Contributed by intern Lauren Ericson<\/p>\n
For the students in the Litchfield school system it is almost time to return their textbooks, clean their desks, and start their summer vacation! With graduation ceremonials underway, it seems appropriate to compare these traditions to those at the Litchfield Female Academy. Several books in the Sarah Pierce collection contain notes regarding who owned the book, when they used it, who they were associated with, and what they did in school. <\/p>\n
For example, Jane Roxana Lewis<\/a> was presented with A sketch of my friend’s family<\/a> for her skill in Arithmetic. Miss Lewis also kept a reliable record of her social life at the Academy by listing her friends\u2019 names in her copy of Sketches of universal history<\/a>. This list included three girls in what John Brace Pierce referred to as \u201cThe Club\u201d \u2013 Elizabeth (Betsey) Wolcott, Mary Landon and Elizabeth Cooke \u2013 as well as several others.<\/p>\n Lauren Ericson is a student at Southern Connecticut State University. She worked on updating records to add to our online database of publications. She also added information about each volume with ties to Female Academy students to the Ledger. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Contributed by intern Lauren Ericson For the students in the Litchfield school system it is almost time to return their textbooks, clean their desks, and start their summer vacation! With graduation ceremonials underway, it seems appropriate to compare these traditions to those at the Litchfield Female Academy. Several books in the Sarah Pierce collection contain […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=530"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":691,"href":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530\/revisions\/691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Similarly, Elizabeth Goodwin<\/a> received a book for her participation at the Female Academy. Her copy of Village hymns for social worship<\/a> was given to her, and signed, by Sarah Pierce as a \u201cPrize in History & Geography & for general good scholarship.\u201d Nancy Barclay<\/a> was also rewarded with a book. Sarah Pierce presented Miss Barclay with The whole duty of women<\/a> for her \u201cperfect cheerfeeling and good term here in the family.\u201d<\/p>\n
So while today\u2019s exemplary students may receive a plaque or trophy along with their customary diploma, this honor was parallel to that of receiving a book from Sarah Pierce herself. And although today\u2019s social butterflies have friends sign their yearbook, a tangible list of all of your friends was not as unusual two-hundred years ago. Regardless of which traditions are abandoned or continued, the end of a school year is a time to celebrate accomplishments with friends. Congratulations!<\/p>\n