Draft:Societas Classica Academiae Pinkertoniae

Societās Classica Acadēmīæ Pinkertōniæ is an American high school Latin club founded in the 1924-1925 school year at Pinkerton Academy in Derry NH. By virtue of her age, the Classical Society is possibly the oldest such Latin club extant in the United States. The 1927-1928 PA Course Catalogue describes the Club: “In connection with the Latin and Greek courses there is a Classical Club to which those who have a grade of eighty per cent or above in Latin and Greek are entitled to belong. The object of the club is to inculcate a greater interest in classical studies by the aid of Latin plays and other supplementary work.”

Pinkerton Academy, the fourteenth oldest high school in the US, having essentially been an 1814 reconstitution of Derry’s late-18^th-Century Classical School, was established such that “Article Ten of the rules governing the early operation of the Academy ‘informs the faculty that they are to teach correct and graceful reading of the English, Latin, and Greek languages.’” As clubs became popular in early-20^th-Century high schools, Societās Classica was founded under advisor Helen Munroe. The December 9^th edition of the Critic of 1924 reports that: “The members of the Classical Club enjoyed the Roman Banquet held in Hildreth Hall Monday, November 23^rd... Everything was done in Roman style. Only spoons or fingers could be used, as the Romans had no forks or knives.”

As of the mid-20^th Century, the Latin Club, with various activities of crafts inspired by the world of the Greco-Roman Mediterranean, observations of Roman holidays, entertainments at assemblies, and the like, also participated heavily in state and national Junior Classical League events. In the early 1940s, the Classical Society was advised by Christine (then Fernald) Sleeper, later a Founding Mother of the National Latin Exam, and in the mid-1970s, SCAP Vice President Leeann Gulden was elected national Secretary of the Junior Classical League.

In the 21^st Century, Societās Classica has issued annual editions of the newsletter Stylus & Strigil and continues involvement with the Junior Classical League, with members winning awards for their work in the Classics at the state, regional, and national levels.