#laurel parade

[mhc-asc]

Here are members of the class of 1940 marching in a 1970s Laurel Parade!

Women Should be Trained as Astronauts :: Mount Holyoke Archives and Special Collections Digital Images :: circa 1970s

[mhc-asc]

Laurel Parade is also coming soon! We’re so excited to see 2017 in their first Laurel Parade. Pictured here is Frances Perkins (1902), the first woman to serve in the U.S. cabinet (as the sign to her left states), speaking with her classmate Alice Little in the 1962 parade.

Class member Alice Little talks to Frances Perkins during Laurel Parade, 1962 :: Mount Holyoke Archives and Special Collections Digital Images :: circa 1962

[mhc-asc]

Class member Alice Little talks to Frances Perkins during Laurel Parade :: Mount Holyoke Archives and Special Collections Digital Images :: circa 1962

We’re excited for the upcoming Laurel Parade, a MHC tradition in which students carry chains of laurel to place on Mary Lyon’s grave. As of 1932, alumnae have walked with the graduating students in the parade, carrying signs with facts about their graduating classes. Here we see the class of 1902, featuring Frances Perkins, the first woman to serve in the U.S. cabinet (as the sign in front of her states), walking in the laurel parade of the class of 1962.

[mhc-asc]

The class of 1990 walking in their first laurel parade :: Mount Holyoke Archives and Special Collections Digital Images :: circa 1990

[mhc-asc]

Today’s the day!

Two laurel carriers :: Mount Holyoke Archives and Special Collections Digital Images :: circa 1978 and 1979

[aliyoursunshine]

I made a thing!

In my professional life I am a costume designer/draper/stitcher, but I rarely have the opportunity to make garments for myself.  I fell in love with this fabric, though, and I couldn’t resist!!

Story time:  I am graduating from Mount Holyoke College this weekend and one of our traditions is the Laurel Parade, where members of the senior class march across campus with alums carrying a laurel chain to symbolize our transition from students to graduates.  We wear white in solidarity with the suffragettes who campaigned for women’s right to vote (MHC is an all women’s institution).  After I found this gorgeous fabric I knew I had to make a dress for myself!  The design is loosely based off of Baby’s dress from Dirty Dancing (“Baby’s going to Mount Holyoke in the fall”).  The yellow scarf and flower represent my class color.

Here’s a closer look at the fabric.

I hope to post more of my sewing work and designs in the future!

[winterkirk]

Ever heard of an airborne camera? Ever curious to see what events look like from above? You should check this out! The laurel parade is a tradition at Mount Holyoke College where the graduating class walks from one of the campus to the grave of the college's founder and lays laurel around it.