Late summer witnesses the annual ritual of students beginning to return to school. For some, school is just a short bus ride or few blocks walk away from home. For others, attending school means leaving home, moving into a dormitory room, and adjusting to living with new people. Perhaps looking at these historic dormitory room photographs may lessen the anxiety of those students faced with new living situations in the upcoming year.
Marriott C. Morris. Northeast Corner of Boys Chamber, Westtown School, 1885. P.9895.688.
Opened in 1799, Westtown School, located about twenty-five miles outside of Philadelphia, offered a rigorous curriculum to Quaker boys and girls. In the school's early history, even the youngest children boarded at the institution. These sparse dormitory rooms were probably organized somewhat by the students' ages. The photograph above shows the room seventeen-year-old Samuel Morris shared with at least eight other students. His older brother, Marriott, took the photograph in August 1885 and made sure to include Samuel's bed in the background.
Marriott Morris, an avid amateur photographer throughout his life, used his camera to record milestones in his own life as well. From 1881 through 1885 while at Haverford College, a prestigious Quaker-founded college outside of Philadelphia, Morris photographed the campus, his fellow classmates (charging them for copies of his photographs), and his living space. In the winter of 1885 Marriott took a number of views of his room from different perspectives.
Marriott C. Morris. Dormitory Room in Barclay Hall, Haverford College, 1885. P.9895.493.
In an indication that the small size of many dormitory rooms has not changed during the last 130 years, Marriott noted in his photograph diaries that the image above was taken from his closet. Marriott carefully staged the story he wanted to convey about his life at college in the views. Books and papers identify him as a serious student. A letter, possibly to or from home, waits in a decorative mail holder on the wall. And Marriott's own photographic work, a group portrait of a Haverford class reunion, is hung on the wall above his desk. The meaning of the pile of rocks on the corner of his desk remains a mystery.
While Marriott's images of Haverford and Westtown record dormitory environments of serious scholarship and simple austerity, photographs of the dormitory rooms at the Ogontz School for Young Ladies reflect the playfulness of the adolescent female students.
H. Parker Rolfe. Dormitory Room at Ogontz School for Young Ladies, ca. 1893. P.8747.14.
In the mid-1890s, professional photographer H. Parker Rolfe documented the interior and exterior of the Ogontz School, located in financier Jay Cooke's former estate in suburban Philadelphia. Girls between the ages of thirteen and eighteen from wealthy families all over the United States attended the institution. Nonetheless, those who boarded at the school shared close sleeping quarters-- at least four girls slept in this room crowded with beds and personal items. Photographs adorn tops of dressers and every other flat surface, while a myriad of decorations, including a crescent moon hang from the overhead chandelier, probably creating a fire hazard. A music-lover has even contributed a harp and a guitar to the room's decor. And, as is the case with student dormitory rooms throughout history, a quick clean up before the photographer's visit has led to a mysterious bundle being shoved (almost out of sight) under the bed.
Twenty-first century boarding school and college students should not despair upon seeing their rooms. Even if the room is a small space with cinder block walls, chances are good that they do not have more than two roommates and probably no one has brought a harp.