The content of this site was generated automatically using Claude Code and Mnemotron-R, based on OCR data from Spectator (1947–2025) and other college archival materials hosted at the Internet Archive. It it intended as a proof of concept for the Mnemotron-R project, and has not been reviewed for completeness or accuracy by a human reviewer.
Contact Hamilton College Archives for authoratiative access to College history.
Margaret Bundy Scott Field House
Overview
The Margaret Bundy Scott Field House is Hamilton College’s primary large indoor venue, serving as the site of major campus gatherings, athletic competitions, and landmark public events. It has hosted some of the largest crowds documented anywhere in the Spectator corpus, including visits by two former United States presidents and a former Secretary of State.
Relevance to Research
The Field House appears in the Spectator corpus as the venue for the college’s most significant public events. Hillary Rodham Clinton drew 5,800 attendees there on October 4, 2013 — at the time the largest campus gathering documented in the corpus — for her first public lecture since leaving the State Department, organized through Hamilton’s Sacerdote Great Names series. Former President Barack Obama spoke to approximately 5,200 people in the Field House on April 3, 2025, in conversation with President Tepper, the largest single campus gathering in the extended corpus. The Men’s Basketball team played home games in the Field House and won its first-ever NESCAC championship on February 26, 2023, defeating Colby 71–59. President Eugene Tobin was inaugurated in the Field House on April 30, 1994. Separately, a 1995 Spectator item documents car break-ins targeting students in the Field House parking lot.
Notes
Type: Athletic facility / large event venue
Key history:
- Hillary Clinton drew 5,800 attendees, October 4, 2013 (Sacerdote Great Names lecture; her first public appearance after leaving the State Department)
- President Tobin inaugurated there, April 30, 1994
- Men’s Basketball first NESCAC championship game held there, February 26, 2023 (Hamilton 71, Colby 59)
- Barack Obama spoke to approximately 5,200 people there, April 3, 2025 — largest single campus gathering in the corpus
- Site of car break-in wave investigated by Security Director Pat Ingalls (1995)