WELLESLEY COLLEGE.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Photographs of college life. A visual record of life at the elite Wellesley College circa 1917-20, likely compiled by one of its students. The photographs show young women enjoying the highest standard of advanced education available to them in the US. They are captured celebrating academic achievements, and engaging in the freedom and creativity afforded to them by collegiate life.Wellesley College was founded in 1870 as an undergraduate college for women and was a founding member of the Seven Sisters consortium in 1915. The photographs show students and staff engaging in academic rituals, including graduation and the "Tree Day" celebrations. Some images show students holding banners dated 1918 and 1919, and others can be dated to 1917, 1919, and 1920 through comparison to photographs from Wellesley College Archives.Several photographs are dedicated to the college's buildings, many of which were built under the direction of the president, Ellen Fitz Pendleton, following a destructive fire in 1914. Pendleton, who was herself a graduate of Wellesley, appears in the photographs and in a portrait print. Another key figure present is Emily Greene Balch, a Professor of Economics who was fired from Wellesley in 1917 for refusing to support US efforts in WWI, at the behest of the trustees; Pendleton, who supported intellectual freedom, opposed her dismissal. Balch was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1946 for her work with the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. The

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.