Call number

BC 15.8

Extent

2 bound volumes, 1 custom box; 4 linear feet

Valentine's Day Themed Page from the Sophie Parsons Woodman Scrapbook. Image courtesy of the Barnard College Archives.

Abstract

The Sophie Parsons Woodman Scrapbooks were compiled by Woodman during her time at Barnard College.  Material is arranged chronologically, and the scrapbooks have been conserved.  Material includes newsclippings, photographs, and personal ephemera.

Biographical Note

Sophie Parsons Woodman was born in 1886 in New York City.  Woodman entered Barnard College in 1903 and graduated in 1907.  She served as the historian of her junior class, the president of the Barnard chapter of the Young Women’s Christian Association, and was a founding member of the New York Beta chapter of the Pi Beta Phi fraternity for women.  After graduation, she established the Barnard Alumnae Bulletin in 1912, serving as the first editor.  She earned a MA at Columbia in 1930, and went on to teach history at Evander Childs High School in the Bronx.  Woodman was a member of the American Association of University Women.

Description of the Sophie Parsons Woodman Scrapbooks

Sophie Parsons Woodman, Barnard College Class of 1907, compiled Barnard-related material for two years during her time at Barnard (1905-1907).  Material includes clippings of newspaper articles about Barnard, amateur black and white photographs, formal portraits, invitations to college events, dance cards, programs, sorority memorabilia from Pi Beta Phi, and play brochures.  A more personal tidbit from the collection is a place-card from the 1907 Senior Supper, which reads “Everything comes/to those who wait,/and the Lazy Man/waits to greet it/but success comes up/with a rapid gait/to the fellow/who goes to meet it.”  Also included in the collection are press clippings about “Barnard Tree Day,” when the classes planted a tree in the Milbank Quad, as well as instructions and a timetable for the events of the ceremony.  This collection has a more thorough photographic record than most scrapbooks of both official college and unofficial events.  A custom box holds materials that are not flat, such as a pressed, dried rose, a flag from Deutscher Kreis at Barnard College, and the original boards of the scrapbook before conservation.

The scrapbook collection is housed in two bound volumes (arranged chronologically) and in a custom-sized flat box (which houses three dimensional ephemera and is arranged chronologically.)  The original page where the physical ephemera has been removed from is noted, both on the page and the conservation house.  A complete microfilm copy of the scrapbooks are available.

Access

This collection has no restrictions.
This collection is located on-site.

Restrictions on Use and Copyright Information

Single photocopies may be made for research purposes.  Permission to publish material from the collection must be requested from the Barnard College Archives.  The Barnard College Archives approves permission to publish that which it physically owns; the responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.

Location

Barnard Library
Barnard College Archives
Lehman Hall Room 19
3009 Broadway
New York, NY  10027