Alan Mays' photos with the keyword: universities

I'm guessing that a masquerade held near the end of the month of October in the year MCMXX (or 1920 in Arabic numerals) would have had something to do with Halloween. One of the classes—juniors, sophomores, or freshmen—at an unidentified high school or college evidently created this invitation to ask the seniors to come to a party "garbed in costumes appropriate for th' occasion." Also, someone used a pencil on the invitation to darken the masquerader's ruffle and add lines to some of the squares in the plaid clothing design. A Masquerade! When? Saturday, October 25, MCMXX at 7:30 o'clock. Where? In the Conference Rm., News Bld'g. Hark, ye seniors: come garbed in costumes appropriate for th' occasion.

"Keystone State Normal School, Kutztown, Pa. View from the East. Infirmary. Athletic Field. West Cottage. Auditorium. Grandstand. Model School. Girls' Dorm. Chapel. Central B'ld'g. Boys Dorm. Gym." This view of Keystone State Normal School—with handy labels that identify the buildings—probably dates to the 1910s. The school opened in Kutztown , Pennsylvania, in 1866, became Kutztown State Teacher's College in 1928, changed its name to Kutztown State College in 1960, and finally ended up as Kutztown University in 1983. For a view of the other side of the gym, see Can You Find Me? I'm in the Crowd, Keystone State Normal School, Kutztown, Pa., May 22, 1916 :

"Can you find me? I'm in the crowd. K.S.N.S., May 22, 1916." Students at the Keystone State Normal School, located in Kutztown , Pennsylvania, pose in front of the gymnasium more than a hundred years ago. The school became what is today Kutztown University . For another vintage view of the campus, see Keystone State Normal School, Kutztown, Pennsylvania :

The Cosmopolitan Club was the precursor to the International Students Organization at Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts. The Springfield College Digital Collections contains additional Cosmopolitan Club photos from various years.

"Harpel 16." Handwritten note on the back of this photo: "May Court, L.V.C., 1934. Queen - Minna Wolfskiel. Maid of Honor - Gem Gemmill." The May Day celebration at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pennsylvania, in 1934. For more information, see May Day, Lebanon Valley College, Annville, Pa., 1934 (below). For other celebrations, see my <a href=" May Day " target="_blank" rel="nofollow">May Day album.

"Harpel 15." Handwritten note on the back of this photo: "May Day, L.V.C., 1934. Wendell and I danced around the May Pole." May Day festivities at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pennsylvania, in 1934. Writing on the back of another photo (see below) identifies Minna Wolfskiel as the May Queen and Gem Gemmill as the Maid of Honor in the "May Court" that year. Luther G. Harpel or some other photographer from his well-known studio in Lebanon, Pa., captured the images of the event (evidently there were 16 or more photos, judging by the numbering on the photos). For another collegiate May Day celebration held in Pennsylvania in 1934, see May Queen and Her Court, Bucknell University, May 12, 1934 (below). For even more photos, see my May Day album.

For more information, see the cropped version of this photo:

For more information, see the cropped version of this photo:

A photo of ice skating/skiing/sledging or any fun in the snow for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. This is a photo mounted on cardboard (see the full version below) with the handwritten caption, "On the Normal Campus." Written on the back of the photo are the names of these four young women (mouse over the image above for a close-up view ), who were obviously having fun in the snow as they posed with snowballs: To the left of tree, Catharine Shoup. To the right, and back, Jennie Moyer, Altoona, Pa. To the right, Kathryn Kleckner, Mifflinburg, Pa. In front, Lulu Patton, Warriors' Mark, Pa. I believe that they were studying to be teachers at one of the "normal schools" in Pennsylvania at the time the photo was taken, which was probably sometime in the late 1890s or early 1900s. A normal school , as Wikipedia explains, is simply "a school created to train high school graduates to be teachers." Today we'd typically call them teachers' colleges rather than normal schools. Given the women's names, the home locations for three of them, and the distinctive building with a tower or belfry in the background of the photo, I thought it would be an easy matter to determine what school they were attending when this photo was taken. But I haven't yet been able to place them at a specific school. After searching Find A Grave and other sources, however, I was able to find some information about two of them. Catharine H. Shoup (1883-1977), who's holding a snowball as she stands to the left of the tree in the photo, was a teacher and principal for many years at the Irving School, which I believe was an elementary school in Altoona, Pa. I also located an obituary for Lulu Rose Patton (1881-1932), who's pretending to fend off snowballs as she sits in front of the tree. The Daily News , Huntingdon, Pa., Thursday, August 4, 1932, p. 12, reported the following: ". . . Miss Lulu R. Patton, a missionary in Canton, China, under the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, died on Tuesday night [August 2; other sources give the date as August 3]. . . . Miss Patton was visiting her brother, the Rev. Charles E. Patton, vice president of the Presbyterian board and located at Shanghai, China, at the time of her death. . . . Miss Patton went to China in 1908 as a missionary, coming home about every five years for a vacation. She was last home three years ago. She was identified with the Union Normal School in Canton." When I finally found this obituary and realized that Lulu Patton was a teacher at the Union Normal School in Canton, China, I thought surely that the photo must have been taken there. But then I discovered--alas!--that the city of Canton (now called Guangzhou ) is located in a humid subtropical region, where there is no snow for making snowballs.

