Vassar College Digital Library
Subject

Blackface

Wolven Glass Plate Negative Collection

Founder's Day

95375-Service File.jpg
Date
1920-04-30
Content Warning
The Vassar College Archives within the Digital Library include some images, texts, and material items that are racist, xenophobic, or otherwise harmful. The Vassar Libraries have provided descriptive text and additional notes whenever possible to alert Digital Library users to these items. The Engaged Pluralism Initiative Race and Racism in Historical Collections Project Group is working with the library on contextualizing and facilitating community conversations about these materials. For more information see: https://library.vassar.edu/rrhc
Description

Students performing as a minstrel band in blackface at the faculty-student baseball game

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Wolven Glass Plate Negative Collection

Founder's Day

93928-Service File.jpg
Date
1915-1920
Content Warning
The Vassar College Archives within the Digital Library include some images, texts, and material items that are racist, xenophobic, or otherwise harmful. The Vassar Libraries have provided descriptive text and additional notes whenever possible to alert Digital Library users to these items. The Engaged Pluralism Initiative Race and Racism in Historical Collections Project Group is working with the library on contextualizing and facilitating community conversations about these materials. For more information see: https://library.vassar.edu/rrhc
Description

Students in minstrel costume and black face at the faculty-student baseball game

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Wolven Glass Plate Negative Collection

Founder's Day

94101-Service File.jpg
Date
1921-04-30
Content Warning
The Vassar College Archives within the Digital Library include some images, texts, and material items that are racist, xenophobic, or otherwise harmful. The Vassar Libraries have provided descriptive text and additional notes whenever possible to alert Digital Library users to these items. The Engaged Pluralism Initiative Race and Racism in Historical Collections Project Group is working with the library on contextualizing and facilitating community conversations about these materials. For more information see: https://library.vassar.edu/rrhc
Description

Henry Noble MacCracken and Marjorie Dodd MacCracken at the Founder's Day "County Fair" with students in the background wearing costumes, including one person in blackface

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Wolven Glass Plate Negative Collection

Founder's Day

94504-Service File.jpg
Date
1921-04-30
Content Warning
The Vassar College Archives within the Digital Library include some images, texts, and material items that are racist, xenophobic, or otherwise harmful. The Vassar Libraries have provided descriptive text and additional notes whenever possible to alert Digital Library users to these items. The Engaged Pluralism Initiative Race and Racism in Historical Collections Project Group is working with the library on contextualizing and facilitating community conversations about these materials. For more information see: https://library.vassar.edu/rrhc
Description

Student in blackface peeking out of a curtain at the Founder's Day "County Fair"

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Wolven Glass Plate Negative Collection

Founder's Day

95090-Service File.jpg
Date
1922-04-28
Content Warning
The Vassar College Archives within the Digital Library include some images, texts, and material items that are racist, xenophobic, or otherwise harmful. The Vassar Libraries have provided descriptive text and additional notes whenever possible to alert Digital Library users to these items. The Engaged Pluralism Initiative Race and Racism in Historical Collections Project Group is working with the library on contextualizing and facilitating community conversations about these materials. For more information see: https://library.vassar.edu/rrhc
Description

Students in costume and blackface at the faculty-student baseball game

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Wolven Glass Plate Negative Collection

Founder's Day

95093-Service File.jpg
Date
1922-04-28
Content Warning
The Vassar College Archives within the Digital Library include some images, texts, and material items that are racist, xenophobic, or otherwise harmful. The Vassar Libraries have provided descriptive text and additional notes whenever possible to alert Digital Library users to these items. The Engaged Pluralism Initiative Race and Racism in Historical Collections Project Group is working with the library on contextualizing and facilitating community conversations about these materials. For more information see: https://library.vassar.edu/rrhc
Description

Students in costume and blackface at the faculty-student baseball game

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Wolven Glass Plate Negative Collection

Founder's Day pageant

93512-Service File.jpg
Date
1919-05-02
Content Warning
The Vassar College Archives within the Digital Library include some images, texts, and material items that are racist, xenophobic, or otherwise harmful. The Vassar Libraries have provided descriptive text and additional notes whenever possible to alert Digital Library users to these items. The Engaged Pluralism Initiative Race and Racism in Historical Collections Project Group is working with the library on contextualizing and facilitating community conversations about these materials. For more information see: https://library.vassar.edu/rrhc
Description

