Girls Just Want to Have Fun

Girls from Schenectady High School laugh with delight after riding the Shoot-the-Chute at Rexford Park during a senior class trip to the amusement park in 1908. Image from Larry Hart Collection. 

The invention of the Kodak Brownie camera in 1900 revolutionized photography. Its low cost and the ease of using the camera not only made photography more accessible to everyone, including young people; it also led to the creation of the snapshot. From the Brownie era to the iPhone era, young people have enjoyed casually snapping photos of themselves and their friends, and sharing them with each other.

A number of photographs of Schenectady County girls and young ladies, simply having fun, are presented here. Enjoy them!

Interested in exploring the Schenectady County's past through photographs? Visit our Library or contact our Librarian.

Two teenage girls dress up in 1890s-era clothing and pose as a "Gay Nineties" bicycling gentleman and lady in this 1939 photo. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection. 

Girls play basketball in gym glass at Van Corlaer Junior High School in this 1956 photo. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection. 

Nott Terrace High School cheerleaders huddle up for this 1949 photo snapped in a school corridor. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection.

A group of Schenectady High School girls pose at a trolley stop in this photo, ca. 1910. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection.

Girls enjoy a lunchtime chat by their lockers at Mont Pleasant High School in this 1942 photograph. Image from Larry Hart Collection.

Margaret Hoffman laughs as Kathleen McElroy fits her into the Cinderella slipper at the 1948 Nott Terrace High School Junior Prom. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection.

Yearbooks

Yearbooks are a great source of information for genealogy researchers, as well as for people that are interested in the history of education, social life and customs, graphic design, and local history. Photographs of individual students, administrators, and faculty members and information about student clubs and achievements provide researchers a look into the lives of local people as individuals and as a group.
The student drawings and other design components show us the aesthetics of the period during which they were created. Yearbooks also offer valuable information about local businesses through the advertisements printed in them.

A complete list of our collection of yearbooks can be found here (updated September 2013). Our yearbook collection is slowly growing! We're always looking for more yearbooks from Schenectady County public and private schools, from elementary school through college. Please contact the Librarian, Melissa Tacke, by phone at 518-374-0263, option 3, or by email at librarian@schenectadyhistorical.org, if you are interested in donating yearbooks.

Below are just a few images from yearbooks in our collection.

Central Park Intermediate School yearbook Scrip, January 1925.
The school also published a literary magazine of the same name.

Photograph of the girls' basketball team at Woestina High School in Rotterdam Junction from The Woestinian, 1931.

The Japanese theme of the June 1917 Schenectady High School yearbook (SHUCIS)
differs from the standard cover for other years of the era; covers usually featured a simple
design and image of the school seal. SHUCIS was also the school literary magazine.

Advertisements from the Schenectady Savings Bank, Walker's Pharmacy, Tilly, and the Alling
Rubber Company from the 1911 Schenectady High School SHUCIS. Both the literary magazine
and the yearbook contain several pages of advertisements.

Whimsical drawings related to students at Schenectady Vocational High School printed in The Anvo, 1938.
These drawings, attributed to "JL," were drawn by James Lemmie, a student in the commercial art course of the school.

Photograph of the editorial staff of the 1905 SHUCIS.

Public School Yearbook Collection

Historical Note:
This is a collection of Schenectady-area public high school yearbooks dated between 1908 and 1969.  The first Schenectady high school, Nott Terrace High School, was opened in 1904. The school closed in 1957 upon completion of a  new school building, Linton High School.  Linton High School, along Mont Pleasant High School, which opened in 1930, served as the district's two high schools until they were consolidated in 1992 to form Schenectady High School.  The Mont Pleasant High School building subsequently reopened as a middle school.

For more information about the history of public education in Schenectady prior to Nott Terrace High School, see Jeanette G. Neisuler's online book, The History of Education in Schenectady, 1661-62---1961-62. 

Description of the Collection:
Through the years the historical society has received generous donations of both public and private school yearbooks.  This is a listing of the public school yearbooks available to view in our collection.  

Nott Terrace High School/Schenectady High School (Formerly Union Classical Institute)

Years open: 1904-1957

  "SHUCIS"

   Printed in Jan and June of each year

   Years available: 1908-1932, 1935, with gaps

SHUCIS, 1914

SHUCIS, 1914

"The Terracian"

Years available: 1932-1957, (missing 1944, '48-'53, '55)

The Terracian, 1933

The Terracian, 1933

Mont Pleasant High School

Years open: 1930-1992

"Montaneer"

 Years available: 1933-1938, '43, '44, '51, '54, '55, '57, '58, '61, '67.

Montaneer, 1937

Montaneer, 1937

Linton High School

Years open: 1958-1992

"Lintonaire"

Years available: 1958, 1969

Lintonaire, 1969

Lintonaire, 1969