This is Gertrude Stone, class of 1902 at Boston University. Her shirt looks very similar to Martha Blodgett's, in that it ties behind her neck. How did they get such a pretty, even, picturesque bow when they had to tie it without being able to see it?

I love the look of self-assurance and confidence on her face. She probably went on to make a great teacher.

This is Grace Crane, Boston University class of 1902. Such a pretty, feminine shirtwaist she is wearing! It's very lacy. And she has curly hair! I'm sure she must have fought with it, to try and get it to lie smooth and straight. But you can see the curls near her forehead.

Boy, do I know what that's like. I used to try and straighten my hair in the 1970s, when straight hair was the rage. I don't fight it any more. And I have more of an appreciation for my curls now. I like them! And I like Grace's curls too. Curly power!

This is Laura Kenney, class of 1902 at Boston University. She has some very subtle eyeglasses; they gleam only faintly at her temples and the bridge of her nose. Otherwise they cannot be seen.

No so the buckle at her waist. It is ornately wrought and shaped like a heart. She also has a bracelet on her left arm, and a brooch at her through. She liked her jewelry! But she wanted to keep her glasses from being noticed.

I love her erect posture and the look of self-assurance and pride on her face. I think this woman must have done something great with her life.

This is S. L. M. Briggs, class of 1902 at Boston University. She looks so much like a friend of mine would have looked at that age ... it's eerie!

I love how classic and timeless this photo is. She looks like she could be in the class of 2002. Only the sepia tones of the photo hint at its actual age.

More from the Boston University collection of graduation portraits from 1902 ...  this is Martha Blodgett from Littleton NH. Again the table and book prop, like the previous photo. This one looks more staged than the previous one. I'm betting this was a prop, and not her own notebook. But I guess I'll never know for sure.

Her shirt is so intriguing. It looks like it ties behind her neck, and yet it's crisp and precise and perfectly even. Did she have someone helping her to dress? What skill! But then again, I think that too when I see a woman with a perfect French braid. I can't conceive of the nimbleness needed to do a tidy French braid by myself!

Continuing the Boston University theme ... this is Catharine McGinley, class of 1902. She was in the College of Liberal Arts. Such an intense look to her eyes! I wonder what papers she held in her hand. Were they a studio prop, or were they her own papers? What would she bring to have photographed with her, if they are hers? A thesis?

I love these photos. They are all so different, but all so elegant, and crisp and clear and beautifully photographed.

Continuing the Boston University treasure trove of fabulous graduation photos today. This is Margaret Kennedy, class of 1902. I keep meaning to look her up, to see if she is related to the famous political family in Massachusetts. I don't know enough about the family to know offhand. But wouldn't that be a treasure, if this was an aunt, sister or cousin to JFK! I know JFK was born in 1917, so she'd be older than he was ... does anyone know?

I know you probably can't see it in this tiny little scan, but the collar of her white shirt is so elegantly beaded. I wonder if it was done by hand.

I have very few items from coed colleges; since my great love is a women's college, I do feel an affinity to other women's colleges, and I can be persuaded to buy stuff from other women's colleges. But I came across this group of a dozen Boston University women from 1902 and just fell in love with all of them. They are so beautiful! And these photos were so well kept the past century, that they look as fresh as the day they were made. Everything is crisp and sharp and unscratched; it's just marvelous.

This is Helen Meserve, class of 1902 at Boston University. She was Phi Beta Kappa. I don't know if you can see it in these small photos allowed on Dada, but she has a pair of pince-nez glasses. She looks as studious as she evidently was! But oh so elegant. I wonder what happened to her. I hope she was able to live independently and support herself, perhaps as a teacher. She looks like she had such promise.

The last of four Wellesley photos, circa 1895. They were all purchased together and came from the same estate. In fact, they were all tied one to each other with ribbon, via small holes in the corners of the mounts, so that the four hung one beneath the other, perhaps as a wall hanging. I have since cut the ribbons and have them sleeved separately.

This is yet another group of women in dramatic clothing. This one is labelled "Bisbee, H. M. Freeport, Maine" on the back. Perhaps that is the name of the woman who had owned the photos originally? Because it's not like this photo was taken in Freeport Maine. This is definitely the hill outside College Hall, a popular site for photography. The photographer is G. Waldon Smith, so it's not like Bisbee is the photographer, either.

Wish I knew what the occasion was. There's a woman dressed in Statue of Libery clothes in the front row, and there are several other fantastic costumes or headdresses in the crowd. But the photo is taken from too far away to see a lot of detail.

This is the third of four photos I bought together. One was labelled "Wellesley 1895" but the others were not labelled. This is one of the unlabelled ones. It shows a group of women in dramatic clothing. I think it's different clothing than the photo I showed yesterday. If it's the same, then what is different is the hats. Lots of pointy mini-dunce caps in the crowd. What a windy day - the white banner is whipping in the wind, and there are a half dozen toppled chairs in the background.

