Faces of Sarah Lawrence: Stories of Knowledge Put to Use

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Introduction

“Our aim in teaching is to develop persons who will use and enjoy the knowledge we can give them, both in their personal lives and in the service of other people.”
– Preface to Essays in Teaching, 1955, by Harold Taylor, President of Sarah Lawrence College (1945-1959)

The following exhibit illustrates how a handful of Sarah Lawrence alumni, graduating between the 1930s and 1960s, gained knowledge and later used it both in their personal lives and in service to other people.

This exhibit stems from the desire of the College’s archivists to share with a wider audience a small portion of the thousands of extraordinary Sarah Lawrence alumni. Each alumnus has a “matriculation” photograph taken when they first arrived on campus as a new student. These photographs are fascinating for a number of reasons, but mostly because their faces reflect who they were and what they experienced prior to coming to Sarah Lawrence. The matriculation photo is accompanied by some brief information about each person as well as a photograph from later in their time at the College. It is fascinating to see how their expressions changed and read about their time at Sarah Lawrence and what they later accomplished in their lives, some of which were tragically cut short. It was difficult to pare down these full lives, but in order to share more stories, only select information is provided for each individual.

About This Exhibit

The matriculation photographs and later portraits display in slideshow format on the next exhibit slide (slide 3). The photographs are in alphabetical order by the individual's last name. There are two photographs for each student; the first is the matriculation photograph taken when they first arrived on campus as a new student, the second is a photograph taken later in their time at the College. Hover over the top of each photograph with your cursor to see a caption of their story. You may pause, advance (+), or reverse the slideshow at any time by using the arrows at the bottom of the viewing window.

Photo credits: Patricia Brooks by Westchester Photo Service; Alice Judd by Alfred Eisenstadt; Sonja Haynes, Jean Goldschmidt, and Jeri Villano by Gary Gladstone; all others by unknown photographers.

Exhibit courtesy of the Sarah Lawrence College Archives.