1986, Student Clubs and Organizations records, Box #3004.4, Smith College Archives, CA-MS-00022, Smith College Special Collections, Northampton, Massachusetts; Photograph of the Orangemen, 1940, Orangemen, c1908-1936, 1986, Student Clubs and Organizations records, Box #3004.4, Smith College Archives, CA-MS-00022, Smith College Special Collections, Northampton, Massachusetts. ↩