This is on the hill in front of College Hall again. This was a favorite place to take group photos!

This is the second of four photos from Wellesley, circa 1895. It shows a group of women in graduation and street clothing by Lake Waban. Photographer is Partridge.

I wish I could see the colors in their dresses. It's so easy to assume everyone wore blacks and whites and grays in the 1890s because color photography hadn't been invented yet. But in reality, I'll bet those women lounging in the front row have colorful dresses.

I love the easy way in which they leaned on each other. Men and women from this time period touched each other with ease. It's a shame that we've lost that physical ease in the 21st century.

I bought a group of four photographs a while back. One was labelled "Wellesley 1895" and this is that photo. The four photos are the same size (about 8x10) and they have little holes in the top and bottom corners where they were tied together with pink ribbon. That created a wall hanging, perhaps, or a door hanging, one photo wide and four photos long.

This photo shows a group of women in dramatic clothing on the hill next to College Hall. It looks like Greek-style dress - empire waist, soft draping, and a ribbon hair dressing that is very flattering. Sure wish I knew the name of the production they performed. They all look so ethereal.

A friend sent me this link today. What an exciting find!

The Observer, Sat, 03 Feb 2007 4:10 PM PST
Girls' schools reveal secret trove of historic papers
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2005538,00.html
Thousands of old photographs, exam papers, magazines and books
unearthed from the cellars of some of the country's leading girls'
schools have revealed a remarkable picture of school life in Victorian
and Edwardian Britain.

Just in case that link doesn't stay live, here's the text of the article:

Historic papers reveal life of Edwardian schoolgirls

Forgotten archives show how young women were groomed in grammar and housewifery

Anushka Asthana, education correspondent
Sunday February 4, 2007
The Observer

Thousands of old photographs, exam papers, magazines and books unearthed from the cellars of some of the country's leading girls' schools have revealed a remarkable picture of school life in Victorian and Edwardian Britain.

File after file emerged after school heads were encouraged by the Girls' Schools Association to scour their buildings for historic documents. Among them were stories of girls taught to be dutiful housewives who could wash shirt cuffs properly and control household dust, and children as young as 11 sitting down to tough examinations in which they were expected to be able to draw maps of the physical geography of Australia and tackle questions of grammar such as identifying predicates in passages of writing.

The documents, which will be a goldmine for historians, also held accounts of university life from as early as 1883, when young women would fit tennis and tea parties around eight hours of study each day.

The initiative has only just been launched, but already thousands of photographs have been discovered, including sepia-tinted images of girls in long skirts and boaters with hockey sticks, sitting attentively and upright in assembly and attending lessons ranging from science and botany to how best to iron.

Independent schools such as the Cheltenham Ladies' College, Manchester High School for Girls, North London Collegiate, Wycombe Abbey and Queenswood are among those spearheading the project. The reams of information provide an amazing insight into the changing professions, values and family set-up for women over the decades.

'This is a huge historical resource that is untapped,' said Christine Joy, the archivist at Manchester High. 'We have a resource of national importance.'

In 1915, the 11-year-olds facing a geography exam were asked to make a sketch map showing the position of the Dardanelles and the adjoining seas and countries and to describe a journey from Moscow to Vladivostok, noting the chief products of each region.

Among the piles of papers were descriptions of political debates about the rights of women, similar to those happening today, according to Joy. There were school records for some of the leaders of the Suffragette movement and magazines filled with advice for women on how to break into law, medicine and academia.

For the less academic, there were also housewifery and secretarial courses. A 1910 syllabus on housewifery lists how women must learn to test the freshness of eggs, remove stains such as ink, coffee and tar and arrange a home laundry.

In a time when fees ranged from £3 to £5 a term, one module was entitled 'The housewife, her ideals, responsibilities and duties'. Girls were then taught how to dispose of kitchen refuse, spring-clean and manage servants.

There were records from universities as well. In 1883 a woman wrote a description of her life at Girton College, Cambridge, where she said it was not 'all work and no play'. After eight hours of study there was 'an ample margin for tennis, walks and other amusements, and also for social intercourse - tea parties being the favourite form of this latter'. At 10.30pm, she added, 'by common consent of the students, disturbing noises, such as piano playing, cease'.

The information is being seized on by historians. John Black, an academic at Bristol Business School, is using the papers to track when women began working in different professions.

'This can open the doors to wider knowledge than we had before,' said Black, who felt that the records would break down stereotypes that suggested middle-class women stayed at home in the early 20th century. 'Lots of women were focusing on "we have rights, too, we can have a career and be just as good as men".'

The information spans from the late 19th century up to the present. It shows how women moved from entering the 'caring' professions, such as teaching and social work, to becoming doctors and lawyers and in time successful businesswomen. There are also accounts of early successes, including one woman who was at school in the Thirties and went on to have four children and become a QC.

