Louise Boyer scrapbook

Content Description

This collection contains the college scrapbook of Louise Boyer. Boyer attended the School of Education at the Hampton Institute, now Hampton University, in Hampton, Virginia. Hampton Institute, a historically Black college, was founded in 1868 as the Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School by the American Missionary Association for the education of the formerly enslaved. Louise Alberta Boyer of Delaware City, Delaware, attended the Institute for the two-year teaching training matriculation, graduating first in her class in 1932. Boyer’s scrapbook, gilt on its cover with “The Girl Graduate’s Journal,” chronicles her final year and graduation at the Hampton Institute. Boyer completed many of the writing prompts of the book, outlining her experience as a college student, noting her friends and studies, and her extracurricular activities. In the book’s “About Myself” section, Boyer included a newspaper clipping documenting her award for the highest grade point average at the Institute among two-year program students. She also documented her role as class president within the book, calling fellow student officials “a fine staff of workers.” There are thirty-nine autograph entries from peers, professors, and others who associated with Boyer, many with accompanying messages, poems, and wishes for her success. Also included is a photograph of Louise’s class of School of Education students, each identified in a caption underneath. Photographs, pennants, articles, and other ephemera associated with Boyer’s participation in the school’s field hockey team, local YMCA, and NAACP are also included. Several of Boyer’s grade reports are pasted towards the back of the scrapbook, as is a program for her 1932 graduation. Graduation cards given to Louise are tipped in throughout the book, with some pasted in at the back half. An uncaptioned postcard of three men, a 1942 Valentine’s Day card signed “Edmund”, and a 1936 calendar are tipped in at the front of the scrapbook. After graduating from the Hampton Institute, Louise Boyer returned to Delaware and taught in Wilmington Public Schools for several decades. She simultaneously remained active with the United Negro College Fund and the area NAACP chapter, from which she received an outstanding service certificate in 1948, tipped into her scrapbook.

Acquisition Type

Purchase

Provenance

Purchased from Langdon Manor, 29 July 2025.

Language of Description

English

Script of Description

Latin

Restrictions Apply

No

Use Restrictions

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