Pageant in honor of the Walt Whitman centennial entitled "At the Call of the Bird". The event was part of an "American Day" themed Founder's Day and included scenes from the country's past, present, and future. This scene includes enslavers and enslaved people and the performers are wearing

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Finding Aid

Guide to the E. L. Wolven Glass Plate Negative Collection, 1897-1944

Collection Title
E. L. Wolven Glass Plate Negative Collection
Creator
Wolven, Edmund L.
Abstract
This collection includes 3,538 glass plate negatives created by photographer Edmund L. Wolven. Most of the images are of Vassar College people, events, buildings and grounds, but there is a subset that relates to Poughkeepsie and other local educational institutions.
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Finding Aid

Guide to the Mary C. Schlosser Collection of Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1838-2021 (bulk 1852-1934)

Collection Title
Mary C. Schlosser Collection of Harriet Beecher Stowe
Creator
Schlosser, Mary C.
Abstract
The collection consists of published
articles, printed ephemera, visual media, and a variety of popular culture artifacts
and realia related to American author and abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe and her
most popular novel, .
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Wolven Glass Plate Negative Collection

Junior Party

95214-Service File.jpg
Date
1922-11-11
Content Warning
The Vassar College Archives within the Digital Library include some images, texts, and material items that are racist, xenophobic, or otherwise harmful. The Vassar Libraries have provided descriptive text and additional notes whenever possible to alert Digital Library users to these items. The Engaged Pluralism Initiative Race and Racism in Historical Collections Project Group is working with the library on contextualizing and facilitating community conversations about these materials. For more information see: https://library.vassar.edu/rrhc
Description

Three students costumed as rag dolls in the skit show presented by the Class of 1924 to the Class of 1926. One doll is a "long-legged" doll and the other two are golliwog dolls and are in blackface

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Wolven Glass Plate Negative Collection

Junior Party

92866-Service File.jpg
Date
1923-11-10
Content Warning
The Vassar College Archives within the Digital Library include some images, texts, and material items that are racist, xenophobic, or otherwise harmful. The Vassar Libraries have provided descriptive text and additional notes whenever possible to alert Digital Library users to these items. The Engaged Pluralism Initiative Race and Racism in Historical Collections Project Group is working with the library on contextualizing and facilitating community conversations about these materials. For more information see: https://library.vassar.edu/rrhc
Description

Be Yourself, a skit show presented by the Class of 1925 to the Class of 1927. The scene includes one student in blackface and wearing what looks like a West Point cadet jacket

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Wolven Glass Plate Negative Collection

Junior Party

92908-Service File.jpg
Date
1917-11-17
Content Warning
The Vassar College Archives within the Digital Library include some images, texts, and material items that are racist, xenophobic, or otherwise harmful. The Vassar Libraries have provided descriptive text and additional notes whenever possible to alert Digital Library users to these items. The Engaged Pluralism Initiative Race and Racism in Historical Collections Project Group is working with the library on contextualizing and facilitating community conversations about these materials. For more information see: https://library.vassar.edu/rrhc
Description

Minstral scene from "County Fair," a skit show presented by the Class of 1919 to the Class of 1921. The scene includes seven students in blackface.

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Wolven Glass Plate Negative Collection

Junior Party

93115-Service File.jpg
Date
1918-11-16
Content Warning
The Vassar College Archives within the Digital Library include some images, texts, and material items that are racist, xenophobic, or otherwise harmful. The Vassar Libraries have provided descriptive text and additional notes whenever possible to alert Digital Library users to these items. The Engaged Pluralism Initiative Race and Racism in Historical Collections Project Group is working with the library on contextualizing and facilitating community conversations about these materials. For more information see: https://library.vassar.edu/rrhc
Description

Students portraying French chefs in "Utopian Vassar," a skit show presented by the Class of 1920 to the Class of 1922. The scene includes one student in blackface

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Wolven Glass Plate Negative Collection

Junior Party

93135-Service File.jpg
Date
1915-11-06
Content Warning
The Vassar College Archives within the Digital Library include some images, texts, and material items that are racist, xenophobic, or otherwise harmful. The Vassar Libraries have provided descriptive text and additional notes whenever possible to alert Digital Library users to these items. The Engaged Pluralism Initiative Race and Racism in Historical Collections Project Group is working with the library on contextualizing and facilitating community conversations about these materials. For more information see: https://library.vassar.edu/rrhc
Description