At the Cheltenham Ladies' College, principal Vicky Tuck said it was crucial schools kept hold of original objects and pictures. 'We make sure we are always putting new stuff in, because nowadays everything is stored in the computer,' Tuck said. 'When someone comes to write the history of the early 21st century, I wonder what will be there.'

Testing times: Some examination questions set for 11-year-olds in 1915

Give as nearly as possible the position of Alsace-Lorraine, Liege, the Marne, the Carpathians, Antwerp.

Name the chief seaports on the east coast of Great Britain. Give the chief exports and imports of any three of them.

Name the English sovereigns with their dates between 1689 and the present day.

Write a life of either Florence Nightingale or of Lord Roberts.

This is a Wellesley Tree Day scene; the shovel has an "81" on the handle, an "86 A. S." on the blade, and what looks like an "88" on the handle near her hand. Photo by Partridge (Boston and Vicinity). The shovel is used every year for Tree Day, and is still in use. The Wellesley archivist told me on 8/1/00 that they have the identical photo in their collection; it wasn't dated, but it was owned by Ione Morrison 1906.

This photo is one of three that I bought at the same time from the same dealer. I'll show the other two in other posts.

I did see the shovel when I visited the Wellesley Archives a few years ago. It was wonderful to see this beloved tool that connects the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. (Because, as you may have guessed, those "86" and "81" and "88" references on the shovel in the photo refer to 1886, 1881, and 1888!)

I had these two photos, both of students forming the numerals "1909" on the hill next to College Hall ... but one is sophomores and one is seniors! I had thought it was just a senior tradition until I found this first postcard. It's a real photo postcard:

This postcard was postmarked Jun 9, 1909 in Wellesley. The inscription by the sender on the back reads:  "These are the Sophomores making the numerals on May-day. Next year we'll be doing that. Aff. Sister."






This is a photo, not a postcard. On the back there is a label: "1909 - Forming Senior Numerals May Day"

So, there ya go ... it's not just a senior tradition!

Wow, what a treat ... I checked my email tonight and I had fan mail from a reader of this blog!

Dear Donna,

You don't know me, but, for many reasons, I feel like I have gotten to
know you.  My name is Arlene [...] and I am a 1994 Wellesley alum.  I have
been wanting for so long to sit down and write you, and now that I finally
am, I hardly know where to begin!

I found you in the internet world a couple of months ago, both your Mount
Holyoke website and your collegememories blog.  I went back and read all
your previous posts (and wondered about the numerous weeks when there was
nothing - hoped you would come back, and you did), and questioned myself
why I hadn't thought to google you before then.  You see, this past June,
my Arcadia book on Wellesley College was published - and, in an important
way, your Mount Holyoke postcard book was my inspiration.

In the summer of 2003, I attended a two-week math teacher workshop at
Mount Holyoke (I am a middle school math teacher in New Jersey).  In the
first couple of days, I wandered up to the bookstore in town, and saw a
display of your book.  I stopped and stared, trying to process what it
was.  It LOOKED sort of like the town histories that I had seen and heard
of (my parents had at that point recently purchased the one of my hometown
in CT and I had just seen it), but it was postcards and it was of a
college.  I can remember going back to the dorm where we were staying and
getting on the internet and looking up Arcadia Publishing.  Yes, it was
the same company that I was thinking about.  But, boy, did they have more
series than just the town history!  I had two thoughts - too bad I didn't
have a Wellesley postcard collection.  And, I wondered, could I possibly
do a book through their college history series?

I had always loved Wellesley's history - I even did a research paper on
Wellesley's traditions my senior year, course credit for the 90 page paper
I produced.  The whole book idea was planted in my mind, although I didn't
begin acting on it for well over a year.  Did some preliminary research,
explored the idea with both Wellesley and Arcadia, and then spent a good
part of the summer of 2005 living up there and spending all day every day
in the Archives, looking for 200 or so pictures that would help tell the
story of Wellesley.  The rest of the summer and my weekends in fall and
winter were spent writing captions, organizing pictures, fully engaged in
that labor of love.  Shocking to me, the book was published in June, much
earlier than I had originally expected, in time for Wellesley Alumnae
Reunion.

I have wanted for a long time to make contact with you and share this
story.  In the day to day world of just plain living, we never know how
what we do affects others, strangers out there.  Well, here is how you
affected my life.  My Wellesley love continues, and I have amassed a
collection of Wellesley books and brochures and such in these last few
years.  I'm not sure how my collection matches up to Jen [...] - my
classmate and the one whose website you recently posted.  I haven't been
in touch with her in a long time, although I knew she also had a great
devotion to Wellesley's history and have enjoyed going through her
website.  (Is she a reader of your blog and made contact with you?  How
did you come to find her website?)

