ArchI’ve Explored... Student Autograph Albums
Over the past two years, the Coronavirus pandemic and the consequent restrictions around socialising, travel and in-person meetings have caused many of us to think about, miss, and appreciate our friends more than ever. Accordingly, this post for Explore Your Archive week 2021 focuses on friendship, as expressed in three teacher training students’ autograph albums from the early twentieth century. These volumes are not autograph albums in the modern sense, as they do not contain the collected signatures of celebrities; rather, they contain inscriptions by the trainees’ fellow students, and might more appropriately be described as friendship books.
By the early 1900s, the practice of compiling autograph albums was long established, and was especially popular with school children and college and university students. Blank albums were often presented as gifts, which the recipients would then ask their friends and classmates to inscribe with verses, sketches, and other tokens. The blank albums, pictured below, were broadly similar in appearance, featuring faux leather covers with the words ‘Autographs’ or ‘Album’ in gold lettering. As their pastel-coloured pages began to fill up, however, each volume was transformed into a unique and enduring record of friendship.
The owners of the three albums considered here were all female students taking the General Certificate course to qualify as primary school teachers. The first volume belonged to Sarah McLellan (1884-1956), who studied at the Glasgow Church of Scotland Training College, also known as Dundas Vale, from 1903-1905 (reference: CSTC/7/13). The opening page of Sarah’s album is inscribed by her mother, Annie McLellan, and dated 18 January 1905. This was the date of Sarah’s 21st birthday, which suggests that her album was a birthday gift. The second album was compiled by an unidentified female student who attended the Glasgow Free Church Training College from 1906-1908 (reference: FCTC/8/9), while the third album belonged to Mary McDonald (1898-1997), who studied at the Glasgow Provincial Training College from 1917-1919 (reference: JCE/22/2/26). On the flyleaf, Mary wrote her name and address and the date: 14 July 1918. This was the date of her 20th birthday, again indicating that Mary received her album as a present.
In early twentieth-century Glasgow, hundreds of female students were admitted to teacher training courses annually. Each training college divided its new intake into several large sections, and the students then remained in their allocated section for the duration of their two-year course. The three autograph books include lists of all the students within their owners’ sections. In Sarah McLellan and Mary McDonald’s albums, a handful of those named in the section list also wrote out their full address on a separate page. Presumably, these were the girls with whom Mary and Sarah were particularly friendly, and with whom they most wanted to keep in touch.
As indicated above, most of the pages in each album bear personal inscriptions by individual students, generally in the form of verses or drawings. When invited to sign an album, a student usually selected a page for herself, filled it up and added her signature or initials at the bottom, usually with the date. More rarely, she might contribute two or more pages to the same volume, like Mary McDonald’s classmate, Jenny Bonar, who penned at least three sets of sketches for Mary’s album. The most thoughtful and detailed inscriptions probably came from the compilers’ closest friends. However, when the contributors’ signatures and initials are compared against the names in the section lists, it is apparent that many of the compilers’ classmates contributed nothing at all. For instance, only 14 of the 80 students within Mary McDonald’s section provided an illustration or a literary contribution for her album. Mary had likely approached her classmates selectively, as it would have been practically impossible to circulate the album to every member of such a large group.
The dates appended to each contribution show that Sarah McLellan, Mary McDonald and the third, unidentified compiler each began the process of collecting autographs from their classmates well in advance of finishing their studies. This was essential, as every person they invited to contribute would need time for inspiration to strike, then a further period to perfect their inscription or illustration before returning the book, to be passed to the next person. Sarah McLellan obtained her blank album in January 1905 and was due to finish her training in July of that year; we know that her classmates were contributing to the album by March 1905, if not a little earlier. Mary McDonald received her album in July 1918 and was due to complete her training course in July 1919. Her classmates were signing the album’s pages by August 1918. The unidentified owner of the remaining album started her training in 1906 and completed it in July 1908. Although we do not know exactly when she acquired her book, her classmates were adding content by September 1907.
