About this Item
This massive album, 16 ½" x 12" x 2 ½", documents the four years in college of Virginia Lee Ames, from her matriculation in September 1918 through her graduation in 1922. You can feel the love that went into making this album as you page through it. There are 45 pages, overflowing with photographs and ephemera. There are around 280 photos which appear at the front of the album, taking up the first 15 to 20 pages (each page being two sides). After that initial burst of photographs, many of them annotated by Ms. Ames with some whole pages filled with writing and photos that by themselves are wonderful pieces of folk art, the ephemera of a very active college life takes over. One gets the sense that Ms. Ames was an outgoing, social person who made friends easily and took full advantage of the many opportunities offered at Hamline. The album has faux-leather black covers in fair to good condition. The covers show some edge wear; there is wear at the binding but no separation. The top left corner of the front cover, and the bottom left corner of the back cover, have noticeable bends, and the back cover has separated to an extent from the binding, towards the bottom, though it is still attached. The album pages are of a heavier weight construction paper, with a light greenish cast. The pages show edgewear, but there is no significant paper loss. Hamline University was founded in 1854, the first university in Minnesota, and one of the first co-educational schools in the country. At first it was located in Red Wing, but in 1880 it was reestablished in St. Paul. The front cover has an embossed rectangle in tones of light and darker browns, showing Old Main; underneath, it says "Hamline University Memory Book." The Hamline crest is embossed at lower right, in gold. A Hamline pennant graces the inside front cover, and the first page has a printed scene of marching soldiers, in a lunette, with the American eagle perched atop the lunette, and a naval vessel off to the left, and the Statue of Liberty on the right. America, of course, is at war. A name plate lower right has Ms. Ames' name, "Hamline University" and "September, 1918." In the upper left, on a small piece of paper pasted into the album, Ms. Ames has written her name in an ornate cursive, with so much decorative scrolling that the name is hard to read. And so the album begins. The three double-sided pages that follow are dedicated to various sports at the school, with printed lines providing space to record the names of football, basketball, and baseball players, and records of games played. However, Ms. Ames has written across the first page: During the war - "Flu" raging! Very little Athletics Some newspaper cutouts (or perhaps from an athletic program) show various members of the football and basketball teams. These are from 1919 -1922---the flu has abated, the war is over. That season, 1919, must have been a good one for Hamline athletics: two newspaper clippings show that year's football team, one with the headline "Hamline Team That Finished Season in Blaze of Glory," the other with the headline "Hamline's Greatest Team." The clippings are folded in half, so that they do not extend beyond the border of the album. Before the album leaves the printed portion dealing with athletics, Ms. Ames seemingly has turned her attention to her career. Chronology is abandoned, and she interpolates an application for a teaching position, or rather, a form which provides her with a guide in applying for a teaching position. Two letters from the Superintendent of City Schools in Redwood Falls, Minnesota confirm that Ms. Ames did indeed find her teaching position. The acceptance letters discuss classes Ms. Ames might teach, and reference her interest in dramatic productions, and state that she will have an opportunity to direct plays. Both of these letters are dated in May, 1922. Ms. Ames has skipped over the whole of her college career to emphasize her success in finding a job. Those college.
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