Search

The Jean E. James Vassar College photograph album contains cyanotype photographic prints of college buildings, student rooms, natural scenery, and Vassar students in the late 1890s.

The Jean E. James Vassar College photograph album (20cm x 13cm), assembled by Vassar student Jean E. James from 1897-1899, contains 72 photographic prints, primarily cyanotypes, which pertain to daily life at the school. Most of the prints are mounted into slits cut into the volume, which has a marbled brown cover. Four prints are duplicates of others in the volume.

The photographs show some of the college's students, all female, participating in and watching a hurdling competition, posing with friends, and otherwise socializing. A group of men accompanied some of the women during a trip on the lake boat Robert Main and many of the remaining prints feature women in both indoor and outdoor settings. Women posed by themselves or in groups, and the album has pictures of a musical group, basketball team, and a theatrical troupe in blackface. Interior shots of students' rooms and exterior shots of Vassar buildings are also present. A white bird feather is laid into the volume.