Many of the students’ contributions are small watercolours, or sketches executed in pencil and ink. Delicate flower studies, landscapes and seascapes feature prominently, as well as portraits and some illustrations of animals and birds. Several examples are shown below.
References: CSTC/7/13, FCTC/8/9
The quality of these images reflects the fact that the trainee teachers’ curriculum included both drawing and nature study. Many of them were skilled in the former subject, obtaining endorsements as teachers of drawing in addition to their general teaching qualification.
Several sketches in the albums take the form of boats sailing into the sunset, signifying the end of girlhood, of training, and of the students’ time together. Other contributions draw upon topics covered in the students’ training course or make more overt reference to their college experience. One of Sarah McLellan’s fellow students, for instance, reproduced the words and melody of ‘The Normal Call,’ which was the Church of Scotland Training College song, while this drawing by Mary McDonald’s classmate, Victoria Gaul, pokes fun at the psychology classes that were part of the General Certificate curriculum:
Reference: JCE/22/2/6
In keeping with the sentimental purpose of the albums, some students copied out carefully chosen verses by Burns and other authors. These either praised the compiler’s personal qualities or entreated her to think of, and remember, the contributor. Other students expressed hopes for the compiler’s future happiness and good fortune, especially in the pursuit of love and marriage. A highlight of this type is the beautifully executed ‘map of matrimony’ drawn by Annie S. MacKenzie in 1907. Plotting the course of courtship, the map guides Annie’s friend and classmate from the starting point of ‘spinster isles’ and ‘bachelor cove’ down through the ‘strait of flirtation’ and the ‘gulf of matrimony’, with the journey culminating at the ‘region of rejoicing’.
Reference: FCTC/8/9
Yet not all female students aspired to matrimony: another contributor to the same album, Marion Burleigh, urged the compiler to ‘gather gear by every wile . . . for the glorious privilege / Of being independent.’ Humour also characterised many students’ contributions. This tongue-in-cheek illustration by Sarah McLellan’s classmate, Jane G. Martin, imagines a future suitor striving to win Sarah’s hand:
Reference: CSTC/7/13
As it turned out, Sarah did not marry and apparently continued teaching until her retirement.
Perhaps the most charming and creative contribution is the ‘Casket of Gems’ provided by another of Sarah McLellan’s classmates, Janie P. Young. Topped with a bow displaying the initials ‘DVTC’ [Dundas Vale Training College] and ‘1903-1905’, Sarah’s dates of attendance there, the casket contains all that she, or any young Edwardian woman would require to succeed in life. This includes the cure for worry (‘laughter’), the cure for love (‘marriage’), and the cure for heartache (‘sympathy’); the best rouge (‘early rising’), the elixir of life (‘love’), and the balm of all ills (‘essence of tu-lips’); as well as the cure for laziness (‘work’), the balm of life (‘contentment’) and a stimulating tonic (‘courtship’). Each gem is revealed by lifting the small, square cut-out flaps of the casket.
Reference: CSTC/7/13
After gaining their General Certificate, most of the students who signed the autograph albums were posted to schools in and around Glasgow. Living and working within a convenient distance of each other may have helped them to stay in touch with former classmates when they left college. Two of the girls from Mary McDonald’s section inscribed her album in December 1919 and February 1920, some months after they qualified in July 1919, indicating that the friendships forged at college endured and that Mary saw her two classmates again after concluding her studies. In fact, Mary’s section went on to hold annual reunions for 60 years after they qualified, and it is tempting to speculate that she took her autograph book along on these occasions, to share and reminisce with those who had become lifelong friends.
Mary McDonald (pictured in the second row, second from left) and fellow students, 1919 (reference: JCE/22/2/26).
Sarah McLellan, Mary McDonald and the unidentified owner of the third volume all continued to collect inscriptions and illustrations in their albums after completing their training. They also invited and received contributions from family and friends outside of their student circle, but the autographs of their classmates form the nucleus of each collection. These unique and beautiful volumes, cherished by their owners throughout their lives, are now preserved in the Archives as evidence of the trainee teachers’ artistic talent, their sense of humour, and, perhaps above all, their friendship and regard for one another.