James Madison University - Bluestone Schoolmaam Yearbook (Harrisonburg, VA)

Page 22 text:

During the first session, 1909-1910, 209 .students were enrolled. They repre- sented forty-seven counties and eight cities of the state. The average age of students the first session was twenty years. The first reception given to the students by the faculty was held Friday night, October 8, 1909. The Governor ' s visit came just ten days later. On the 30th of the same month the initial trip was made to Ashby Monument; and on the first Hallowe ' en the faculty were made to see no end of spooks on a trip through the lower regions- that is to say, the ungraded basement of Science Hall. The most remarkable achievement of the first session was the production of the first number of Tin-: Schoolma ' am. In less than three months and a half, from March 1 to June 12, 1910, the idea was conceived, a staff was elected, a name was chosen, copy was manufactured, ads were captured, proofs were read, books were printed, bound, distributed, and paid for, with a substantial balance in the bank.

Page 24 text:

( )n May 4. 1 ( »14, the girls broke ground for a new building, first called the Students ' Building, but now Harrison Hall. Within the next year or two a serious effort was made to substitute names for numbers in reference to all the buildings on the campus. A big feature of the seventh session was the two-day pageant in May, in honor of the birth of Shakespeare, 300 years before. In the spring of 1917 the spirit of war took hold of our campus, and The Schoolma ' am reflected it all in martial poetry and patriotic colors. In 1918 The Schoolma ' am still displayed patriotic colors — inside; outside she was clad in somber brown paper, to signify that we were trying to practice thrift and economy for a great cause. From October 7 to November 6, 1918, the school was closed because of the terrible influenza epidemic: but death did not invade our ranks. The girls came back to Blue-Stone Hill in time to raise the roof at dawn on Armistice Dav.