[Rarebooks] FS: Martha Washington Seminary young woman's scrapbook

[Bob Petrilla]

Middleton, Sarah M. YOUNG WOMAN'S "MEMORY & FELLOWSHIP BOOK," ASSEMBLED
DURING HER TWO YEARS AT MARTHA WASHINGTON SEMINARY, 1914-1915. Original
archive. This large album, thick with ephemera, is string-tied in red
pebble-grain cloth over heavy boards; gilt-stamped on the cover are the
insignia and name of Martha Washington Seminary (in Washington, DC); minor
smudge on gilt seal. 12.5" x 16.25" Very Good. String-tied Boards.
Sarah's book includes a daily diary (each entry 2-3 lines). It is also
chock full of ephemera, most of which are labeled/dated by Sarah, ranging
from theater programmes and dance cards to brochures and booklets of places
visited, letters, calling cards, invitations and telegrams received,
pressed flowers, napkins from restaurants and party tables, paper candy
wrappers, Christmas, New Year’s, and Valentines Day cards, etc. There are
also several news clippings mentioning Sarah’s social doings at school and
on visits with school friends. Condition of some of these items is
iffy—“The School Year Record” comprises five, double-column pages of daily
doings from October 1, 1914-May 5, 1915, starting with her “first day of
school” (10/2) and “our first party” and first trip to the Washington
theaters, first time in the Christian Science Church she attends regularly,
&. A picture emerges of school life among the wealthy (or at least
well-off) debutante set. ~~ Sarah was careless about keeping programmes
neat and opening letters carefully, so there are occasional tears and
stains, careless foldings, etc. Taken together, the diary and the ephemera
offer a very detailed picture of a well-off young girl’s busy life during
the period just before WWI, and there is even a broadside announcing a
women’s suffrage meeting, which is described below. The album also offers a
nice picture of Washington, D.C. cultural offerings during that time. ~~
Sarah Middleton hailed from Aberdeen, in Grays Harbor County, Washington,
where her family was in the Anderson & Middleton Lumber Co. business. She
is 18 years old when she starts her school year at the Martha Washington
Seminary, a finishing school located at 1601 Connecticut Avenue,
Washington, D.C., and she turns 19 at school in Feb., 1915. ~~ The album
opens with 3 pages of names of 33 of her classmates, who signed the book
and added info re their addresses, birthdays, and “happy thoughts” (e.g.
short written memories such as “Oh, you homesick kid” and “The day we
cooked wienies and our faces over the same fire”). Then follow page after
page of colorful ephemera: theatrical programs from various shows and
theaters; booklets from historical sites that she visited; postcards;
photographs; &c. ~~ An uncharacteristic note in the album is struck by the
presence of a much-folded broadside, 8 ¼” x 5 ½”, announcing a “Suffrage
Mass Meeting” at Washington’s Columbia Theater on November 15, 1914,
featuring the British suffragette “Mrs. Pethick Lawrence” and “the Suffrage
Campaigners who have just returned from the Western States” as speakers.
There is no mention in the diary of Sarah's attending this event. [A fuller
description of this album is laid into the book.]   $250.00

Reciprocal trade discount.  Shipping prepaid in the US.

Thanks for looking,

Bob and Alison


      R & A  Petrilla
Booksellers & Appraisers
          PO Box 306
  Roosevelt, NJ 08555
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www.PetrillaBooks.com <http://www.petrillabooks.com/>

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