This exhibit uses archival holdings in the Library’s Special Collections & Archives to explore some of Bowdoin’s earliest Asian students, Asian affinity groups, and the development of the Asian Studies program. Our goal is not to present a definitive history, but to introduce a more holistic history of Bowdoin College and bring to light the Asian students and alumni who are an integral, yet under-acknowledged presence at the College.
Early Asian Students: Anand Sidoba Hiwale, Class of 1909
Anand Sidoba Hiwale, Class of 1909
After graduating from Bowdoin in 1909, Hiwale returned to India as a missionary for the AMM. He wrote to his alma mater a year later, “I have chosen Satara district to begin my lifework and in a way it is a very hard and difficult field, but Bowdoin men like to tackle hard things.”
With his wife Taibai Patole, Hiwale ran the Sir Ratan Tata Institution for Destitute Children, an orphanage that housed approximately 200 children while a famine affected the region. In 1912, Bowdoin students in the Christian Association donated $200 (roughly $6,546 today) in support of his missionary work. Hiwale passed away from typhoid fever in 1922, and The Bowdoin Orient reported that the alum’s funeral “was crowded with not less than fifteen hundred people.”
[“How Much Is One Dollar Worth,” fundraiser brochure]
The Tracing the Roots of Asian Community at Bowdoin: An Ongoing Discourse exhibition was conceived by members of RepresentAsian: Bowdoin’s Asian Alumni Association, the first formal entity established to represent the generations of Asian graduates. The group’s principal mission to build the foundations for and diligently maintain the bridges that will give our community the ability to create and sustain meaningful relationships with each other. Benjamin Wu, Class of 2018/2020 and Andrew Park, Class of 2015 reached out and connected with Special Collections & Archives; Amy Cai, Class of 2025 researched and curated the exhibition during the final weeks of her senior year. The exhibit was on view on the first floor of the Hawthorne-Longfellow Library for Commencement and Reunion (May-June) 2025. Special Collections Education and Engagement Librarian, Marieke Van Der Steenhoven and director of Multicultural Alumni Engagement, Joycelyn Blizzard also supported this project and related Reunion events.