UVA History of Childhood, Parenting, and Family Building-addition 73 Crofton Grange School Archive

Content Description

This addition to MSS 16758, The University of Virginia Collection on the History of Childhood, Parenting, and Family Building, contains eighteen volumes of records of the Crofton Grange School. The Crofton Grange School was established in 1900 by Mary Alice Lyster (1862-1950), who served as headmistress alongside her sister, Elizabeth Hester Lyster (1865-1942) until 1930. The school relocated several times before its final closure in 1964. Outlined in the Crofton Grange prospectus, the school's mission was to teach girls to "form their own opinions and develop on their own lines, and to adapt themselves cheerfully to whatever kind of life is in store for them in the changing world of today." The school's operation continued through 1930, when reports recorded the first outbreak of measles at the school, and through the Second World War. Eleven volumes, dating from 1930 to 1955, contain over 3,600 leaves of drawings, paintings in gouache and watercolor, manuscript poems, short stories, photographs, typed termly reports on Crofton Grange news, lectures, and sports records created by the students. These eleven volumes of manuscript material reflect the intellectual pursuits of Crofton Grange students, their fears and hopes, and their fascination with the themes of continuity and change in the twentieth-century world as the threat of war had become imminent in Europe. Four volumes of printed reports detail marriages, births, deaths, and news from alumnae under the titles of The Crofton Magazine (1920-1927), The Crofton Journal (1928-1933), and the Crofton Grange News-Letter (1934-1939). There is one photograph album with the initials of Mary Alice Lyster on its cover that contains over one hundred photographs of pupils and the Crofton Grange grounds. In addition to the album are two volumes: one is a vellum-bound manuscript presented to the Lyster sisters in 1921 on the twenty-first anniversary of the school's foundation, and an additional manuscript presented on their retirement in 1930 with the names of 249 Crofton Grange students and alumnae.

Acquisition Type

Purchase

Provenance

Purchased from Bernard Quartich, 26 August 2024.

Language of Description

English

Script of Description

Latin

Restrictions Apply

No