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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)

Elizabeth H. Schuh ("Lizzie"), possibly of Lime Rock, Pennsylvania, kept this composition notebook as a 12-14 year-old student, between 1891 and 1893. The volume includes short essays on etiquette and behavior, nature-related topics (such as bees and oranges), natural science, and geography. A portion of the notebook focuses on forms of correspondence and financial receipts. Other essays focus on prominent figures in the history of the United States, such as Andrew Jackson, Washington Irving, and Daniel Boone.

Elizabeth H. Schuh ("Lizzie"), possibly of Lime Rock, Pennsylvania, kept this composition notebook as a 12-14 year-old student, between 1891 and 1893. The volume includes short essays on etiquette and behavior, nature-related topics (such as bees and oranges), natural science, and geography. A portion of the notebook focuses on forms of correspondence and financial receipts, grammar, and memorization. Other essays focus on prominent figures in the history of the United States, such as Andrew Jackson, Washington Irving, and Daniel Boone.

The etiquette compositions include "How to Be Polite", with general behaviors, such as being kind and unselfish, not standing behind people writing or reading, etc. Remarks on modesty include statements such as "Do not talk about dress" and "Do not soil your tongue with slang."

Content on letter writing includes her exercises in drafting generic correspondence, notes for seeking employment, and copies of letters that she may have sent out on relationships, and management of business and the household.

The volume has color, printed covers showing three students at desks in a classroom, one writing with a dip pen; its title is "Hawthorne Composition. No. 774. 'U.S. Mail' Series", J. C. Blair Manufacturing Stationer Huntingdon, Pa. A blackboard on an easel shows a trotting horse, marked "Composition on the HORSE". The inside covers include a printed biography of Nathaniel Hawthorne.

The Clements Library's collection of individual friendship and autograph albums (the ones that are not part of larger bodies of family papers) dates primarily from the second half of the 19th century. The creators of these albums sought out friends, family, schoolmates, public persons, and others to write signatures, sentiments, poetry, extracts from books and serials, personal sentiments, and more. Contributions often emphasize ties of friendship, exhortations to seek love, happiness, or Christian religious salvation. Most of the volumes in this collection were compiled in the Northeast United States and areas in the Midwest, with urban and rural areas represented. The greater number of the albums were kept by young women and the bulk of the signers were also female. Contributors occasionally illustrated pages with calligraphic designs, trompe l'oeil visiting cards, animals, flowers, and themes that had particular significance to their relationship with the keeper of the album. The volumes in this collection are largely decorative blank books adorned with tooled covers, sometimes containing interspersed engravings of religious, literary, historical, and landscape themes. Some include pasted-in photographs, die-cuts, or stickers.

The Clements Library's collection of individual friendship and autograph albums (the ones that are not part of larger bodies of family papers) dates primarily from the second half of the 19th century. The creators of these albums sought out friends, family, schoolmates, public persons, and others to write signatures, sentiments, poetry, extracts from books and serials, personal sentiments, and more. Contributions often emphasize ties of friendship, exhortations to seek love, happiness, or Christian religious salvation. Most of the volumes in this collection were compiled in the Northeast United States and areas in the Midwest, with urban and rural areas represented. The greater number of the albums were kept by young women and the bulk of the signers were also female. At least one volume was kept by an African American man, Lewis G. Mosebay. Contributors occasionally illustrated pages with calligraphic designs, trompe l'oeil visiting cards, animals, flowers, and themes that had particular significance to their relationship with the keeper of the album. The volumes in this collection are largely decorative blank books adorned with tooled covers, sometimes containing interspersed engravings of religious, literary, historical, and landscape themes. Some include pasted-in photographs, die-cuts, or stickers.