Please find enclosed an original print from November of 1968 for your consideration for inclusion in Hatchet memorabilia. I took the photo and it was published in one of the November 1968 editions of The Hatchet.

I was a staff photographer in 1968 and photography editor in 1969 and 1970. I was also a member of the production staff from 1968 to 1972.

The photograph is of a line of park police officers forming a “riot” line in Lafayette Park in response to a spontaneous demonstration against the election of Nixon as President.

It was the first actual political demonstration that involved any significant number of GW students and led to the famous (at least at the time) Maury Hall break-in and trials in late 1968 and 1969. A minor, but interesting fact, seen in the photograph is the equipment of the park police. The Washington Civil Disturbance Unit was just in its infancy and the police were equipped, as seen in the photo, with surplus army helmets and gas masks.

If you follow the photos in subsequent years (those published taken mostly by Marvin Ickow or myself) you can see the introduction of much more sophisticated helmets, gas masks, riot batons and shields.

The CDU later was on campus any number of times for the Kent State demonstrations, the national moratorium and other student “riots.” Many an apolitical student became quickly politicized by the ugly confrontations with the CDU.

If you find the Maury Hall trial photographs, which were published in The Hatchet, you will see future editor Greg Valliere, who is now a well-known CNN commentator, Peter Mickelbank, a Paris-based free-lance cartoonist, and several other Hatchet members.

-Henry Resnikoff
Essex, Connecticut

Recently you sent me a copy of The Hatchet in which appeared an article that seemed to state that Eileen Shanahan was the first female editor of The Hatchet in the 1940s. When I worked for The Hatchet in the 1930s, Eleanor (Heller) Haley was the editor and she was also the editor of The
Cherry Tree. I believe that she also had her problems with Dr. Lloyd Heck Marvin. I guess that he did not want females running his paper.

I did a gossip column which was read by students, many of whom offered items about themselves or others. I also wrote what you would call today “fluff” articles. And I recall being summoned to the office of Dean Doyle, who told me that I was writing in “the area of yellow journalism.” I recall Dr. Marvin saying “the ground under my two feet is worth 42 dollars. I am sure it is worth a lot more today.

-Fred C. Stevenson
Arlington, Va.