Truthfully, it was your recently blog posts of Wellesley that made me look
up your email address from your Mount Holyoke website and sit down and
write tonight.  Because, in my Arcadia book is a picture from May Day in
1914 with the students forming the numerals on the hill.  This was just
about 6 weeks after the fire, and the charred remains of College Hall make
it a haunting scene.  I've attached the picture.  The dorm complex that
was built on that hill (a total of three dorms eventually) do not exactly
follow the footprint of College Hall.  I believe the thinking at the time
was that there was no way to replace College Hall and so an effort was
made to not duplicate it.  My book is arranged thematically, rather than
as a straight chronology, although the first chapter is about College Hall
and the first forty years of Wellesley's history (there are also pictures
of this time period in other chapters - academic life, student life,
etc.).  That first chapter ends with the fire and with how College Hall is
remembered on campus to this day:  a sundial in a courtyard that is
supposedly located where the College Hall Center once was; and a beautiful
tribute to the building by the resurrection of five of the pillars that
were once near the entrances.  You can see some of these pillars right
above the 9 in the picture - they were also at the north and south
entrances.  They laid on college property for decades, with other
discarded items, until they were found and put up by the Class of 1917 in
1972.  Nearly 60 years after the fire.  Symbolic because the class of 1917
were freshmen at the time of the fire and, as the plaque nearby says, the
last class to know College Hall.

So, your Mount Holyoke postcard book is on my bookshelf with the other
Arcadia books I used as references during my book work (including the
Vassar one in the college history series).  And, yes, I began a Wellesley
postcard collection.  About 130 right now.  I hope to learn more about the
postcard and paper collecting world and be able to grow my collection.  I
am jealous for the Wellesley pictures on your website and want to learn
about the patience it must take in looking through boxes at flea markets
and paper shows to find the treasures you do.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this email.  And, I hope to hear back from
you.

arlene :-)

Wow, what a treasure this email is! I'm so excited that Arlene wrote an Arcadia book on the basis of my book. I've heard from several other people doing the same thing, and it thrills me to get letters like that. The other person I heard from most recently was a woman who will be doing a postcard book about Spelman College. I'm going to have to get copies of all these books!

But Wellesley is a particular fondness, because I have been a collector of Wellesley College postcards myself. In the early days of eBay (around 1998), I put a few Wellesley postcards up for sale, and had several bidders paying outrageous prices for them. So, since they made postcard collecting more affordable for me, I started buying Wellesley cards more frequently, and selling them on eBay. I don't feel great attachment to photos of buildings. But if the postcards had students in them, and if they were real photos, I was more tempted to keep them myself.

I ended up chatting with a lot of the Wellesley buyers about the cards they bought, and the cards they wanted to buy, and what Wellesley means to them, and so forth. One of those was Jen. I even met up with her one sunny Saturday at Wellesley and she gave me a tour of the campus. I remember her showing me the class of 1917 pillars, and being thrilled to see them. And I remember being most enchanted by Billings Hall, which has some absolutely gorgeous architecture.

And I kept an eye out for Wellesley items for her. I found a little pin of the college seal that had a 1913 alum's name engraved in the back, and was pleased to pass that along to Jen. I've had some financial challenges this past year, and sold two scrapbooks and a photo album to other collectors, but I still have a lot of individual photos of Wellesley, and a diary, in my collection.

I haven't heard from Jen in a long time. I don't know if she's still collecting. I hope she is. There's a new bidder vacuuming up Wellesley items on eBay nowadays ... his daughter goes to Wellesley and he is the Wellesley collector. Go figure. He's bidding on a gorgeous photo album right now.

I had an 1880s album in my collection, but the photos were not identified. I went to Wellesley's archives a few times and sat with their old albums and was able to identify some of the photos in my album, plus some of the photos in Jen's 1880s album. It tickled me pink to see her credit me on her website for that. I enjoyed meeting the archivists at Wellesley. They were so helpful and so nice to me, even though I have no Wellesley connection myself.

It's odd, how some colleges show up more often than others at flea markets and on eBay. It's not so hard to find Smith, Vassar, or Wellesley items for sale. But Bryn Mawr, Radcliffe, and Barnard are impossible to find! I have no idea why that is. I have one photo album of Radcliffe. A friend of mine has one photo album of Bryn Mawr. And I've never found any photos of Barnard!

Over the years, I've figured out which shows and venues are most likely to yield interesting stuff for my collection. A decade ago, I used to go to a lot more shows than I do now. But then again, there was a lot more stuff that was new to me, so it was rewarding. Nowadays, I can walk for 8 hours in a concrete building and leave with just one postcard (or nothing at all). My collecting interests are too narrow, the dealers tell me. Start a new collection, and the shows will be fun again!

Nowadays, I spend most of my budget on eBay. I get great stuff and I don't have to leave home. It can be a great resource for anyone who is a collector. Arlene, I hope you'll explore eBay too.

And just because every post has to have pictures, here's Wellesley's Tree Day 1907. One hundred years old this year!

