Emily Lyman Storer Scrapbook

The Emily Lyman Storer scrapbook contains the one volume scrapbook of Emily Storer, Bryn Mawr College Class of 1910. The scrapbook consists of materials from 1906-1927, largely comprising Bryn Mawr memorabilia and documentation of cultural events and extracurriculars specific to this institution. Coverage of the last decade of this range is sparse, but meaningful. It offers a valuable perspective on the social life and traditions of Bryn Mawr Students during the early twentieth century, especially regarding the topics of performance and drama as tradition.

The scrapbook consists of one volume and is organized chronologically. It contains ephemera and photographs depicting Lyman’s Class of 1910, including extensive transcriptions of class song lyrics; detailed documentation of each year’s conferment of degrees, complete with images of the graduating class; paper artifacts (e.g. invitations, scripts, playbills) and photographs from plays held on campus in the spirit of both recreation and inter-class year tradition(s); dance cards and notes from social acquaintances, as well as invitations to student dinners and parties; extant exam documents; photographic documentation of the varsity sports teams of the college, in particular the basketball and hockey associations; and photographs of the campus of Bryn Mawr College itself.

While documenting many Bryn Mawr traditions, this scrapbook contains a wealth of May Day material (e.g. photographs, press, itineraries).

President Taft’s guest appearance at the Class of 1910 Conferment of Degrees is another highly covered event in this account.

Each of the photographs detailed above is carefully captioned, identifying persons therewithin and their activities, and the occasional paired newspaper clipping provides context of simultaneous college administrative politics and mounting suffragette movement.

This scrapbook’s organization and maintenance of Bryn Mawr memorabilia sheds light on not only the standard social practices for young women of the day, but also the complex Bryn Mawr-specific events and traditions and their unique role in fostering a campus politics during the beginning of the early twentieth-century suffragette movement. The centrality of theater and performance to these events and traditions is also clarified and may be studied to glean general campus atmosphere at the time.