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1908 Cushing Academy
Ashburnham, Massachusetts
Penguin Football Team
5.5” x 3.5” Postcard
RPPC Real Photo Post Card
Postmarked 1908
PINK WATERMARK WILL NOT APPEAR ON YOUR POSTCARD
Mention of Exeter Academy Football on Postcard
Cushing Academy is a private, coeducational college-preparatory school for boarding and day students in Ashburnham, Massachusetts, United States. It serves approximately 400 students in grades 9–12 and a postgraduate year.
Cushing Academy
Ashburnham, Massachusetts
Private, college-prep, day and boarding
Motto
Virtute et Parkman Cushing
Head of School
Randy R. class size
12
Student to teacher ratio
8:1
Campus
162 acres (0.66 km2)
Colors
Purple and white
Song
The Dear Old Cushing Days
Athletics (boarding); $43,400 (day)
Cushing Academy was founded in 1865 by Thomas Parkman Cushing, a Boston merchant. Upon his death, Thomas Parkman Cushing bequeathed money to establish Cushing Academy. Following a provision from his will, the money accumulated for ten years before a board of trustees applied for an act of incorporation. On May 15, 1865, the Great and General Court of Massachusetts granted a charter, and the Academy opened in 1875 on land formerly known as Bancroft Farm. Cushing opened in September 1875 with a coeducational student body: 66 boys and 56 girls. The first principal was Edwin Pierce. It was among the first coeducational boarding schools on the east coast.
The alma mater, The Dear Old Cushing Days, was written by alumna Cora Coolidge, a distant relative of Calvin Coolidge.
Cushing is located on a 162-acre campus that overlooks the town center of Ashburnham, which is about 62 miles from Boston. The campus occupies hills with a view of Mount Wachusett to the south and Mount Monadnock to the north.
Though Cushing has never been affiliated with a religious denomination, early generations of students were required to submit reports of the services they attended once a week and attend services daily. The church attendance requirement was dropped entirely in 1970 at the appeal of the student body.
A statue, the Schoolboy of 1850, honors both students and, more specifically, boys who fought in the Civil War. It was designed by Bela Pratt and was donated to Ashburnham by local businessman Ivers Whitney Adams in 1913. The statue is now located near the entrance to Cushing. In 2005, female students designed and created a schoolgirl statue.
Print of Ashburnham from 1886 by L.R. Burleigh with list of landmarks depicted including Cushing Academy
In 2009, Cushing made headlines for its plans to spend $500,000 transforming the Fisher-Watkins Library into a learning center with e-readers, database subscriptions, flat-screen televisions, laptop-friendly study carrels, and a coffee shop. Several months later, the headmaster stated that most of the library's printed books would be replaced over a two-year period with e-books, but reassured that "books, in all formats, will continue to abound at Cushing." As of 2018, the library has thousands of print books as well as online databases with access to e-books, journals, and more.
In 2015, Cushing Academy celebrated its sesquicentennial with several events and the publication of a commemorative magazine.
In October 2017, the board of trustees announced that Randy R. Bertin, Ed.D., of Besant Hill School in Ojai, California, was unanimously appointed the 13th Head of Cushing Academy, effective July 1, 2018.
