Part II – My College Years:

Feminine Appeal: Collegiate Fashions

College women captured the American imagination during the early twentieth century. Popular magazines like Ladies Home Journal and Scribner’s captured collegiate life and fashions providing context and aspiration for college bound women. During this period, the collegiate was codified around a balance of respectability and femininity. Women typically wore outfits that consisted of a shirtwaist (a blouse or shirt), skirtwaist, and a skirt. Collegiate women would also accessorize their outfits with scarves, necklaces and ties. Mount Holyoke required women to wear knee length skirts.

^{_{Three images, each of a different pair of students in front of various dorms, circa 1910-1920}}

^{_{Paper dolls from Betty Bonnet’s College sister showing the college fashions of the time, circa 1910-1920}}

^{_{Two images, one of a student with a coat and muff in front of Abbey Chapel, one of students in costume for May Day, circa 1910-1920}}

^{_{Students wear muff handwarmers in the cold weather with Safford Hall in the background, circa 1910-1920}}

“Fellows generally are jealous of a girls college that has any kind of standard anyway”

Mount Holyoke is a rigorous college that challenges its students to push themselves intellectually. Hortense Hubbard highlights these challenges in her letter to her family in 1915. What are some of the strategies you might employ to meet the demands of your coursework this semester?

^{_{Hortense Hubbard’s letter to her family, February 21, 1915. Click on the image to read the full letter.}}

Cheap Thrills: Social Life

^{_{Six images of students standing on bridges, as well as on a porch and in an attic, circa 1910-1920}}

While Mount Holyoke offered students a challenging academic experience, students also found ways to seek out entertainment on and off campus with silent movies featuring Mary Pickford or Charlie Chaplin, hikes, and automobile rides.