This photo album contains images of the activities of the Gamma Sigma sorority at the New Jersey State Normal School, some notations were made later by members of Gamma Sigma Nu.

This photo album created by Louise Woodruff Bush documents the activities of the Gamma Sigma sorority at the New Jersey State Normal School from 1906-1909.

This photo album created by Louise Woodruff Bush documents the activities of her family. It is undated.

The bulk of the collection pertains to Mildred’s time at the New Jersey State Normal School at Trenton from 1913-1915. Of special note is her diary, which begins with a daily account of camping in Shawmont, Pennsylvania (now Roxborough, Northwest Philadelphia) before going off to Normal where she writes of her classroom and social activities. Her copy of the Seal yearbook is heavily signed and annotated with alumni information up to 1980. Her photograph collection documents students in their everyday lives on campus including in their dorm rooms, wearing gym uniforms, performing a Japanese Tea ceremony, and a possible inside joke of her and her friends enacting characters based on their teacher William N. Mumper (the yearbook is inscribed to indicate “Mumpers” characters). There also are several photographs of faculty members (before they were pictured in the yearbooks).

There are some additional materials from the late 1970s including Normal School alumni lists and photographs of her paintings from her post-retirement career as an artist.

Content warning: The illustration and description of the mural (in Box 1, Folder 3) include inaccurate, derogatory, and/or offensive depictions of people indigenous to the area.

The Mildred Duncan Warnecke Collection predominately contains student group photographs, photo albums depicting family life, sports and leisure activities, rural scenes, and Normal School students; newsletters and student activities of the class of 1907, and reunion materials related to Gamma Sigma Nu. The collection also contains copies of The Seal yearbook and The Signal newspaper. It is unclear how Warnecke came to acquire the photo albums created by Louise Woodruff Bush, although Bush was an older Gamma Sigma Nu member, and Warnecke was very active in the sorority, attending the annual reunions. The collection spans 1906-2000, with most of the materials falling between 1906-1969.