[Angela Morgan's Copy of] The Book of The Class of Nineteen Hundred and Twenty-eight of The Ogontz School

Rydal, Pennsylvania/Wildwood, New Jersey: The Ogontz School/Wilson G. Kent Co, 1928. Very good. 9¼" x 6¼". Limited to 44 copies, this being number 3. Decoratively embossed leather over thick boards with purple silk moire pastedowns, aeg. pp. 259, [15, blanks] + 56 tipped in silver gelatin photographs measuring 6" x 4". Very good: board edges heavily worn with areas of loss; lacks clasp; internally very good plus or better with hints of toning at extremities and near fine or better photographs with one loose.

This is an elaborate yearbook for an elite private girl's school prepared for its honorary class member, the important poet-activist, (truncated) Angela Morgan.

The Ogontz School for Young Ladies began in Philadelphia in 1850 as the Chestnut Female Seminary. In 1883 it moved to Elkins Park and the Ogontz estate, which precipitated the name change. By the time of this yearbook, the school was owned by Abby Sutherland who moved the school to Abington Township, built a new campus, and separated the older students into a high school and junior college. Sutherland was exceptionally well connected and brought various cultural celebrities to teach or perform at the school, including Angela Morgan. We don't know when Morgan was first associated with Ogontz but we know that she lived there as its resident poet, and an English teacher as of 1935.

Morgan's writing career began at the end of the 1890s with the publication of two children's books, as well as a large number of short stories and poems in various magazines. To support herself, she worked as a reporter in Chicago, Boston, and New York which fomented an interest in social issues. Around 1914, she landed three wealthy women as patrons and was able to completely devote her time to poetry, with her first book of poems published in 1914. Over the next 25 years she published 13 more books of poetry, one novel, and a book of short stories. She was a sought-after speaker, giving poetry readings and speaking on a number of issues across the United States during this period. She was also heavily involved in the peace movement and was a delegate to the first International Congress of Women at The Hague in 1915.

The book includes portraits of both Morgan and Sullivan above their printed signatures. Each graduate is given three pages: one that introduces them with original verse, another showing their activities, the third with a portrait photograph above a printed signature. The activities section includes interesting block prints, poetry, recaps of parties and eleven great group photographs of the women. Of note is Morgan's poem, drafted specifically for this class. The only handwriting in the book highlights the last two lines of this poem, "Be thou the thing the gods intend,/And all the world shall be thy friend!"

OCLC locates one copy of the album at an institution in Germany.

Angela Morgan's copy of a lovely production from a premier young women's school.


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