Women’s Education and Teacher Training at Kent State Normal College Student Album 1916 to 1917

Kent State

Archive

Unidentified compiler, photograph album, 1916 to 1917, documenting women’s education and teacher training at Kent State Normal College during a period of expanding access to professional instruction for women in the United States. The album provides primary visual and material evidence of student life within a Normal School environment, including pedagogical training, peer networks, and extracurricular culture. It supports research into the feminization of the teaching profession, collegiate social structures, and the institutional development of teacher education in the early twentieth century, particularly as the United States entered World War I.

Photograph album containing 44 original silver gelatin prints and approximately 48 pieces of mounted ephemera, with extensive handwritten captions identifying fellow students, instructors such as “Miss Corbett” and “Miss Dunbar,” and campus locations including Merrill Hall, the Library, Loury Hall, and Moulton Hall. Images show groups of women students posed on campus grounds, within academic buildings, and in outdoor recreational settings, alongside classroom scenes of elementary school instruction reflecting teacher training practices. Social activities are documented through photographs of outings to Brady Lake and a labeled Independence Day picnic in 1917. The ephemera includes ribbons, commencement programs, school-related printed materials, theater tickets, postcards, sheet music, and an astrological horoscope, as well as items connected to organizations such as the YWCA and Portage County’s War Fund, indicating student participation in civic and wartime support activities.

44 photographs mounted across 50 pages, accompanied by approximately 48 pieces of ephemera; images range from approximately 2 x 3 inches to 3 x 5 inches; album measuring 12 x 9.5 inches; original boards. Kent State Normal School, established in 1910 and renamed Kent State Normal College in 1915 following the introduction of four-year degree programs, formed part of a broader national system designed to professionalize teaching and expand women’s access to higher education. By the early twentieth century, women constituted a substantial majority of the American teaching workforce, a demographic reality reflected in the album’s predominance of female students and instructors. The inclusion of wartime-related materials situates the album within the transitional moment of U.S. mobilization in 1917, linking campus life to national developments. Minor handling wear to boards, contents well-preserved with secure mounts and legible captions; overall very good condition. A cohesive and richly annotated record of women’s collegiate and professional training culture in the early twentieth century.

Item #17157

Price: $485.00