AbstractThe intensities of the Raman lines of anthracene in solution and in the pure crystal at room temperature have been measured using several excitation frequencies (ν0) in the pre‐resonance region. The data were used to derive molecular scattering elements αiiat each νofor a number ofagfundamentals. While the values of αxxand αyyare constant over the restricted range of excitation used, αzzshows an enhancement as νomoves towards resonance with the first absorption system (I). Overlap factors were determined from the fluorescence spectrum of anthracene in a biphenyl matrix, and these values were used to calculate the contribution αzz(I) due to scattering off the first excited electronic state. Working beyond the oriented‐gas assumption improved the fit between calculated and observed enhancement. There is a measurable background contribution to αzzdue to scattering off higher excited states and this has an opposite algebraic sign from αzz(I) for allagfundamentals except possibly for the