UVA History of Childhood, Parenting, and Family Building-addition 92 Phoebe Rush yearbook

Content Description

This addition to MSS 16758, The University of Virginia Collection on the History of Childhood, Parenting, and Family Building, contains a vernacular manuscript yearbook created and maintained by Phoebe Rush, a student at Jonesville Academy in Clifton Park, NY, between 1859 and 1865. The book is gilt “Rose Bud Album” on its leather-bound cover and contains thirty-nine manuscript pages, six portrait photographs, an original drawing, and two pasted-in obituaries. The book was presented to Rush upon her arrival at the co-ed boarding school by Principal Wetsell and was used throughout her enrollment as a personal autograph album and yearbook. Entries by classmates, both men and women, include typical autograph album inscriptions as well as more personal reflections on friendship, future aspirations, and the nature of written communication. Several entries are accompanied by portrait photographs of the authors. One page features a lineup of portraits. The volume also contains six death notices added by Rush in pencil, two of which include pasted obituaries. Deaths recorded reflect the period's prevalent illnesses, consumption and pneumonia among them, as well as losses presumed attributable to Civil War service. The manuscript offers primary source documentation of academic life, cross-gender social relationships, and the experiences of young people during the antebellum and Civil War periods. Jonesville Academy, founded in 1836, offered “Academic, Commercial, Classical, and Ornamental Education” to approximately 181 resident students at the time of Rush's enrollment in the mid-nineteenth century.

Acquisition Type

Purchase

Provenance

Purchased from Magnolia Rare Books

Language of Description

English

Script of Description

Latin

Restrictions Apply

No