Diaries Of Two High School Girls From The 1920'S

Found these two diaries/journals shoved in a pile of garbage in a very old wooden barn.

This is the cover of the first diary. There was a tag on the cover dating it back to the 1800's

This diary belonged to Gladys Bohn. From the various objects inside it's clear that she was a student at Elmira Free Academy in New York in 1924. Most of the diary takes place around that time, it appears to be her senior year at the school.

There are quite a lot about "The VINDEX" in the diary. I believe Gladys was one of the students putting the newspaper together. There are quite a few full papers as well as articles throughout the diaries. The stories are sometimes hilarious to read through.

Gladys glued all the letters she received from families and friends, in their original envelopes, to the pages of the diary.

Some stationary from the school Gladys attended, Elmira Free Academy in New York.

"The fights still on!!???" "From dear old Kay" "Hot Dog! Strictly Private."

"I won this at French Club meeting for proverbs?????" The object says "Boston Pocket Pointer" on the snap, I gave it a quick google and it turned out to be the case for a mini pencil sharpener.

"We made these at Dorothy Crooks' party"

"June 6, 1924. This was the date of Dorothie's party which was some party."

This is another full paper that was in the diary, it appears to be from the local public school in the area, Elmira Southside High. I'm not sure if she may have attended this school before going to the academy (it seems like kids people hint at attending a prep school prior to the academy in the news paper and letters) or if she just picked this up.

The Southside High School paper has a small article on "The Franks Murder" and how it's effecting the students. I haven't done any looking but I'm curious about what the case might have been, they all seem to be shocked that a murder was committed by educated boys.

The cover of the second diary! This one is more of a "fill in the blank" graduation journal.

This diary was owned by Gladys Shepard who was a senior at Breckenridge High School in Michigan. I believe she attended the school from 1923 to 1927.

Some of the gifts she received for graduation. I was surprised how many things she was given, I think I pictured less gift giving in the 20's all together.

Different signatures from each of her friends.

I thought this was pretty interesting, it's a card from Central State Teachers College located in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. It's dated 1928 (a year after she graduated) so I'm thinking maybe she chose to go to Central for early elementary education?

This was thrown in the middle of the diary, I have no idea if this belonged to Gladys but it's still pretty interesting. It's dated July 14, 1971 and it came with a large map/brochure about the location.