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Content warning: Gasn’s diary refers to students in special education classes in derogatory terms.

These four diaries describe the lives and activities of women at the New Jersey State Normal School. They also document their first teaching experiences from the school’s earliest days in 1855 to 1920, when the enrollment and curriculum had significantly expanded and the school would soon become a college.

It is not known whether or not, or where, Ida Totten might have attended a Normal School or received teacher training, but in the fall term of 1883, she began a diary to record her first experience of teaching in Greenville (now called Greendell) School, in Sussex County. She described her frustrations with named children in her class and the challenges of disciplining them, as well as her activities at home on the weekends including attending temperance meetings and church. The final pages of the diary are from May 1884 and contain notes from Page’s Theory and Practice of Teaching, so perhaps she was continuing her teaching education, or had not yet graduated (if she did).

The format of Reba Gasn’s diary has two years on a single page: entries for 1919 are written on the top of the page, and 1920 is on the bottom; the two years are often also delineated by black and blue ink. She documented her day-to-day life in school, her hobbies, social life, meals enjoyed (and not), and activities with family and friends on breaks at home near the shore. She also writes of anti-semitism she experienced in Trenton, as well as her many illnesses.

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

Predominately contains 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.

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 from c. 1873 to 1921.

The Gertrude Scudder Bodine Collection of Alice Brewster Letters predominantly contains handwritten personal letters on personal stationery documenting the activities and thoughts of Alice Brewster. They were written to her former student and friend Gertrude Scudder Bodine and sometimes included Gertrude’s sister-in-law Elizabeth “Lizzie” Bodine, from 1939 to 1959.

The letters describe Brewster’s life in Portsmouth and North Woodstock, New Hampshire. She describes travel and family interactions, participating in antique fairs, and attending the Trenton State College centennial celebration in 1955, among other topics.

Some of the letters and envelopes have been annotated by Gertrude Bodine who indicated in her donation letter that she withheld certain letters and portions of others due to their personal content. The annotations highlight topics and humor written by Alice Brewster and appear to have been written and compiled for a posthumous 100th birthday event in 1968.

The papers also include two poetry booklets written by Brewster, Bodine’s correspondence planning Brewster’s 1958 birthday fund (financial support to assist Brewster as she struggled with failing eyesight and took on the care of her sister-in-law after her brother’s death), ephemera for the 1968 event, and a photograph of Brewster and an individual noted as Wilmer at the summer cottage.

The Seal Yearbooks 1911-1917.

The contents of this box comprise Recording Secretary's Minutes books, minutes from Executive Board meetings, and agendas for those meetings. The first Recording Secretary, Frank N. Scobey, began taking notes at the first meeting on May 20, 1889. The first constitution of the Alumni Association was adopted on June 4, 1889. Additionally, recording secretaries pasted news clippings and statements into their books, including the June 11, 1921 statement expressing "high regard and deep affection" for the late Dr. James M. Green.

More generally, there are descriptions of happenings on campus (Trenton, then Hillwood Lakes), annual reunions and class days, scholarships, financial reports, correspondence with principals and presidents, ephemera from events, board member listings, and fundraising, among other topics.

Other details of individual items are listed in the individual folder descriptions.

Iona Fackler Myers kept binders of notes taken during meetings, correspondence, officers' service records, ephemera from Alumni Association events such as Homecoming, clippings, fundraising, Harold Eickhoff's Presentation to the Commission on the Future of State Colleges from 1983, 10th Anniversary Celebration of the Brower Student Center, state college autonomy, and more. The items were removed from the binders due to their deterioration. Additionally, the original order of materials in the binders has been kept, which results in many items being out of chronological order. The binders span 1971-1987, 1983-1986, 1974-1987, and 1970-1977.