Another thing students did besides rolling hoops on May Day at Wellesley College, was form the numerals of their class on the hill next to College Hall. I liked this postcard, because it showed scaffolding on the building behind the hill. In 1914, College Hall was destroyed by fire. (I haven't found a 1914 numbers-on-the-hill photo yet, but I have several from before 1914 that show College Hall.) I don't know enough about Wellesley College to know what building was erected in College Hall's footprint, but in this photo we can see it being built! So cool.

The student that sent this card to her parents had this to say on the reverse:

Can your recognize your only daugher? I am in the tail (front) of the nine. Tell Hallie She'd find a friend of hers hear! [sic] This was on May Day morning, after Chapel. Love, Olive

So go ahead ... look for Olive!

This picture cracked me up - check out the paper collar on her! (Or fabric ... I don't know what it is, but it's way over the top!) Here's the inscription on the back of the photo.

The Winner of the May Day Hoop Rolling Race Wellesley, Mass......Above is pictured Miss Louise Owen of Detroit, Mich., with her bridal bouquet, presented to her after she had won the annual May Day hoop rolling cintest [sic] at Wellesley College. It is tradition at Wellesley that the senior winning the race will be the first of the class to be married. 5-4-25

Here's a photo in my collection showing Wellesley students rolling their hoops. The first one to the finish line was supposed to be the first student who would be married. Now, I think it's something like the first student to the finish line gets tossed in the lake. Hopefully some Wellesley student will give me the correct information!

This photo is circa 1900.

I introduced you to a website devoted to Amherst College memorabilia yesterday; today, it is Wellesley College. This woman has done a wonderful job in showing off her Wellesley collection.

http://www.wellesleyhistory.com/

I think my favorite part of the website was the page on traditions. I like the hoop rolling photo she has displayed on that page. I also have a few hoop photos in my own collection that I can show you another day. I liked this description of another tradition:

One of the College's early traditions -- one that sadly ended when College Hall burned to the ground in 1914 -- was "passing through Harriet." Florence Converse 1893 explains that the statue of Harriet Martineau in College Hall Centre was "Of heroic size, a noble representation of womanly force and tranquility. ... No freshman was considered fully matriculated until she had been dragged through the rungs of Miss Martineau's great marble chair."

Mount Holyoke had a similar tradition. There was a huge fossil of a turtle in the old science building, and it became a freshman challenge to crawl through the body and come out the mouth. I'll have to write up that one for y'all sometime too. It's a good story.

I met the man who keeps the Amherstiana website a while back. He is as passionate about Amherst memorabilia as I am about Mount Holyoke.

http://www.amherstiana.org/

I really liked his collection of sports medals and pins, probably because I don't have any from Mount Holyoke. Oh, I have a few pins from reunion, but this one from Amherst's class of 1880 is much fancier than anything I have. He's done a nice job in cataloging his collection on the web. Hope you enjoy looking around at his stuff!

I have an autograph album kept by a Mount Holyoke student who was in the class of 1856. Two of the entries were from students who were going abroad to be missionaries, and part of the inscription was in foreign text. If anyone can translate the text, I'd love to hear from you.

The rest of the inscription says:

Christ will show you the way.
Mary Ballantine
Ahmednuggur,
India. "Holyoke Home". July. 31. /54.

So I wonder, does the one line mean "Christ will show you the way"? And what language is that?

The rest of the inscription says:

Dear Rosa,
 Let us not
tire ourselves to gather honey
from dying flowers, while there
are streams of sweetness to be
found in our Savior.
Aff'ly.
Sarah O. Youngblood.
Karangan.
Borneo. Holyoke Sem. July. 20th /54.

Same questions here ... what language is this, and does it say the same thing as the English next to it?

Many thanks!

One last item ... a voting ballot!

Voting ballot, November 8, 1904

Voting for women was still a dream, so I would guess that this ballot was not valid in the election, but something that students prepared to show interest in their government. Shows candidates for president and vice-president.

I read a fictionalized account of a mock election held at Mount Holyoke around this time period ("That Freshman" by Christina Catrevas, Mount Holyoke alumna from the class of 1903, writing a novel for young women in 1910). Even though it was a work of fiction, I think the mock election was based on an actual campus event. The students couldn't vote, but they were intensely interested in the political process, and held debates and speeches and rallys on campus.

This recipe was in Carrie's scrapbook too. Opera cream ... I have never heard of it. Is it kind of like fudge? Anyone want to try to make it and tell me what it's like? (I'm no cook ... if you leave it to me, we'll never know what it was supposed to be like!)

"Opera Cream. 2 cups gran. sugar 3/4 cup milk (condensed if desired) 1/4 cake chocolate. vanilla & nuts if desired. Boil the sugar, milk and chocolate until it gets the least bit sticky when you put it in water. Then put it aside to cool. When it is fairly cool, put in vanilla & nuts & beat it until your arms break off. Then pour it into a pan or drop it on buttered pan or paper If you don't succeed at first, try, try again."

