Brass name stencil for S. E. Wolverton. The stencils in this collection likely pre-date Clara Wolverton, (possibly mid-19th century on), and their original owner is unknown.
unknownBrass name stencil for S. C. Wolverton. The stencils in this collection likely pre-date Clara Wolverton, (possibly mid-19th century on), and their original owner is unknown, though her mother’s married initials start with S. C..
unknownThe photograph shows students and faculty sitting and standing on the steps of the school. They are located in front of the main doors to the school building. In the bottom center of the photograph is a sign that reads "February Class of 1904."
New Jersey State Normal School (Trenton, N.J.)Plate 29 of 48 in the 1930 edition of Franklin Survey Company's Real Estate Plat-Book of the City of Trenton and Borough of Princeton, Mercer County, New Jersey. This plate depicts the Coalport/North Clinton neighborhood of Trenton, where the Normal and Model School campus was located--the school buildings are located on the lot at the corner of Clinton Avenue and Perry Street, while the dormitories are situated along Model Avenue, across from the main campus. By the end of the 1930s, the college had moved to the Hillwood Lakes Campus, and by the end of the 1950s most of this neighborhood had been razed in the name of "urban renewal." The site of the Normal and Model Schools is currently occupied by the U.S. Grant Intermediate School.
Note that this volume is not considered part of the same physical collection as the State Normal and Model Schools collection, instead being part of Trentoniana's historical maps.
The photograph shows students and faculty sitting and standing on the steps of the school. They are located in front of the main doors to the school building. Three of the students are reclined lengthwise across the bottom of the group. There are young, Model School students in the windows in back of the faculty. In the bottom center of the photograph is a sign that reads "Normal 1904 June Class."
New Jersey State Normal School (Trenton, N.J.)The photograph shows students and faculty sitting and standing on the steps of the school. They are located in front of the main doors to the school building. In the bottom center of the photograph is a sign that reads "Normal June Class of '05." The back of the photo is inscribed with the following words: "Mr. Sauerborn will call for Wed noon 12 o'clock frame #8755 french glass $2.25."
New Jersey State Normal School (Trenton, N.J.)The Clara Wolverton Papers contain materials from her early education beginning in 1892, through Normal School, and her earliest teaching years ending in 1903. It comprises personal items such as her grades book, greeting cards, and notes of affection from her students, as well as professional items such as her teaching contracts and letters of recommendation, and also printed commencement programs and tickets and clippings. There are only a few items after this time period, and they document her involvement in the Red Cross and Botanical Society of Pennsylvania.
There are no materials related to teaching at Trenton Public Schools or attending University of Pennsylvania.
Her collection also initially contained six books, four of which were cataloged and added to the Historical Textbooks and General Collections of Gitenstein Library, and two were deaccessioned due to duplication.
Wolverton, Clara, 1879-1964The 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.
Pepper, Mildred Bard Charlesworth, 1895-1985The majority of the materials are related to Haskell’s education from primary through graduate school, with additional items from her early career and retirement. The Correspondence Series contains her first teaching recommendation letter in 1915, a teaching appointment notice, and a few personal letters ending in 1954. The Grade Cards and Transcripts Series span her eighth grade year in 1909 through a master’s degree program in 1938. The Ephemera Series comprises dinner and event programs she attended in her early career from 1923-1939. The Clippings Series (1937-1955) cover a variety of topics, as well as coverage of the 1955 Trenton State College centennial. The Prints Series includes four etchings or reproductions of St. Petersburg Florida churches inscribed: “for Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Wilhelm” by Will Kay Hagerman (Kent Hagerman). The Certificates and Diplomas Series span from her primary school years in 1904 through 1946. They include, among other items, her Normal School diploma and bachelor’s degree, as well as membership certificates to honorary sororities, Red Cross volunteer service, and her marriage certificate to Josiah Haskell.
Haskell, Lulu Clough, 1895-1970This 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.
College of New Jersey (Ewing, N.J.)