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A letter by William H. Phelps, first Normal School Principal, to the Judges of the New Jersey Court of Errors and Appeals, inviting them to examine programs of the institution. Phelps includes a list of events to occur. The letterhead features a printed image of the Normal School main building. This letter was a gift of Charles S. Aitkins, 1935.

Transcription:
[letterhead with lithograph of the Normal School building in Trenton, captioned “New Jersey State Normal School”]
Trenton, June 18th, 1857
To the Honorable the Judges of the Court of Errors and Appeals:
I am directed by the Board of Trustees of the State Normal School to extend to your Honorable Body a cordial invitation to attend the Examination of the Institution now in progress and to conclude this day.
The order of the day is as follows:
Examination of classes from the Model School until 12 o’clock noon.
Review and rehearsal by the Divisions in Local Music
An address by Prof. J. C. Moffat of the College of New Jersey [Princeton University], and select performances of the Glee Class, including the grand chorus from Handel’s Messiah.
Hoping that the engagements of your Honorable Body will permit you to accept this invitation.
I remain [great] respect
Your obedient Sevt.
Wm. Phelps, Principal

This brochure offers insight into the Normal and Model Schools' course offerings, their tuition and expenses rates, and some of the principles underlying the school's education. The gender division of the Model School (but not the Normal School) is of particular note, as is the significantly higher annual tuition for the Model School. No transcription.

This collection of four receipts for tuition, room, and board at the Model School gives insight into how much it cost to attend the de facto elite institution. The first two vouchers, made out to a John McCormick and from around 1862, show that the Normal School charged about $8.00 in tuition in its first decades. According to census statistics, an average New Jersey laborer spent about $2.50 per week on bread, so this was not an unsubstantial amount of money!

Forty years later, in 1902-1903, George Hildebrecht (owner of Trenton's Hotel Hildebrecht) paid $10.50 for per quarter for his son Albert. At this time, based on census statistics, this would have equaled about half a day's wages for the average Trenton industrial laborer.

No transcriptions, as the documents are largely typed.

One letter, regarding books of interest to Dynes. She reports that her students “enthuse over the courteous and helpful treatment they receive” from the library staff.

Transcription:
605 Monmouth St.
Trenton N.J. Feb. 8 1904
Mr. Adam J. Strohm, Librarian
of Trenton Free Public Library
Dear Sir:
Your favor of February fifth just received. I am very greatly obliged to you for the trouble you have taken to secure the books recommended. You are quite right in regard to [George] Kitchin. It was his “History of France” [https://archive.org/details/historyoffrance02kitc] that I suggested. With this I inclose card as suggested with correct title, but am not sure whether the author’s initials are H.M. or or [sic] not. I am familiar with H. Morse Stephens’s The French Revolution [https://archive.org/details/cu31924024309480] and his Orators of the Revolution [https://archive.org/details/principalspeeche02stepuoft], and I imagine that he is the author of the work on the card [no longer extant] but cannot remember.
May I take this opportunity of expressing my very great appreciation of the work being done by you, and your corps of assistants? I cannot express in words how much the library has increased the value of the work I am trying to do, and added to the material aid is the object lesson daily shown in courtesy and sympathetic assistance to young people who are very crude and often trying. I am constantly hearing students enthuse over the courteous and helpful treatment they receive. It is certainly most gratifying to have the library so efficiently managed and we are anxious to show our appreciation of the work.
Respectfully yours,
Sarah A. Dynes
Dept. of History State Normal

Content warning: This yearbook uses a swastika motif as a border for its pages. Although the book dates to the period when this symbol was in fashion in the West and before its adoption by the Nazi Party, it nevertheless appears prominently throughout the work.

This yearbook for the Model Class of 1915, one of the last before the school's closure in 1917, is one of the few known extant Model School yearbooks. Aside from the normal items in a yearbook--class photos, a list of officers, a class history--this volume includes an account of the "Class Horse" and advertisements for Trenton area businesses. A partial transcript of the annotations by the original owner is included.

Please note that one corner of page is torn, affecting Isabel Clark's photograph and part of Hortense Daily's biography.

The method by which this booklet was printed, particularly the photographs, means that scanning does not accurately capture the images. Furthermore, the size of this PDF file has been reduced for uploading. A full-sized version of the scanned booklet is available by request of Trentoniana.

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 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.

Little context is known about this certificate for stock in the "Trenton State Normal Student and Alumni Camping Association," which was presumably a group formed to arrange camping excursions among the Normal School's past and present students. This share was issued to Margaret Freas, Normal Class of 1925, and is signed by Ruth Cornelison and Don C. Bliss. No transcription.