Elmira NY Photograph Album from One of the first Female Colleges which granted degrees to women equivalent of those given to man, 1862

Women Education, 19th c. Photographs

Photo Album

[Women Education] [Photo Album] Elmira NY, Female College, Class of 1862 album. 42 original photographs, each aprox 1.5 x 1.25 in. Nearly all photos are identified with handwritten captions. 114 pages, 53 pages overall have been used for photos, writing, or both. All entries dated 1861-1862. Light brown leather boards. 8 x 5.25 in. Titled on cover with gilt design of an autograph book and a quill pen surrounded by ivy, “Autographs.”  The book is full of signatures and small oval portraits of the girls who were the 1862 class of Elmira College. Along with signatures of her classmates, the owner of this book has some signatures from people of the town of Elmira, New York, Augustus W. Cowles (President of the college),and other other instructors. One page has been illustrated with the outline of a pile of letters, into which girls have written their names, addresses, and messages. It would be several decades more before Academic yearbooks, as we know them now, with photographs and names of individual students and graduates, became common. At this time the typical “Annual” was a small catalog that acted as a memento of students attending, and also as advertising with general business catalog information concerning the school inside.  School photos of any kind were highly uncommon.  This student’s personally made yearbook, containing photographs and names of a large portion of her classmates as well as teacher’s and college president, is an extremely unique women’s educational history item. Leather on spine is mostly absent or pulling away, though internal hinges are sound. Good to very good condition.

The New York-area college is the oldest still in existence which granted degrees to women equivalent of those given to man. Elmira College was first conceived on in 1851 with the intention of creating a college that would grant degrees to women equal to those of men. The first students arrived in October 1855, though the rooms had not yet been completely furnished and the furnace was not yet working. Also, not all of the students were ready for college-level work. In September 1855, Rev. Augustus W. Cowles visited the campus and the following year was offered the position of president. Vassar's first president modeled the acceptance requirements and curriculum of his school upon those of Elmira. The members of the first graduating class received diplomas in 1859, only 2 years before this album was created. The college faced a difficult beginning. The student body was minuscule; in 1884, only three students were in the graduating class. Two reasons for this situation were the national tumult caused by the Civil War and the opening of other colleges that admitted women.  Dr. Cowles believed that a problem was the perception that Elmira was only on the level of a boarding school. He stressed hiring better professors to secure larger graduating classes. .

Item #17017

Price: $800.00