Collections : [University of Michigan William L. Clements Library]

This composition notebook was kept by Merline Patton of Alamogordo, New Mexico, while studying rhetoric at the New Mexico Baptist College (associated with the Southern Baptist Convention) in 1903. The notebook includes essays, reading passages, song lyrics, and notes on English history and literature.

This composition notebook was kept by Merline Patton of Alamogordo, New Mexico, while studying rhetoric at the New Mexico Baptist College (associated with the Southern Baptist Convention) in 1903. The notebook includes essays, reading passages, song lyrics, and notes on English history and literature.

The essays in the notebook include "The Argonautic Expedition" and "Rhetoric." The songs include at least two college/school spirit numbers, though the bulk appear to be popular tunes about love and family, such as "My Girl from Dixie." A section titled "Division of Modern English Lit" contains information related to the Elizabethan Age, the study of Italian language and art, the study of classics translated from Greek and Roman, and more.

The inside cover contains scribbles and mathematics problems, and two small flowers were doodled in the margins.

This composition book was kept by 8–10-year-old Mildred Wood and Mary Wood while living in Illinois and Missouri. The volumes include copied song lyrics and poems, and pencil and crayon drawings. A number of pressed flowers and leaves are laid into the volume.

This composition book was kept by 8–10-year-old Mildred Wood and Mary Wood while living in Illinois and Missouri. The volumes include copied song lyrics and poems, and pencil and crayon drawings. A number of pressed flowers and leaves are laid into the volume.

The song lyrics and poems focus on themes relating to nature, love, and friendship, and include titles such as "Missouri School Song," "The Yellow Rose of Texas," and "Illinois." The drawings feature flowers, houses, and a portrait of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. One outdoor scene shows two girls playing in front of a house, labelled "Living on the farm." Two pencil and crayon drawings done on tracing paper are laid into the volume: one of a ladies' boot with the name "Hamilton Brown shoe Co." on it, and another of a valentine with Cupid holding a bow and arrow.

Several entries are suggestive of schoolwork, such as sentence diagrams, a list of courts, a passage about U.S. history, a list of teachers in the Venice Public School and the average grades in their classes, and a list of the "Names of the Teachers I have had at Differ[e]nt Schools." Another passage is titled "The Japanese Fan."

Later entries were written in a different hand and consist mostly of quotations and proverbs. The word "Graduate" is printed on the cover of the volume.