I like the part where you beat it until your arms break off. If any of you try this recipe, do me a favor and stop before that point, okay?

I loved this little item. It's a menu from some kind of campus event, but it's so unusual ... it's made from a maple leaf! (and some paper.)

Front of the menu.

"Miss Newell. October 8, 1904 Miss Allen" There were several women on campus with these last names at this time, so I wasn't able to identify them.








Back of the menu.

A very fragile maple leaf, with its own stem stitching the menu to it!









Inside is the menu itself.

"Menu. Roast Beef. Sweet Potatoes. Irish Potatoes - Rice Pudding - Nabisco Waifers [sic] Chocolate Nut Ice Cream."

Not sure I'd consider that a tasty meal, but that's what students ate 100 years ago!

This week I featured several Simmons College scrapbooks documented online ... but I can never get too far away from Mount Holyoke, my first love. This scrapbook was the first Mount Holyoke scrapbook I ever bought. I found it on eBay in 1998, and it was one of my first purchases there.

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~dalbino/scrapbooks/carrie/index.html

I scanned it item by item, rather than page by page. It was not very smart, because the original order is not apparent when you look it over. This is the only scrapbook I ended up documenting this way.

But oh, look at a few of the items I loved in this scrapbook!

I just love Victorian "scrap." These were just two little notes people have left for the student who kept the scrapbook, so she saved them. Such sweet art! The first one gives me hope that there will be a Mount Holyoke postcard some day with that artwork on it. Vassar and Wellesley both have college girl pennant postcards but I have not found one yet for Mount Holyoke. I think that student must have been copying one in order to make this little bit of  "scrap" for Carrie.

I put a mystery photo on my website each week, and wait to see if anyone can figure out what it is. This is the one I posted last week.

I asked if anyone recognized the background. A member of the class of 2005 correctly identified this as the view from the summit of Mt Holyoke (the mountain). The oxbow of the Connecticut River is visible to the left. 

The women in the photo are Anna H. Farrar x1890, Grace Farrar x1890, Mary Warren, and Anna P. Sherman 1897. Just in case you were wondering. :)

After I posted yesterday's entry, I heard from a student at Simmons who pointed me to another scrapbook that was digitized in another section of the same class:

http://sorjuana.simmons.edu/ayer/index.html

The scrapbook that forms the basis of this digital library was assembled by Marion Pearl Ayer to commemorate her four years (1913-1917) at Simmons as a student of the School of Secretarial Studies. The website mentions that this is the third one done for the class, but I haven't found the other two yet.

I hope you'll check out the link and look around; it's a lovely scrapbook. I especially loved the place cards. They are all hand drawn and assembled and are so very sweet.

I received this link in the mail this week. It's gorgeous!



The Ruth Mitchell Wunderly Scrapbook 1915-1918 was put online by graduate students in the library and information science program at Simmons College in Boston. They did it as a class project for the Digital Libraries course (LIS 462) and prepared it for the Simmons College Library & Archives. This digital library contains photographs, correspondence, news articles, and other memorabilia from Ruth's time at Simmons, and will give you a glimpse into the life of a Simmons College student over 90 years ago!  Visit the scrapbook at http://gslis.simmons.edu/wunderly

So much more professional than the scrapbooks I've put online. It gives me ideas of how I might improve my own website.

Photographs of Lucy Stone are hard to find. (She's a women's rights activist from the mid-1800s. Her biggest claim to fame was keeping her name after she got married. She was also a member of the class of 1839 at Mount Holyoke.)


I was pleased to find this second one recently, which appears to have been taken the same day as an earlier photo in my collection. Both were photographed by Warren's of Boston, and she is wearing the same outfit in both photos. I felt like Cinderella producing the second slipper, bringing them back together again!

I've been inactive for a bit, but plan to pick up my journal again. Here's one last song book to continue the theme I had going before I took my blog break.

This is a little paperback published by the class of 1923. There are some great little songs in here, songs that I didn't see in the hardback volumes I wrote about earlier. It makes me wonder how many other little paperback volumes there are out there. They probably all had small print runs and will be tough to find. I've only seen two of these over the years.

The 1913 edition of the song book. From the preface: "It has been our earnest desire to incorporate in this book the best of the Mount Holyoke songs which have become dear to the girls with every year and also many new and original songs composed by girls in college. Every class has been represented from the musical comedies of 1909, 1910, 1911, and 1913. The class song of 1869 ... and also the class song from 1900-1913 inclusive have a place here." 144 pages; includes the sheet music as well as the lyrics of each song. A few we alumnae will recognize, and many we won't! A great resource.




The 1908 and 1913 versions were much more comprehensive than this 1918 version. Perhaps the war cut down on the amount of resources the College could put into a publication? Nearly 60 songs, dating back to 1909, with words and music. 96 pages of college songs, senior show songs, serenades, interclass songs, class songs, and more.








