The Hermonite - Volume: LXIV (44), Number: VI (6) - Archives - Schauffler Library at Schauffler Library, Northfield Mount Hermon School

The Hermonite - Volume: LXIV (44), Number: VI (6)

photo of Hermonite issue from opened bound volume

The Hermonite - Volume: LXIV (44), Number: VI (6)

Here is a photograph of the November 22, 1930 issue of The Hermonite from the 1930-31 academic year. Let's take a look at some of the articles to see if we can find some related archival materials!

Seniors Will Enjoy Party This Evening

This short article about a party for senior Mount Hermon students at Northfield can be found on the front page of the Nov. 22, 1930 issue. It concludes with the following sentiment: “By ten o’clock the party will be over, and our Seniors’ first adventure to Northfield will become 'just a memory.'" As archivists and librarians, it is our mission to collect, preserve, promote, and make accessible the materials in our care. It is our responsibility to help ensure that these memories live on.

theater program pasted on pink page of scrapbook "At Silverthorne Hall" in cursive at top of page

Northfield Student Scrapbook - Program

Thankfully, a Northfield Seminary student felt similarly. Marion A. Fernandez '35 kept a scrapbook of her freshman (fact check) year at school, and was likely present for the festivities of Nov. 16, 1930. We can't say for certain. But we do know that she saw fit to collect the program from the Dream Pictures show. If you want to learn more about Ms. Fernandez, you can find her senior photo and some club photographs in the Commencement Issue of the Northfield Star. This is available along with the other bound volumes in the printer room of Schauffler Library.

page of scrapbook with multiple items including a handmade envelope in the style of a USPS letter, and a program, note in bottom corner about prediction for 1999

Northfield Student Scrapbook - Ephemera

Mid-November and the lead-up to Thanksgiving is always an exciting time, and it was no different for the students of 1930. Marion created a program of events for the night before Thanksgiving (which she and her friends apparently did not follow!). We also know that Marion stayed in Room 87 of the Northfield Inn on that Wednesday, Nov. 26, and that she had to toast classmate Eileen Wilson at the Thanksgiving Dinner. In 1930, the year 1999 was still a little way off...

Turkey Feathers

cartoon from newspaper shows handwritten letters with a turkey bursting through them

Turkey Feathers

Across the river, the Mount Hermon students were looking forward to their own Thanksgiving traditions.This cartoon from the front page of the Nov. issue we are investigating so closely commemorates the practice of sending letters home around that time of year. For many years, Thanksgiving was held at both Northfield and Mount Hermon and a Thanksgiving Day Service and meal were provided to students and returning alumni alike.

Student Traditions > Thanksgiving > Programs

The collection of Thanksgiving programs from Mount Hermon is thorough with programs from 1886 to 1952 represented. Could we learn anything by looking at the changing menus over time? As archivists we cannot anticipate the inquiries, but we can make the materials available!

page from autograph book with names, addresses, dates, and comments

The Saturday after Thanksgiving

The students who signed their names in the scrapbook may have written home for the holidays. Or, they may have visited their families after the Thanksgiving Day service. We don't know why this day in particular, but members of the Hayward Agricultural Club saw fit to sign this autograph book with their names and addresses on Saturday, Nov. 29 of 1930. This book was kept by a fellow member of the club and was donated to the school years later.

image of The Hayward Club from the yearbook

Hayward Agricultural Club

The Hayward Agricultural Club was a one of a number of literary societies at Mount Hermon. These began as societies devoted to discourse and betterment, but eventually turned into something more closely resembling exclusive fraternities. The earliest of these societies formed in the late 1880s. As a whole, the practice was abolished by the faculty in 1942. To learn more about the literary societies of Mount Hermon, you can look in the "Clubs and Societies" collection. More specifically, you can look in the "Individual" sub-series of the "Literary Societies" series.

Haywards Conduct Chapel Exercises

cutout article from The Hermonite titled "Haywards Condcut Chapel Exercises"

Haywards Conduct Chapel Exercises

The literary societies certainly did their part to contribute to campus culture. Our Hermonite issue of interest features an article detailing an event the group helped to coordinate at Memorial Chapel in the weeks prior to publication.

Memorial Chapel

The chapel you know and love wasn't the chapel of November 1930. In fact, the final months of 1930 were the final months of the chapel of yore. A major renovation was complete by the early summer of 1931. Though we cannot date it to 1930, here is a picture from the pews to the pulpit before the renovation. The chapel exercises in 1930 would have occurred in a setting very much like this.

The Organist Carlton "L'Hommy" L'Hommedieu

If you were one of the students in those pews, a common site, and delight to the ears I’m sure, would have been Mr. L’Hommedieu playing the wonderful Estey Organ. Both this photograph and the photograph of the chapel pre-renovation are part of the "Buildings and Grounds" collection in the Northfield Mount Hermon archives. Further, they are in the "Memorial Chapel" sub-series of the "Northfield Mount Hermon (former Mount Hermon) Campus" series.

Students Enjoy First Half Hour of Music

The admirers of classical music were treated well at Mount Hermon. These Half Hours were seemingly bi-weekly events held at least from the late 1920s. to the early 1930s. We know this because of the programs housed in the archives. We even know what songs were played! This article references Sunday Nov. 16, 1930 which was the first and the last Half Hour of Music at Memorial Hall of the 1930-31 academic year due to the upcoming renovations. If you want to see the program, you'll have to read the rest of the article in the printer room!

stack of programs from the half hours of music, the one on top shows the program setlist for Sunday April 12 1931

Performing Arts > Music > Events

As mentioned above, you can see the program in the newspaper article which is great because we don't have a program for this event! But we do have programs from numerous other Half Hours of Music. They can be found by navigating the "Performing Arts" collection, "Music" series, "Events" sub-series.

runners on dirt road running by Schauffler Library

The Pie Race

One school tradition that has no shortage of documentation is the Pie Race. This event was also written up in the Nov. 22, 1930 issue of The Hermonite. And while we don't know for sure, this photo of runners is very likely from that year. This was a particularly remarkable year for the race. If you want to know why, you'll just have to read about it!