1920s California Photo Album from Female Student

[Women Education] Scrapbook and Photo Album. 73 Gelatin silver print black and white photos of various sizes ranging from 5 x 7 in. to 1 x 1 in. School photo and memory album from girl who attended Los Angeles area Lincoln High School, Class of 1927. Reva C. Leslie. My Memories of School Days Album. New York: C. R. Gibson & Company, 1924. Original green cloth board covers. 72 pages. Unpaginated. 7 x 10 in. Includes 14 handwritten messages and inscriptions from friends; 3 handwritten entries from album owner, documenting her school memories. Two newspaper clippings of Leslie as a student. 11 ticket stubs from plays and school events around Los Angeles (truncated) 1923-1924. Two hand colored cutouts of Kewpie babies, a popular type of doll at the time.

Photo and memory album of Reva Leslie, a popular high school student in the 1920s, who writes about dances, parties, and clubs. “I can remember the first party I ever attended at Lincoln. I was a scrub and a Sr. asked me to a dance in the evening….I went to a Hi-Jinks. I had oodles of fun there…I went to all the basketball games but one and we sure had a swell team…I went to the Army dance with Raymond and Johnnie introduced me as “Captain” of the Girls Reserves…I even can say I like very much the faculty, or at least some of them.”

A large class photos identifies Leslis as “me” in addition to friends such as Mabel Payne; and she draws in cartoon figures of schoolmates who missed the class photo. Inscriptions from friends show her likability and kindness. “I hope that we will be pals for many years to come even if we happen to be far apart. My love for you is growing more each day, and i hope it will continue on thru the years. I hope you will remember the many days we spent together, at parties, dances and everywhere we went, we were the inseparable sisters (I hope you won’t object.) This scribbling is terrible, but your used to that, aren’t you honey?…I want to be considered your very bestest pal. (You’ll let me, won’t you dear?)” Another from an admirer: “I had a good time at all the parties and football games you attended [with me] and hope you had the same”. There are many photos of friends, including at the beach and in stage productions; some friend’s names are printed in full, while other are identified by nicknames such as “Lu” and “Vi” showing the closeness of these bonds.

Leslie was a Class Officer as Secretary, and there are many photos of her as an active student, including various clubs and photos of her and friends, labelled “Three of a kind” and “one of the three muskateers”. There’s even photos of girls playing playing hockey in school uniforms. Includes a poem about a late night club, in which she describes having “oodles of fun”: “To the Hi-Jinx, the Hi-Jinx, of course you’ll come. Wear any costume, you’ll surely have fun. The time will be merry, our hearts will be light! Oh come, ye lassie, and join in the night.” The last inscription, written from “Eddie Robbins” was notably updated after graduation with the new salutation “To the Dearest Wife”. His original message reads: “One friend in a thousand Solomon says is more close than a brother and its worthwhile seeking him half your days if you find him before the others. Nine hundred and ninety nine of them looks for what they can get out of you but the thousandth friend is worth them all and will stick to you. With the whole wide world against you.” Very good condition. (Inventory #: 16604)