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This volume contains 21 compositions by 12 students (eight girls and four boys) of Biddeford High School, Maine, between 1850 and 1851 (approx. 90 pages). These "prize compositions" pertain to subjects such as nature, morality, happiness, music, comparisons between the country as it was versus how it is now, industry, and intemperance.

This volume contains 21 compositions by 12 students (eight girls and four boys) of Biddeford High School, Maine, between 1850 and 1851 (approx. 90 pages). These "prize compositions" pertain to subjects such as nature, morality, happiness, music, comparisons between the country as it was versus how it is now, industry, and intemperance.

The volume concludes with a one-page letter of thanks from Biddeford High School principal Horace Piper to his students, September 10, 1859, thanking them for the gift of a chair; and a two-page letter from the "Ladies [of] Biddeford" to the Triumph Engine Company (fire brigade), presenting them with an American flag.

• Page 1: "Botanical Chart"
• Pages 3-6: Elizabeth L. P. Adams, "Reading"
• Pages 7-9: Maria C. Grey, "Advantages of Industry"
• Pages 11-13: Hannah A. Burnham, "Saco Falls"
• Pages 15-18: Henri B. Haskell, "Beauties of Nature in Oxford County"
• Pages 19-24: Elizabeth L. P. Adams, "The Beauties of Nature"
• Pages 25-27: Robert Russell, "Beauties of Nature"
• Pages 29-32: Maria C. Grey, "The Beauties of Nature"
• Pages 33-36: Luther T. Mason, "The Art of Writing"
• Pages 39-41: Charles Nichols, "Children should obey their Parents"

• Pages 44-47: Maria C. Grey, "Happiness"
• Pages 48-51: Sarah M. Kendell, "A bad Sholar [sic.]"
• Pages 51-52: Unsigned, "Intemperance"
• Pages 56-59: John B. Lowell, "This Country as it was and as it is"
• Pages 60-64: Luther T. Mason, "This Country as it was, and as it is"
• Pages 65-67: Hannah A. Burnham, "Happiness"
• Pages 68-69: Ellen Smith, "Doing Good to Others"
• Pages 70-74: E. L. P. Adams, "Happiness"

• Pages 76-77: Maria C. Morton, "On The improvement of Time"
• Pages 78-80: Maria C. Morton, "To a Flower" (poem)
• Pages 81-84: Julia A. Lord, "Music"
• Pages 84-89: Maria C. Grey, "Flowers"

• Horace Piper, "A Card To my Former Pupils who honored me with a present on the ninth instant", Biddeford, September 10, 1859 (1 page)
• Ladies [of] Biddeford, to "Gentlemen of the Triumph Engine Company" (2 pages)

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.