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Photos through the Decades at Meredith College: 1950s

In the Meredith College archives are literally hundreds of photos. With them, we can see both what students over the decades have in common, and how things have changed.

1950s

Students dressed in various folk costumes pose in pairs on the steps of the dining hall.

Folk Dance Club (1950.)

1951 seniors enter Class Day between the daisy chain held by the sophomores. 

 

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Posing on the steps of Johnson Hall for Class Day, 1951. During a later building renovation, the steps were removed. 

Freshmen in long, formal dresses stand in line to greet the Campbells.

Orientation included a dressy reception with the college president. Here, freshmen meet President Carlyle Campbell and his wife, Marion. 

Multiple students seated at desks in a classroom, a professor at the front;. A film projector is at the  side of the room.

A class underway in the Education Department, 1956.

Two students hang plaid curtains in the window of their dorm room.

Room decorating. 

Arms around each other, a  group of women enter Jones Hall

Each year, after a week of campaigning and special recruitment events by the Astros and the Phis, students on campus decided which of the two service societies to join on Decision Day. Here, the Astros welcome their newest members. 

A group of students and two horses pose in the horse barn.

Horseback riding classes and clubs were available on the Meredith College campus from after World War II until the late 1980s. 

Three students gather around  a small kiln.

A pottery class (1952.)

Two students on bicycles with a building and chimney in the background.

Cycling around campus (1954.)

A student iin a lab coat working with a microscope.

A laboratory student  (1952.)

Mary Edna Gries proudly holds the

During the 1950s, the most promising freshman field hockey player was awarded the "Freshman Hockey Stick." (1953.)

Dance class. 

Two students posing in the Heck Fountain. Based on their clothes, it is winter and the founntain has no water.

Playing around in the Heck Fountain.

 

A woman holding books stand nest to a car in a parking lot.

Commuting "day students" had their own club and a room in Johnson Hall set aside for breaks. (Late 1950s.)

Four students stand at the soda fountain in the BeeHive.

Students gather at the BeeHive for refreshments. At this time, the BeeHive was located in the remains of the old auditorium on the east side of campus and was a casual gathering place.

An archer points toward a target while a rider on horseback waits nearby.

Unless a horse and rider wandered onto the archery range, this is a posed photo west of the original quadrangle. Archery targets are listed in the 1906-1907 Catalogue as available as part of "Physical Culture." Horses began to reappear on campus in 1943-44 and an Equestrian program soon followed.

Several students, one in clown coatume, gather around a table.

A 1955 party in the dining hall.

A line of churces in front of Johnson with students waiting to board.

Church buses spread out to take students to churches around Raleigh. Meredith College did not dictate the denomination, but did require weekly church attendance. 

One student  hangs though the window frame to clean the exterior window glass while another student cleans the interior side.

Students clean windows of  "the Hut" - a student-built and maintained club house on campus, 

A group of nine friends pose fro the photographer.

A group of friends (1955.) 

Three roomates seated ona dorm bed pose with their stuffed bears.

Stuffed animal companions. (1955.)

A group pick daisies in a meadow.

Creating the daisy chain for the Class of 1958.

An aerial view of students and others in lines in the parking lot in front of Jones Hall auditorium.

An event at the new Jones Hall auditorium. (Oak Leaves, 1958)

Three students dressed in 19th costumes and seated around a table  for a play.

A production of the play Ladies in Retirement. (1959.)

Studying in a dorm room seated at a desk under a window. Also on the desk  are photographs, a radio and a lamp.

Studying -- as in every decade. 

Two images. One of a few seniors in costume for their Stunt play. The second of a stage full of seniors in costume with stage sets.

Senior class Stunt, 1959.

The theme was "Celestial Confusion" - and the class came in 2nd place after the Sophomores.

On the Timeline....

1950   Students allowed to smoke in dorm rooms. (Prior to this students unable to smoke while under jurisdiction of Meredith College, which included all of Raleigh.) 

1952    BeeHive becomes college supply store.

1952    Stunt moved to Spring to coincide with Founders Day, followed by Palio.

1954    First class to wear newly designed (and now iconic) class ring.

1956    Lux (Joyner Hall) built. First new classroom building since 1926.

1956    Stone steps removed from  the front of Johnson Hall.

1956    A History of Meredith College by Mary Lynch Johnson published. (Revised and reissued 1972)

1957    First social dance on campus. The Baptist State Convention later votes to refuse to allow future dances. (Dance classes and clubs continue.)