"Lecture by Joseph W. Richards, M.A., A.C., M.S., on 'Aluminium.' The Chemical Society of the Lehigh University. April 28, 1891, 8:00 p.m. Please present this ticket at the door. Seat no. 15."

"Lehigh House, South Bethlehem, Pa. Convenient to university. Newly refitted. European and American plans. Reduced rates for students. P. Alexander Hunt, prop. Free 'bus." As far as I can determine, Lehigh House was a hotel located in what is now Bethlehem , Pennsylvania ("South Bethlehem" is no longer used as a place name). I haven't been able to figure out the hotel's exact location, but its proximity to Lehigh University ("convenient to university") was apparently why the proprietor offered "reduced rates for students" and a "free [omni]bus." The only mention of the Lehigh House hotel that I've uncovered so far is in Alfred Mathews, History of the Counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: Everts & Richards, 1884), p. 144: "In 1833, [Caspar] Kleckner built the hotel now known as the Lehigh House, which he kept until 1841, when his son-in-law, John G. Schimpf, took possession of it, and remained as landlord until 1858. Following him there were two or three other landlords, who remained for short terms, and in 1862 the house was sold to James Allen Trexler, whose son H. A. Trexler, is the present proprietor." I suspect that this business card dates to the 1880s or 1890s, when P. Alexander Hunt presumably succeeded H. A. Trexler as proprietor.

A breakfast photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. (In selecting images for the VPTP, I normally attempt to find a new photo that I haven't previously posted on Ipernity. But the frig was bare when I went to look for breakfast, so I'm reheating this pic for this week's theme.) An early photo mounted on cardboard captures a group of young women in a student dormitory room (note the bed with folded blanket at lower right). These fourteen ladies have apparently crowded into a single room to share breakfast. Many of them are holding doughnuts, and one--standing in the corner at right--is eating a banana. Some of the students are pretending to feed each other, and a number of them have their eyes closed, possibly due to whatever the photographer used for a flash. Various photos and artworks adorn the walls, including a print hanging in the upper right-hand corner that's derived from Heinrich Hofmann 's painting of Christ in Gethsemane (1890). The blinds on the window at the back of the room are pulled down, and what seems to be an American flag is partially hidden in the folds of the curtains. There wasn't any caption or description on the photo, unfortunately, and we may never know what special occasion or celebration it was that prompted this dorm-room get-together.

"Reading room, Krauth Memorial Library, Lutheran Theological Seminary , Mt. Airy, Philadelphia."

Back cover of a menu for a birthday dinner in honor of George Washington, State Normal School, West Chester, Pa., February 22, 1907. See also the front cover and inside pages of this menu.

Front cover of a menu for a birthday dinner in honor of George Washington, State Normal School, West Chester, Pa., February 22, 1907. See below for the inside pages and back cover .

Inside pages of a menu for a birthday dinner in honor of George Washington, State Normal School, West Chester, Pa., February 22, 1907. See also the front cover and back cover of this menu.

Mouse over the image above to see a close-up of the queen and her retinue . Although I purchased this photo at an antique mall in Lewisburg, Pa., it didn't initially occur to me that this was a photo taken at Bucknell University, which is located in the same town. Instead, it seemed likely that this was a scene from "Milton, Pa.," as noted in the lower right-hand corner of the photo. I finally deciphered "Ishiguro," whose photography studio was located in Milton, and that name, along with the "May 1934" date written on the back of the photo, finally led me to Bucknell and its L'Agenda 1936 yearbook, which identified Dorothea Millikin as the 1934 May Queen. A newspaper article that appeared prior to the 1934 May Day celebration, which was part of a Spring Festival, provides additional details about the event: "Bucknell University's first Spring Festival will be held next week-end [Friday, May 11, to Sunday, May 13, 1934] in connection with the annual May Day pageant and Mother's Day celebration. The three-day program will feature dramatic, musical, and athletic events for all students. . . . The annual May Day pageant Saturday afternoon will be preceded by a fashion show and tea for the co-eds and a varsity baseball match with Ursinus [College] for the men. Hundreds of visiting mothers will be entertained at the Mothers Banquet Saturday evening at which the men's glee club will entertain" ( "Bucknell Plans May Day Spring Festival and Mother's Day Event," Gazette and Bulletin [Williamsport, Pa.], May 5, 1934, p. 13). Notation at the lower right-hand corner of the photo: "Ishiguro, Milton, Pa., No. 2." Handwritten date on the back of the photo: "May 1934."

For more information, see the full version of this photo .