Education

1917 · 16774 — 1917. Photograph album of youth social life and athletics 1917-1918 documents girls' basketball mixed-gender recreation and civilian interaction with military personnel during the World War I era. The album centers on teenage subjects engaged in organized sport seasonal leisure activities and group social gatherings while also incorporating images of uniformed servicemen on leave. The material provides visual evidence of female athletic participation alongside broader patterns of youth culture and wartime presence in civilian spaces.<br /> <br /> Photograph album. Circa 1917-1918. Oblong format 7 1/4 x 11 1/4 inches containing 48 silver gelatin photographs mounted across the first 15 pages of a 100-page album. Images include three photographs of a girls' basketball team identified by a ball marked "WHS 1918" showing players posed in uniform consisting of elbow-length tops neckerchiefs and full culotte-style bottoms designed for mobility while maintaining period standards of modesty. A single image of a boys' 1917 basketball team is also present with one figure removed from the photograph. Additional scenes include approximately twelve beach images of boys and girls in bathing attire-girls in swim caps and short dresses boys in tank tops and shorts-posing on sand in shallow surf and aboard a small boat. Winter activity is represented through two images of girls sledding. Group portraits include fifteen girls posed on a veranda and seated on a lawn before the same large building suggesting a school or institutional setting. Wartime presence appears in photographs of four men in World War I-era military uniforms standing on a street corner and a uniformed sailor posed with a female companion. Additional images depict a parade crowd and two staged scenes of women in late nineteenth-century costume. Two photographs show figures physically removed.<br /> <br /> The album documents a period in which girls' participation in organized athletics particularly basketball expanded within school settings reflecting broader shifts in physical education for young women in the early twentieth century. The coexistence of athletic recreational and military imagery situates youth experience within the social environment shaped by World War I where servicemen were visible within civilian life. The clothing activities and group formations provide insight into gender norms leisure practices and institutional life during this period. Black cloth boards with gilt "Photographs" title; tear to page 9; four photographs detached; two images with excised figures; moderate handling wear; overall good condition. A focused visual record of female athletics and youth social life during the World War I era. unknown