This is the 1923 version of the song book. 102 pages of songs, mostly from the 1920s but some older ones as well. Signed on the first page by the woman in the class of 1921 that had owned this book at one time. Some titles that caught my eye are: "Holyoke's Raising College Bread," "Oh College is a Model Place," and the Junior and Senior Step Songs.








This is the 1928 version of the song book. 71 pages of songs, mostly the late 1920s. I wish I could read music; I'd love to know how some of these songs sound! But the music is in there, so you can be singing "Holyoke Silver Bay Song," "Have You Never Heard of Holyoke?" or "Intellectuality" as soon as you get the book. Even just reading the lyrics is a lot of fun!

Then there was a long gap without song books, or perhaps there were song books and I haven't been fortunate enough to find any from this time period. The last song book I have been able to find is from 1959.




This 1959 version is the first one I've seen to reference the drinking song. I haven't seen a fractured version of the alma mater in any of the song books.

I do have quite a few Mount Holyoke song books; I think I'll split them up over several days so that you can see some of the ones I have. I also have lots of sheet music and handouts of songs with just the words on it, but at least for now, what I'll post are books.

This is a songbook from 1899. Oh, it's not in great shape, that's for sure. I bought it on eBay and the seller told me it was "complete." When I got it I discovered it had no back cover! Hardly my idea of a "complete" book. It was the first negative feedback I ever left for a seller.

On the other hand, I can't complain too much. It's the only copy I've ever seen of this book, and I'm happy to have it. Don't you just love the font on the cover?





This soft-covered book came out around 1905. (It's signed on the cover by someone who was in the class of 1908, but she didn't attend past the first two years, so it's somewhere in the 1904-1906 age range.) This is just words, and no sheet music. Again, the only time I've ever seen this book for sale was when I found this on eBay in 1998, so I'm happy to have it.








Now this is a nice book to own. I've seen this for sale a few times, and I've sold duplicate copies a few times, so a lot of these were made. It was published in 1908 and has a lot of very old songs in it. It is 140 pages long and was a very comprehensive book. It was also the beginning of publishing a songbook every five years.

Singing was always a big thing at Mount Holyoke, at least from what I can tell from the ephemera left behind. Here are two of the earliest bits of song-related ephemera that I have ... the words to the class songs for 1861 and 1862.

The title seems to be "The Smile of God is Victory." The words:

A mystic stream cuts the path of life,
Spanned by a rainbow bright,
Woven of tears for the vanished past,
And beams of future light;
Haunted ever by the voices,
From a shadowy shore,
Echoing back the happy days,
That come, ah - nevermore!
Out on the banks of this mystic stream,
Spanned by a rainbow bright,
Where meet the future and the past,
Together we stand to-night;
For our three years' dream is ended,
Years free from care and strife,
And before us lies the future,
The great unknown of life.

(Students of today might puzzle about the "three years" line. But Mount Holyoke's program was only three years long back then, not four like it is today. And they also would be amused by the "years free from care and strife," since it seems to be that all students are anxious and stressed about homework and assignments!)

This song from the class of 1862 was called "Animo et Fide" ... what is that in Latin, "Life and Faith"? The scan isn't clear enough for me to decipher the words, and I'm not near the original now to look it up. But I can see some of them:

Light that shone about our pathway
Til we reached this hill-top bright -
Light of Courage, light of Faith,
Shining golden in our path.




Unlike the 1861 song, this one goes on for two pages. The "Light of Courage, light of Faith" line appears to be a repeated theme, perhaps a chorus, though the line following it changes after each verse. After the second verse, it is "Shining brightly in our path" and after the third verse it is "Shineth through the vale of Death." So I gather the song takes us through college, life, and right up to the end!

In previous posts, I showed a few photographs I've made into postcards. Sometimes I've reproduced photographs just to be photographs. Here are two of them.

This is a contemporary copy of a genuinely old photo in my collection. It's in much better condition than my original, which is curled and fragile. This is a cast photo from "Tale of the Griffin: A Comic Opera" performed by the class of 1909 in October of 1908. I love all the costumes, which look like they are traveling clothes. I don't know the building in the background; perhaps it is WIlliston Hall. It burned down in 1917, so maybe that's why I don't recognize it.

Another photo from the same play. Courting couples ... but if you look closely you will see the "men" are actually women! It would be many years before Mount Holyoke started importing men from nearby colleges to play the male parts in their dramas. I love this photo!

I've made a lot of postcards over the years! Here are a few more that I've made.

This first one was to promote my website. The website design has changed somewhat since this snapshot of the index page was made, but it's still recognizable. I had 500 of these made, and I think they are almost all gone.










I had fun creating the main illustration for this card. The bottom image is a real photo postcard of Skinner green looking toward Brigham, Safford and Porter. The whitish horizontal space is part of the postcard; it's the sky.

