Search

The Georgianna M. Brackett photograph album contains cyanotypes and other photographs taken at Smith College from 1896 to around 1901. The volume includes candid and posed pictures of Brackett and her classmates, teachers, room interiors, college buildings, and social gatherings.

The Georgianna M. Brackett photograph album (21cm x 27cm) contains 259 cyanotypes and other photographic prints documenting her experiences at Smith College from 1896 to around 1901. Most of the items are cyanotypes, and the album also includes collodion prints and platinum prints. Items are often pasted several to a page and some fill the entire page. Many have captions, often recording the name and class year of pictured students. The album has a pebbled brown leather cover. A printed program from a performance of the Smith College Glee, Banjo, and Mandolin Clubs on March 27, 1897, is laid into the front cover.

Brackett compiled pictures of her friends, instructors, and social activities, as well as pictures of the college and nearby buildings and scenery. Her album contains many pictures of women from several classes, taken individually and in groups; Brackett appears in some of the photographs. A number of photographs show dormitory rooms, some in Hubbard House. Also included are group photographs of Hubbard House residents; one shows women in Halloween costumes. Of note are three photographs of class mascots, including a young African American boy who was mascot for the class of 1899. Scenes from Ivy Day processions, a Smith College commencement ceremony, appear for a few different graduation classes. The volume includes scenes of large groups of students waiting to watch a basketball game outside and inside of the college gymnasium, pictures from a class rally, and group portraits of basketball teams representing the classes of 1898 and 1900. Also present are candid shots of Smith College teachers and the school's first president, Laurenus Clark Seelye, and studio portraits of unidentified young men and women. Brackett also collected exterior and interior shots of college buildings and students' residences, including some inside the campus art gallery, music hall, and chapel. One group of pictures is labeled "Cassell's Colorado" (July 1896-August 1896). One photographic print is laid into the volume and an envelope with a brief, humorous manuscript poem is pasted in amongst the photographs.

The album's compiler may have been a member of Smith College's camera club and exchanged prints with other members.