Alma Mater

Mr. Adair directing the Glee Club

On the City's eastern border

Reared against the sky,

Proudly stands our Alma Mater,

As the years roll by.

Onward ever be our watch word,

Conquer and prevail;

Hail to thee, our Alma Mater,

History of the words and tune:

Written by two roommates around 1870, the Cornell Alma Mater is considered to be the most widely copied alma mater in existence. The original melody is taken from a typical song of the time, Annie Lisle, a melancholy ballad of a heroine with tuberculosis written by Boston musician H. S. Thompson in the late 1850s. Although Cornell is believed to be the first school to have used the melody for its alma mater, it has since been copied by high schools and universities around the world, including Indiana University, University of Missouri, University of Georgia, University of North Carolina, and even the American University in Beirut, many of which contain lyrics similar to the Cornell lyrics.

Cornell's lyricists were Wilmot M. Smith 1874 and Archibald C. Weeks 1872, who lived at 60 North Tioga Street in Ithaca while attending Cornell. Interested in creating a popular school song, the two quickly sketched out six verses by alternating each line between the two. The currently accepted lyrics differ slightly, likely the result of an arranger named Colin K. Urquhart who revised them for publication in the late 1800s.

One of the first to use the Cornell Alma Mater was Vanderbilt University.  In 1907, Robert F. Vaughn changed the lyrics of the Cornell Alma Mater which begins with "Far Above Cayuga's waters," a reference to Lake Cayuga near Ithaca, New York, to  "On the city's western border," and, of course, he changed the name of the school to Vandy.

In 1908, Helen Vickers wrote the lyrics for the University of Alabama's Alma Mater which is sung to the tune of Annie Lisle/Cornell Alma Mater/SHS Alma Mater--but the words are unique to UA.

Our Alma Mater uses the first two verses of the Vanderbilt song almost verbatim, with changes of "western" to "eastern," and "Vanderbilt" to "Sheffield High."