The ladies across the middle was a blend of two postcard images of students milling around on campus. The top right corner is a photo from the 1920s. And the top left corner is a photo of the Seminary building, which burned down in 1896.

I just put all the images in Photoshop and then started cutting, pasting, blending, blurring, and playing. It's not the best Photoshop I've ever done, but I had a good time putting it together.

The card is a promotion card for my selling website. I had 500 of them made, but I don't think I've distributed even half of them.

This is a limited edition of 10 cards, created from a photo of the Llamarada board from 1902. The woman in the center in the bottom row was the editor of the yearbook. It was her grand-niece that lent me the photo so that I could make this postcard. It sold out!

This was my first attempt to self-publish some postcards! I sent copies of the original snapshots to a fella who printed them on postcard stock. They were not the most detailed postcards ever, but I liked them because they were my first.

These photographs all came from one photo album, kept by a student in the class of 1917.

Captain of the 1919 Basketball Team












Member of the 1917 Hockey Team












On the porch of Bridgman Hall (now known as the Frances Perkins house)










Laurel Chain Procession, 1917











Wilder Hall Bunch, 1914

I only made 10 of each card, to keep them as collector's items. I think I still have a few left.

I just realized I didn't finish posting photos from the trip to visit the Mary Lyon house in Buckland. These are photos of the interior. The current owner has tried to use contemporary (1820s-1850s) and local furniture wherever possible. These first photos are from the guest bedrooms, and she got the beds from an old inn in Orange.


This is one of the two guest bedrooms we got to tour. The wallpaper design was copied from a sample of the old wallpaper so that the wall decoration would be authenticly reproduced.









This is the second guest bedroom. The wallpaper design in this room was also reproduced from the original in the house.










The fireplace in the second guest bedroom, and a closer look at the wallpaper. It was much more vivid than the wallpaper in the first bedroom - very bright yellow and black. I wouldn't want to live with it, but I could appreciate it in this room.








The formal living room. The fireplace mantel was also meticulously restored from the original design.











I just had to take a closer look at that fireplace screen! It was fabulous.











The fireplace in the dining room was much less ornate.











Standing in front of the dining room fireplace, and looking out into the dining room. Many of those white doors are china cabinets; the exception is the one that is open. It is the door that leads to the foyer at the front entrance.








The kitchen has had some modernization, but there is still some old charm to it.











The owner is quite a collector; various cabinets throughout the house hold some of her collectibles. I liked this display of flatirons in the kitchen.

We didn't get to tour the entire house; we didn't see anything in the long addition near the back entrance, and we didn't see the rooms where the owners had studies or slept. But I know I was only expecting to get to see the ballroom where Mary Lyon taught, so getting to see any of the other rooms was a bonus for me! Hope you enjoyed the tour.

Just doing some comparisons between postcard views of the exterior of the Mary Lyon house about 50-100 years ago, and photographs taken in October.


This one was postally used in 1950.

































Undated, but approximately 1924-1949.















Undated, but the publisher on the back indicates 1910s.






















Undated, but approximately 1924-1949.












I'm pleased to see how well the house is maintained, and how little has changed over the years.

I've been collecting postcards of the Mary Lyon house for years. This one is about 60 years old. You might think it should be known as the Major Joseph Griswold house, since he was the one who owned it. But it was Mary Lyon that made the house famous.

When Mary Lyon was about 25 years old, in 1822, she attended Byfield Academy, where she met Rev. Joseph Emerson, an advocate for the establishment of permanent educational institutions for women. After completing her education, Lyon began teaching young women in their homes while looking for a classroom space for all of her students. Major Joseph Griswold, a prominent Buckland citizen whose large home often served as a community assembly hall, offered Lyon the use of his home’s third floor ballroom in which classes could be conducted. Accepting the offer, Lyon taught Latin, science, and history to her female students. This was a unique curriculum because most young women at that time were usually limited to studying subjects such as painting, needlework and music. Lyon held school at his home until 1829, when a larger hall was built to accommodate her increased enrollment.

I was really curious to see the ballroom where Mary Lyon taught.

It certainly seems to have good dimensions for a school room. It's a long rectangle, not a square room like I would have imagined a ballroom to be. There is a bench on each side of the long walls. Shorter benches in the center of the room can be moved out of the room if there is to be dancing.

The people in the room are the Houston folks on the tour that I joined. They were docents (lecturers or tour guides in museums), all women. (At least one of them was a Mount Holyoke alum.) The man is their tour guide. He knew the details of the house's history quite well.

There are four little fireplaces in the corners of the room. I imagine it was the only heat in the ballroom at the time.










The wallpaper is a reproduction of the original wallpaper. The current owner of the house brought a sample of the original paper to a manufacturer who copied it.










The section of floor under the glass is the original paint job on the floor. The rest of the floor has been repainted in those colors to look like it did originally. The books on the bench are some of the original textbooks used by Mary Lyon when she taught.

More pictures of the inside of the house in the next post.