Hunt, Adelaide Durand.

[Photo Album Documenting a Women's College].

Chambersburg, Pennsylvania: 1910-1914. 7¼” x 12¼”. Cloth over flexible card. 44 pages with 145 photographs adhesive mounted + a few items laid in and the last 32 pages are blank. Most photos measure around 2½” x 4” and most (105) are captioned. Good: Front cover and first 8 leaves are detached; many photos lightly soiled.

This is a lovely scrapbook showing the women of Wilson College between 1910 and 1914, including one notable alumna, Dr. Emily Bacon, and providing great coverage of campus buildings and events.

Wilson College, modeled after Vassar, was founded in 1869 by two Presbyterian ministers and named for its first major donor, Sarah Wilson, who gave $30,000 toward the purchase of the land. Promotional materials from 1870 stated that Wilson was a place for women “to be leaders, not followers, in society.” Though some men briefly attended Wilson at the end of World War II due to lack of space at other schools, it didn't officially open to male students until 2013.

The album was compiled by one Adelaide Hunt of Scranton, Pennsylvania, who went on to lead her Wilson alumnae chapter and teach at the local high school. There are 145 photographs, most of which were captioned, mainly identifying students by first name or nickname, though several full names are listed as well. This is how we identified one photo which depicts pioneering pediatrician “Em Bacon,” Wilson class of 1912. Emily Partridge Bacon served as class president for three of her four years, then earned a degree in medicine from Johns Hopkins and became the first woman appointed to the senior staff at Drexel Hospital. She was the first physician in Philadelphia to devote her practice exclusively to pediatrics, created the first “well-baby clinic” in the city, as well as a counseling service for troubled children, and taught at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania for over 30 years.

The album contains great shots of the campus, identifying buildings and events like “Procession,” May Day festivities and the “Junior play.” One shot reveals “The Suffrage Party at Nov. election 1912” with a group of 11 women holding signs reading “Votes For Women,” “Give The Females A Chance” and “We're For Equality.” We see women in caps and gowns, bundled up for winter and in costume for the “Fairy Dance,” as well as enjoying their time both on and off campus: rowing, taking walks, posed in groups and laughing on a porch. Other shots identified an African American man in overalls as “William, of Window Washing Fame,” the “Scotland Orphan School Band” performing for the “May Queen” in 1913 and a group of women coyly posed, on the grass, behind a sign reading “Please Keep Off the Grass.”

A lovely tribute to a women's college, revealing an important alumna and the life of female students in the early 1910s. Good. Item #8373

Price: $850.00