ALL THE BEAUTIFUL COUPLES POSING FOR PHOTOS ON THE STEPS OF MEMORIAL CHAPEL GOT ME WONDERING: WHEN WAS THE FIRST WEDDING HELD AT THE CHAPEL, OR ANYWHERE ON CAMPUS?—Becky Steiner
We don’t know for certain when the first wedding was held on campus. Since there was a chapel in the Barracks, one of the buildings destroyed in the Great Fire of 1912, it’s likely that marriage ceremonies were held there, well before the first wedding in Memorial Chapel on Nov. 12, 1952. The couple with that honor is Albert E. Stott and Helen Ann Bump of Hyattsville, Md.
Q
ASK ANNE
I HEARD THERE WAS SOME BIG STREAKING EVENT ON CAMPUS BACK IN THE 1970S. IS THAT TRUE?—Wayne Tan ’09
Streaking was an American phenomenon in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and the term was coined in 1973 by a TV reporter who watched 533 naked students running across the University of Maryland. He exclaimed, “They are streaking past me right now. It’s an incredible sight!” Two photographs of mass streaks appeared in the 1974 Terrapin yearbook, accompanied by a quote from William Thomas, acting vice chancellor, condemning these “nude running incidents” that “have placed the University community into a defensive and embarrassed posture.”
Questions for Anne Turkos, the university archivist
WHY IS THERE A PLAQUE FOR “SARA BELLUM” ON TALIAFERRO HALL? WAS SHE A REAL PERSON?
—Shiehan Chou ’10
“Sara Bellum,” a play on the word “cerebellum,” was not a real person, but the creation of sociology Professor John Pease. As the story goes, she was a student who died from lack of studying, and “I’d Rather Be Studying” were her final words on her last midterm exam. The university adopted the phrase, which appears on a plaque at Taliaferro, as its informal motto in 1988. It’s been translated into more than 30 languages and plastered on bumper stickers, posters, T-shirts, hats, pencils and other campus gear.
➳ Questions may be sent to
terpmag@umd.edu or @UMDarchives on Twitter. ONLINE
lib.umd.edu/univarchives
BLOG lib.umd.edu/blogs/univarch_exhibits FAC E B O O K
University of Maryland University Archives
PHOTOS PHOTO BY JOHN COURTESY T. CONSOLI OF UNIVERSITY / PHOTO CREDITS ARCHIVES
SPRING 2013 TERP 5