The photos in the album were stunning, not only in their execution but in the stories they told.
These photos offered a slice of life at Nazareth College in the mid-1930s: A 1935 commencement of women graduates with a double row of nuns standing on a raised porch in the background. Female students making a daisy chain, planting ivy and posing on a tennis court. Male and female cast members glancing at a script for the play “The Joyous Season” by Philip Barry. The 1936 queen of the May Day festival and her court.
But now, here they were on an auction table, tossed by someone who did not attach much value to them. It’s not unusual for me to find photos of family members from decades ago. These were different, though, because they were college photos and they seemed to have been taken not with a pocket Kodak but by someone who knew photography.
Photos always appeal to me because they get me to wondering about the people in them: who they were, how they lived, why they turned up here of all places. Like these, they usually show the history of the lives of everyday people (in this instance, at least, those everyday people who could afford college – and dress well, too).
The photos offered a glimpse of the fashions of the day, and the activities and celebrations that were considered important on Nazareth’s campus. Initially, I assumed the school was located in the Philadelphia area (there are so many colleges here that it’s hard to keep up with them). When I Googled, though, the only Nazareth College I could find was in Rochester, NY. It was opened in 1924 by the Sisters of St. Joseph, and its first class consisted of 25 women.
The album had likely belonged to someone who had attended the college and valued her time there, because both it and the photos were in very good condition. Most of the photos were of women, and the owner may have been in some of them. The events depicted in the photos were noted in captions but in most cases, the people were not individually identified.
I came upon the photo album while making my preview rounds of the tables at the auction house. It was lying among some other papers and ephemera, including a copy of a guidebook for the 1939 New York World’s Fair (I checked to see if African American sculptor Augusta Savage was mentioned – couldn’t find her name), a product catalog for the Pep Boys car service store and 1930s tour guides of Nova Scotia.
As I flipped through the album, I came upon a program for an event honoring a nun. “Silver Jubilee Greetings to Sister Climacus, Saturday, April 22, 1944,” was typed on the title page.
It consisted of songs praising the nun and written to the tune of “Jingle Bells,” “Yankee Doodle” and others. One of the songs referred to her as a teacher at St. Anthony’s.
As soon as I saw Sister Climacus’ name I recognized it. Across the room, it had been typed on the title page in an album of stories, puzzles and exercises that she had apparently compiled in 1946. The stories had a religious theme and they were written by Father Jo, Sister Marcelline and others. In one story, Father Jo had written a fairy tale about Tarzan (who was ubiquitous at the time), and Sister Marcelline had re-told the story of Our Lady of Fatima.
In the top left corner of the title page was a banner with the words “Immaculate Conception.” The stories were on newsprint but there was no indication of what newspaper or other publication they appeared in. I did find news articles from two New York newspapers in the back of the album.
There are probably more of these papers and photos in some back room at the auction house. I do wonder who they belonged to.
