Wish You Were Here

October 5, 2012 Rick Teller '70 Leave a comment

The Old Neighborhood

A Tuck’s Post Card of the Williston Seminary Campus on Main Street. (Click all images to enlarge.)

Around the turn of the 20th century, the United States and Europe were swept by a craze for postcards. Useful not only for mail, the cards were snapped up by scrapbookers and collectors. Cities and towns, large and small, published “views.” They were a source of civic pride. Easthampton was no exception. In fact, largely through the enthusiasm of a local shopkeeper and photography buff named Charles J. Keene,¹ Easthampton was featured in more postcard images than any other U.S. location except New York. The Williston Northampton Archives hold nearly 300 postcards of the school and the town.

A view up Main Street, with Shop Row, the Methodist Church, and Town Hall to the left, the campus at right.

Many of the older and more attractive cards were published by Raphael Tuck & Co., ca. 1890-1915, although the photographs used for the cards sometimes dated from the 1880’s or even earlier. Tuck developed a process of tinting black and white photographs to produce color images via lithographic printing. When images were colorized, they were often altered to include vehicles and people not present in the original photographs.

An earlier issue of the preceding image, without the added people and vehicles.

¹Keene’s other claim to Williston Northampton fame is that he lived in what is now French House.

(“Wish You Were Here” will be a regular feature of “From the Archives,” probably until we run out of postcards.)

A colorized version of the preceding postcard. The First Church and the High School are visible in the background.

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Posted in: Campus and Building History, Easthampton History, Williston Seminary, Wish You Were Here

Home, Sweet Home

September 22, 2012 Rick Teller '70 2 Comments

Among the great themes in private school life, dorm room decoration is, perhaps, insufficiently recognized as one of the Great Traditions.

But consider the first image below, taken in North Hall in 1903. All the elements of modern-day student interior decoration are present. The overall theme might be described as “Eclecticism, and Too Much Of It.” There is an emphasis on advertising and clipped photographs, especially portraits of unattainable celebrities of opposite gender.

Perhaps the impression of young gentlemen sitting up straight and reading in their jackets and ties doesn’t seem quite real, but it is somewhat mitigated by paper that didn’t quite hit the wastebasket.

Herbert B. Howe’s room in North Hall, 1903. (Howe Scrapbook) (Click all images to enlarge)

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Posted in: Campus and Building History, Northampton School for Girls, Student Life, Williston Academy, Williston Northampton School, Williston Seminary

The Charles Fred. White Story

By Peter Valine

September 10, 2012 Rick Teller '70 2 Comments

Guest blogger Peter Valine has taught history and social science at Williston Northampton since 1998, and was appointed Dean of the Faculty in 2010. He presented the following at the opening-of-school faculty meeting on August 30, 2012.

Thinking about how to start the year, I wanted an opening that was inspirational — something to fuel and direct the positive energy of this moment. I wanted an opening that would engage us — and hold our interest. I wanted an opening with an underlying message — that gave context and meaning to our gathering together at the beginning of the year. In thinking about how to accomplish these aims (inspiration, engagement, and an underlying message), I came to the realization that I needed to tell a story.

Charles Fred. White in 1908 (Click all images to enlarge)

I’ll be honest, I wanted to start the year with an Olympic story — a Williston Olympian who through purpose, passion, and integrity rose to the ranks of an Olympic medal winner — but my research revealed that the Olympic legacy of Williston athletes is actually quite modest. So I went to the Archives for inspiration, and was led to the life of Charles Fred. White, whose story serves my purposes perhaps even better than a Williston athlete who gained Olympic fame and glory.

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Posted in: Alumni & Alumnae, Archivist's Bookshelf, Easthampton History, Guest Bloggers, Publications, Williston Seminary

Emily Speaks

September 1, 2012 Rick Teller '70 Leave a comment

Long after she’d stopped sewing buttons herself, Emily Graves Williston remained responsible for instructing other employees of the S. Williston Button Co. (See the earlier post, The Button Mill.) According to Baron of Buttons, a highly entertaining, if occasionally spurious unpublished biography of Samuel Williston by Guy Richard Carpenter, class of 1905, Emily told her charges that

“Buttons on a girl’s dress are just as noticeable as her nose. Buttons should be trim and neat and they should set so well that they give a burnish to her whole turnout. One fraying button or one loose button, to my eye, is like a sunburned, peeling nose — I just can’t bring myself to see anything else. Buttons of choice silk and true color make the whole dress seem richer. I like to think all our buttons make folk look and feel richer. Father Payson says that on a girl a pretty button, like a pretty nose, is not to be sneezed at.” (G. R. Carpenter, Baron of Buttons, undated typescript, The Williston Northampton Archives)

One of the things we at Williston Northampton try to instill in our history students is a critical facility concerning information sources: perhaps a healthy dose of skepticism when data or quotes of questionable provenance seem just too good to be true. This would appear to be one of those instances. But it’s still a good quote!

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Posted in: Easthampton History, Founders

The Old Neighborhood

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