Dig Libs & Graduates

Posted April 18, 2017 by Amanda Pizzollo

My graduation is approaching and all you devotees to my snippets on this blog (hi Mom!), know that senioritis is really setting in for me. Actually, it has been there all semester pretty much, which is a little crazy since my graduate school experience has only consisted of 5 semesters, counting the summer when I took classes. So 1/5 of my time in grad school has been under the haze of senioritis. Aren’t humans funny little things when it comes to anticipation? Anywho, I thought in this blog post I would use that senioritis focus and combine it with something I love to do- scour digital libraries for interesting ephemara, artificats, letters, pics, etc. So here you are blog followers and compatriots! The wonderful world of graduates as seen through collections in digital libraries around the states.

(note: I excluded videos & sounds in collections, but that’s also a fun ride if you enthusiasts want to go exploring. Many of the sites cited below also have such materials available on the interwebs).

                     

Who doesn’t want to hopscotch after finishing up school?

1910 Amherst College Commencement (photograph by Justin B. Smith, class of 1909), retrieved from the Archives & Special Collections blog of Amherst College

                                                                                             

He looks like he’s got some plans…

June 1937 Touchstone (student publication at Amherst College that ran from 1936-1950 and was continued by The Sabrina (another student publication), retrieved from the Archives & Special Collections blog of Amherst College

 

You said it graduate! Let’s hear it for the folks, whether their parents or spouses or friends or whatevs, who support us through this time, in all the different ways that they do!

Clark, Junebug. [Students at UNT Fall Commencement], photograph, December 13, 2013;(digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc307130/: accessed April 18, 2017), University of North Texas Libraries, Digital Library, digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.

This is the front cover to a little song book. I can’t wait for the cherubs to come hang with me once I don my graduation cap.

Music Division, The New York Public Library. (1899 – 1899). Pretty Minnie Clare Retrieved from http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47df-eff2-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

This is called “3 graduates on the steps of Westbrook highschool, Westbrook,” so at least some folks here are likely graduates. I like this one because it’s a stereograph (find out more here), and it makes me really thankful that I don’t have to wear big heavy dresses outside in the current weather.

The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. 3 graduates on steps of Westboro highschool, Westbrook. Retrieved from http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e0-6a10-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

  

Last, but certainly not least, the first page of a Simmons College Commencement Program from 1910. Soon I’ll hold the 2017 version in my hands. 🙂

Simmons College, “Simmons College commencement program,” in Daisie Miller Helyar, Item #103, http://slis.simmons.edu/daisie/items/show/103  (accessed April 18, 2017).