[Photo Album]: Wooster University 1910

Title: [Photo Album]: Wooster University 1910
Publication: Wooster, Ohio: 1907-1910

Description: Hardcover. Oblong quarto. Gray cloth over paper boards measuring 10" x 9" with "In those happy days of yore" and the image of a woman stamped on the front board. Contains 174 sepia-toned gelatin silver photographs affixed to stiff gray paper, the images measuring between 1.5" x 3" to 7" x 9.5" with some captions. A good only photo album with tears and loose pages with very good or better photographs with some tears.

A photo album kept by a woman who attended Wooster University in Wooster, Ohio from 1907 until she graduated in 1910. Many of the photos show women around campus posing for the camera and caught being silly in candids. There are dorm room photos with walls covered in pennants and girls huddled together in bed smiling. One photo shows a girl in a silly costume with devil horns and a pitch fork. They held numerous costume parties where they dressed as Native Americans, pilgrims, and a marching band. Featured throughout the album are numerous picnics and walks through the surrounding woods with oak leaves laid in. An early photo booth style strip of a young woman is featured as well. The woman who compiled the photos was clearly a student in the theater department. One group of photographs shows women who are part of an opera in 1908 dressed in kimonos with fans. A collection of 32 photographs, most 8" x 5.5", show three performances at the Phoenix Playhouse including "The Rivals," "Quality Street," and "Two Gentlemen of Verona." These photos show women acting in all the parts with elaborate scenery. Another section of 18 photos labeled "Senior Play June 1910" show the women outside dressed in medieval costumes possibly performing a King Arthur play. Two of the outdoor photos were combined to form a panoramic shot of the performance. Another panoramic photo shows the girls of the senior class in a row, dressed identically, holding each others' waists.

Wooster University was started in 1866 by Presbyterians and was founded with the theory that it would be open to anyone who qualified which included four women at its founding. The first Ph.D. at the school was awarded to a woman in 1882 and in the same decade the first black student attended. This album was compiled after several years of refurbishment and reconstruction around the campus after a fire in 1901 destroyed many of the original buildings.

An extensive album depicting a woman's education at a forward thinking university which stood by the belief that women and minorities deserved an equal chance to further their education.

Seller ID: 400397

Subject: Americana, Ephemera