Search

This collection consists of two variations of a 1912 yearbook for members of the 1915 co-ed class of Rochester High School in Rochester, Pennsylvania.

This collection consists of two variations of a 1912 yearbook for members of the 1915 co-ed class of Rochester High school in Rochester, Pennsylvania. These yearbooks include pencil and pen-and-ink portraits of students, faculty, and sports teams, as well as caricatures, cartoons, and humorous drawings. Several poems are also included. Their content touches on humor, social affairs, class members' personalities, curriculum, athletics, and gender. The content is very similar between the two volumes, with some variations of student descriptions and introductory matter.

The first volume, titled "The Nightmare," includes an introduction stating that "the only excuse for publishing this book is because the rest of the bunch have one apiece . . . [and] merely aids one in passing some idle hours in school . . . this book is strictly 'Entre Nous,' so don't tell anybody outside of America." One page, headed "Familiar Quotations" quotes Bunny Amos Rex as having said, "Aw fellows let's git together and do some devilment." On the opposite page of the "Quotations" section is a drawing of the Rochester High School with the label "Agony Building." Accompanying the student portraits are humorous descriptions of said students: Armin Barner is described as an elegant musician, politician, electrician and magician of the lowest rank.

The second volume, titled "Freshmen Class Book 1911," includes a preface claiming the book "touches on such topics as Elementary Science, Natural Science, Natural Phylosophy, Orthography, Uranography, Geodasy and Wireless Telegraphy" to emulate "when all writters chiseled out dedications for a book thereby showing their originality." It further states that the class has attempted the same "because of our first class solid ivory domes." Many pages feature illustrations or descriptions of the school's sports teams. It also contains croquet scores for the women's team, who apparently gave the class "the thing we need to brag over," as they "mopped the valley clean" in their season.

Walter Willisson Stephen kept this notebook in 1903 as a 12-year-old boy. The bulk of the volume consists of seventeen chapters relating to the Moberly, Missouri, Fire Department, its infrastructure, equipment, and activities, with particular focus on the rescue efforts of Company 7 that was led by three teenage boys. It is unclear whether these fires were entirely imagined or based on real events, but the tales include heavily dramatized elements, flourishes, and dialogue while reflecting early-twentieth century firefighting practices and boyhood fascination with them. Stephen kept tables of data relating to baseball players' statistics in the back of the volume, seemingly for games held in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee. The volume includes pencil drawings relating to firefighting, baseball, guns, and animals.

Walter Willisson Stephen kept this notebook in 1903 as a 12-year-old boy. The bulk of the volume consists of seventeen chapters relating to the Moberly, Missouri, Fire Department, its infrastructure, equipment, and activities, with particular focus on the rescue efforts of Company 7 that was led by three teenage boys. They extinguished fires in various buildings, like a mattress factory, the cotton exchange building, stores, saloons, and houses. At least two chapters refer to African American residents of Moberly, with one fire breaking out in a family's kitchen (p. 17) and another in a "small shanty" (p. 52). It is unclear whether these fires were entirely imagined or based on real events, but the tales include heavily dramatized elements, flourishes, and dialogue while reflecting early-twentieth-century firefighting practices and boyhood fascination with them. The first chapter opens with pencil illustrations of fire extinguishers, axes, and water hose nozzles. The inside front cover includes pencil drawings of three horse-drawn fire trucks, an American crest, and an airship.

Stephen kept tables of data relating to baseball players' statistics in the back of the volume, seemingly for games held in the following cities in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee: Vicksburg, Mobile, Jackson, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Shreveport, Little Rock, and Memphis. He made two pencil drawings of men playing baseball, and he included pencil sketches and doodles on the back inside cover of men, guns, animals, and geometric shapes.

Between 1859 and 1860, William H. Whiton of Tennessee drew pen-and-ink and pencil drawings in a blank autograph album. Topics in the sketchbook include satires of business operations and interpersonal relationships in business settings, love and romance, the hanging of John Brown, and more.

Between 1859 and 1860, William H. Whiton of Tennessee drew pen-and-ink and pencil drawings in a blank autograph album. Topics in the sketchbook include satires of business operations and interpersonal relationships in business settings, love and romance, the hanging of John Brown, and more.

Other drawings include a domestic scene, portraits of men, and incomplete sketches of landscapes and buildings. The volume also includes a list of names at "Mt. Giraffe, Columbia, Maury Co., Tenn." on January 1, 1860.

Worden G. Wood kept this sketchbook around 1898 while he was serving as a reserve in the United States Navy aboard the U.S.S. Yankee during the Spanish American War.

The volume features pencil sketches of the Yankee, the locations it traveled, its battles, and other ships it encountered. Wood named places such as Casilda, Trinidad, Guantanamo, Santiago, and others. The cover of the sketchbook is signed "W. G. Wood, U.S.S. Yankee." Included amongst the sketches are deceased Spanish soldiers.