This booklet outlines the events of one of the Thencanic Society's "entertainments." The main item was Howard Hanson's farce-comedy "An Equilateral Triangle," the text of which does not survive. It does, however, include the names (or at least the first two initials) of the participating members, as well as their class years. No transcription, as the booklet is typed.
Thencanic Society (Model School (Trenton, N.J.))This booklet came from the third annual debate between the Thencanic Society and Mu Alpha, the debate society at the Peddie Institute (today the Peddie School) of Hightstown, New Jersey. Though it does not include the year, it is most likely dated to around 1900-1904 given the presence of Kenneth H. Lanning (Model Class of 1904). In addition to several musical pieces by the State Schools Orchestra, the event featured a debate on restricting immigration into the United States. No transcription, as the booklet is typed.
unknownAt the end of the 1904-1905 academic year, the Thencanic Society held a reunion banquet for its members and alumni, the product of which was this booklet. The event included a number of speeches by past Thencanic Presidents (and James M. Green). Perhaps most importantly, the booklet elaborates the names of the Thencanic's presidents through the February 1905 term. A partial transcription, covering only the autographs, is included.
A note: Trentoniana owns two copies of this booklet, which are identical aside from the autographs section. The first three pages of the attached PDF cover the entirety of the first copy, while the final page is the only unique part of the second.
Thencanic Society (Model School (Trenton, N.J.))This booklet from the 1903 Model School commencement includes lists of graduating students, their home towns, and their area of study. It also contains the list of commencement exercises. Of some note is the mention of an essay given by honor student Charlotta Miller on the Black poet and author Paul Lawrence Dunbar, which has unfortunately not survived. The student roster also includes several surnames that appear in other classes from around this period, namely Britton, De Cou, and Bosworth; these students may be siblings of those sharing their name. Some students from the Class of 1904 also appear. No transcription.
New Jersey State Normal School (Trenton, N.J.)This small booklet records the Class Day exercises for the Model School's Class of 1904, depicting the class roster, the order of exercises, and the names of students performing. A reproduction of the corresponding commencement booklet can be found in "History of the Model Class of 1904" (see related materials below). No transcription.
New Jersey State Normal School (Trenton, N.J.)This small booklet likely comes from the same unknown "black paper backing" scrapbook as several other documents from around 1918. It details the fifth annual debate between several debating societies of the New Jersey State Normal School and several from Pennsylvania's Swarthmore College. The topic for the debate, which took place amid American intervention in the First World War, regards whether colleges should substitute military training for athletics during the war. No transcription.
unknownThis 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.
New Jersey State Normal School (Trenton, N.J.)This grouping contains two items from very early Model School commencements. The first is a small invitation to the 1878 commencement ceremony at Taylor Opera House, in Trenton. The second is a (partly torn) booklet from the 1880 commencement, including a list of events and the names of the graduating students. No transcriptions, as the documents are typed.
This small booklet, held together by a red-and-silver ribbon, came from the first triennial (every 3 years) reunion of the Model School Class of 1904. The booklet outlines some speeches given by members of the class and the names of each student. A partial transcription of the autographs 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.