Photo Album of the Misses Masters’ School in Dobbs Ferry, 1905–1906
- Approximately ninety-five pieces: three affixed photographs of 7 x 9 inches and smaller, eighty-one of 3 ¾ x 4 inches and small
- Dobbs Ferry, New York , 1906
Dobbs Ferry, New York, 1906. Approximately ninety-five pieces: three affixed photographs of 7 x 9 inches and smaller, eighty-one of 3 ¾ x 4 inches and smaller, and four of 1 x 1 inches and smaller; two loose 3 x 5 inch photos; two affixed printed sheets and three loose. Photos excellent to Near Fine. Scrapbook pages have come unbound, with marginal damage; cover detached with damage. Overall excellent.. A photo album made by Mabel Joy Robertson, a student at the Misses Masters’ School in Dobbs Ferry, New York. Now the co-ed college preparatory Masters School, it was founded in 1877 as a more academically-focused finishing school for girls, teaching science and mathematics alongside etiquette. The album documents the various clubs (Phoenix Dramatic Club, Dobbs Glee Club), sports teams (basketball, baseball) and buildings around campus, along with photos of students who are mostly identified by full names. Ephemera includes a violin recital program, a program for an original play by the Phoenix, a school song, and a Missionary Society leaflet.
Mabel Robertson (b. 1888) was the daughter of A. Heaton Robertson, state legislator, judge of probate of the New Haven district, and businessman, whose father John B. Robertson was the former mayor of New Haven. A skilled pianist and singer, she married James Inslee Coddington of New York and became a New York socialite. Interestingly, Mabel Robertson’s great-grandfather was Samuel Robertson, the enslaver (and eventual emancipator) of Edward Bouchet, the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from any American school.[1]
[1] Scott Williams, “Edward Alexander Bouchet,” Physicists of the African Diaspora, 2008, https://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/physics/bouchet_edward_alexander.html.
Mabel Robertson (b. 1888) was the daughter of A. Heaton Robertson, state legislator, judge of probate of the New Haven district, and businessman, whose father John B. Robertson was the former mayor of New Haven. A skilled pianist and singer, she married James Inslee Coddington of New York and became a New York socialite. Interestingly, Mabel Robertson’s great-grandfather was Samuel Robertson, the enslaver (and eventual emancipator) of Edward Bouchet, the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from any American school.[1]
[1] Scott Williams, “Edward Alexander Bouchet,” Physicists of the African Diaspora, 2008, https://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/physics/bouchet_edward_alexander.html.