American south scene from "Carnival of Nations," a skit show presented by the Class of 1917 to the Class of 1919. The scene includes 15 students in blackface

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Wolven Glass Plate Negative Collection

Junior Party

93266-Service File.jpg
Date
1925-11-07
Content Warning
The Vassar College Archives within the Digital Library include some images, texts, and material items that are racist, xenophobic, or otherwise harmful. The Vassar Libraries have provided descriptive text and additional notes whenever possible to alert Digital Library users to these items. The Engaged Pluralism Initiative Race and Racism in Historical Collections Project Group is working with the library on contextualizing and facilitating community conversations about these materials. For more information see: https://library.vassar.edu/rrhc
Description

Opening scene of the skit show presented by the Class of 1927 to the Class of 1929. The scene, set in Tennessee, includes 17 students in blackface

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Wolven Glass Plate Negative Collection

Junior Party

93268-Service File.jpg
Date
1925-11-07
Content Warning
The Vassar College Archives within the Digital Library include some images, texts, and material items that are racist, xenophobic, or otherwise harmful. The Vassar Libraries have provided descriptive text and additional notes whenever possible to alert Digital Library users to these items. The Engaged Pluralism Initiative Race and Racism in Historical Collections Project Group is working with the library on contextualizing and facilitating community conversations about these materials. For more information see: https://library.vassar.edu/rrhc
Description

Full cast of a skit show presented by the Class of 1927 to the Class of 1929. Several students in blackface can seen in the group

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Wolven Glass Plate Negative Collection

Junior Party

93356-Service File.jpg
Date
1917-11-17
Content Warning
The Vassar College Archives within the Digital Library include some images, texts, and material items that are racist, xenophobic, or otherwise harmful. The Vassar Libraries have provided descriptive text and additional notes whenever possible to alert Digital Library users to these items. The Engaged Pluralism Initiative Race and Racism in Historical Collections Project Group is working with the library on contextualizing and facilitating community conversations about these materials. For more information see: https://library.vassar.edu/rrhc
Description

Characters from "County Fair," a skit show presented by the Class of 1919 to the Class of 1921. The scene includes a "wild woman" who is in stereotypical African dress and blackface. There are "gypsy fortune-tellers" and snake charmers, one in brownface. Also included are the "Fat Lady," her

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Wolven Glass Plate Negative Collection

Junior Party

93357-Service File.jpg
Date
1917-11-17
Content Warning
The Vassar College Archives within the Digital Library include some images, texts, and material items that are racist, xenophobic, or otherwise harmful. The Vassar Libraries have provided descriptive text and additional notes whenever possible to alert Digital Library users to these items. The Engaged Pluralism Initiative Race and Racism in Historical Collections Project Group is working with the library on contextualizing and facilitating community conversations about these materials. For more information see: https://library.vassar.edu/rrhc
Description

County Fair skit show presented by the Class of 1919 to the Class of 1921. The scene includes students costumed as lions, an elephant, a giraffe and a camel. The camel and giraffe handlers are described as "Ethopian" and are in blackface

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Wolven Glass Plate Negative Collection

Junior Party

93384-Service File.jpg
Date
1917-11-17
Content Warning
The Vassar College Archives within the Digital Library include some images, texts, and material items that are racist, xenophobic, or otherwise harmful. The Vassar Libraries have provided descriptive text and additional notes whenever possible to alert Digital Library users to these items. The Engaged Pluralism Initiative Race and Racism in Historical Collections Project Group is working with the library on contextualizing and facilitating community conversations about these materials. For more information see: https://library.vassar.edu/rrhc
Description

Marching band from "County Fair," a skit show presented by the Class of 1919 to the Class of 1921. The group includes two students in blackface

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Wolven Glass Plate Negative Collection

Sophomore Party

95555-Service File.jpg
Date
1931-10-24
Content Warning
The Vassar College Archives within the Digital Library include some images, texts, and material items that are racist, xenophobic, or otherwise harmful. The Vassar Libraries have provided descriptive text and additional notes whenever possible to alert Digital Library users to these items. The Engaged Pluralism Initiative Race and Racism in Historical Collections Project Group is working with the library on contextualizing and facilitating community conversations about these materials. For more information see: https://library.vassar.edu/rrhc
Description

Students, including one person in blackface, setting up lighting in the balcony of Students' building for the skit show presented by the Class of 1934 to the Class of 1935

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