Handwritten Books and Albums by Susie Minerva Lawson 1898

History

This collection of notebooks, photo albums, and autograph albums cover several decades of Susie's life, from high school to beyond college.

The Images

The covers of the books are available here, plus a little bit of a description for each.

• Autograph album (1882-1886)
  
  • Inscriptions written to Susie from family and hometown (Union, Conn.) friends
    

• Autograph album (1890)
  
  • Created from a square album; the cover is cut into a triangle and the interior pages are folded into quarters
    
  • Each folded page is signed on the outside by a high school friend, and many have an inscription asking Susie not to unfold the page and read it until a particular date
    
  • The notes inside the folded pages are typical of yearbook inscriptions: memories, good wishes
    
  • According to the inscriptions, Susie was slated to graduate in 1892 from "HFHS" which is Hitchcock Free High School in Brimfield, Mass.
    

• Diary (1893)
  
  • Each day of the diary is half a page, and Susie used it most days throughout the year
    

• German texts (1895)
  
  • Published by American Book Company in 1895
    
  • "To ... provide specimens of German literature"
    
  • 23 pages long
    

• Notebook (1897)
  
  • Psychology, fall term 1897
    
  • Dated notes on lectures or readings
    

• Notebook (1898)
  
  • Notes or assignments from several classes. The first appears to be an English class
    
  • The second class is Ethics, spring term 1898, professor Dr. Muir
    
  • About a third of the pages are left unfilled at the back of the notebook
    

• Photo album (c. 1903-1905?)
  
  • The snapshots are unidentified and undated
    
  • Twenty-five photographs and five cyanotypes
    
  • Almost all the subjects are young black people, suggesting this may be Tougaloo University, Miss.
    
  • Susie taught at Tougaloo University in 1903-1905
    

• Photo album (undated, before 1907)
  
  • Inscription on the cover identifies the location as Springfield, Ill.
    
  • Fifteen glued-down snapshots and three loose snapshots
    
  • One loose snapshot identifies George M. Lawson and family in Springfield, Ill. on the reverse (Grace, Paul, Clara, Uncle George, Aunt Mattie, Charles, Edith)
    
  • One glued-down snapshot identifies Grace, Paul and Mattie with ink in the front margin
    
  • Edith died in 1907, so that helps narrow down the date. Clothing suggests it was 1900-1907.
    

• Notebook (undated)
  
  • Poems handwritten by Susie
    
  • None of the transcriptions are dated, but searching details on the poets, the poems sampled dated between 1891 and 1911.
    

• Photo album (undated)
  
  • Inscription on the cover identifies the location as Orange Park, Fla.
    
  • Sixteen unlabeled shots slid into slots in the pages, and two loose snapshots