This scrapbook includes photographs, illustrations, commencement and class day booklets, correspondence, report cards, and ephemera collected by Emma R. Kerns, Model School Class of 1916. It offers insight into the daily lives and school careers of the Model students throughout the school's final years before its closure after the 1917 academic year. Later annotations also appear; some are perhaps by Miss Kerns before her death in 1977, but others most likely were added by past Trentoniana librarians following the book's donation ca. 1977. Any additions in a clearly different hand have been rendered in italics. Some of these italicized annotations simply read "index," probably referring to Trentoniana's card catalogue.

Due to the volume's bulky nature, it was not possible to digitize without disbinding the entire volume and scanning pages individually. Two photos of the book before this process are included at the end of the PDF. Pages have been scanned in order, skipping any blank sections; as a result, page numbers may appear to jump. Kerns also pasted many booklets and folded items into these pages, and these items sometimes required multiple scans to entirely capture. Finally, note that file size limits have required a significant amount of compression to host this PDF, and may negatively affect the quality of the images. An unaltered version is available through Trentoniana upon request.

A partial transcription of the handwritten sections is included.

Content warning: While the vast majority of this work contains no harmful content, one "joke" on page 141 includes insulting language about African-Americans.

This scrapbook includes photographs, illustrations, commencement and class day booklets, correspondence, ephemera, and manuscript materials collected by Grace B. Fletcher, Model School Class of 1907. It offers insight into the daily lives and school careers of the Model students throughout the first decade of the 20th century. While the bulk of the items pasted into the work date to around 1907, some date to as early as 1901. In addition, some annotations must have been added later, at least as early as 1916.

Due to the volume's bulky nature, it was not possible to digitize without disbinding the entire volume and scanning pages individually. Two photos of the book before this process are included at the end of the PDF. Pages have been scanned in order, skipping any blank sections; as a result, page numbers may appear to jump. Fletcher also pasted many booklets and folded items into these pages, and these items sometimes required multiple scans to entirely capture. Finally, note that file size limits have required a significant amount of compression to host this PDF, and may negatively affect the quality of the images. An unaltered version is available through Trentoniana upon request.

A partial transcription of the handwritten sections is included.

The following notes relate to specific pages of the document:

• The Class Day booklet on page 121 has not been scanned, as it is identical to one on page 87.
• The clippings found on pages 136-139 were not pasted into the book and may have originally been placed elsewhere.

This collection documents the ceremonies and related events of Commencement and/or graduation exercises at The College of New Jersey spanning 1858 to the present day.

The collection includes the following materials:

Commencement invitations - These are formal printed invitations that may include a student’s calling card or handwritten details during the Normal School years, as well as commercially printed invitations used to date, c. 1869-2005 (bulk c. 1869-1920, 1977-2005).

Class Day and/or week programs - These are often beautifully printed and bound with cord and tassels, which likely served as a keepsake for students of the Normal and Model Schools. They list the schedule of activities for a graduating class during a day or over the span of a week. In some cases, they also include the Commencement program (c. 1894-1924).

The Normal and Model Schools classes of 1917 did not have a Class Day, but instead participated in Red Cross activities supporting World War I. The Model School as a K-12 school ended after the class of 1917, when it became “The Training School” offering only the elementary grades. In the 1930s, official Class Day or Week activities were replaced by less formal “Senior Week” activities, which continued off and on over the decades. Search The Signal newspaper for more information https://dr.tcnj.edu/handle/2900/275

Commencement tickets - These are admission tickets to the Normal or Model School Commencement ceremonies, usually at Taylor Opera House, c.1873-1901.

Commencement programs - These are printed programs of the Commencement ceremony, often containing the names of all graduating students. During the Normal School years, some have various embossed and/or multicolor illustrations of the school, insignia, or decorative lettering. Later programs have fewer design elements. The collection is mostly complete after 1891 with the exception of 2000, c. 1883-2023.

Promotion Exercises programs - These were for the Grammar A Class of the Model School, which held a graduation-style ceremony, c. 1909-1917.

Class and school songs - These are separate printed pages of songs to be sung during Commencement and other graduation events, usually containing a unique song for the graduating class and other school anthems and/or alma mater, c. 1899-1901.

Baccalaureate programs - These were printed as separate programs c. 1934-1964, but during the Normal School years, information about the Baccalaureate service was listed in the Class Day/Week or Commencement programs.

Programs for departmental, diploma, or other special graduation ceremonies - These are programs for Commencement events held outside of the main ceremony, often for graduate students or special groups, c. 1967; c. 2016-2023.

Original speeches - There are two handwritten speeches: “I Have Wandered in my Dreams,” is a Commencement speech from 1870 whose author is unknown. The Annual Report for that year lists Mary F. Chadwick and Rosalie A. Collins as presenters of "honorary essays," and Katie L. Wilson was valedictorian. And "The Child's Ability to Reason" was a valedictory essay written by Ira Collins, but read by O. Watson Flavelle, due to Collins’ ill health at June 1899 Commencement.

Graduation or Commencement Bulletins - These are newsletters that contain information and schedule of events around the Commencement ceremony. c. 1969-1999

Graduation Convocation program - During some years, the college held an August graduation combined with the annual Convocation ceremony. These programs document those ceremonies, c. 1960-1967.

Scrapbooks - There are two scrapbooks in this series: The older scrapbook (c. 1873-1921) contains ephemera related to Commencement such as invitations, tickets, and programs for Senior class activities and the Commencement ceremony from the era of the Normal School.

In the 1908-1932 scrapbook, many of the Commencement programs only have the page with the events of the day and do not have the cover and/or a page listing the graduate’s names. Starting in 1918, some of them have the page with graduates’ names, but they were at one time pasted into a notebook that has since been disassembled but the back pages of the brochures may not be accessible and/or readable.