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[identification of item], [box #, folder #], Mary Baldwin Seminary notebook and scrapbook, 1895-1898, SC 0425, Special Collections, Carrier Library, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA.
Purchased from Auger Down Books in May 2026.
Mary Baldwin Seminary (now Mary Baldwin University) was founded in 1842 as Augusta Female Seminary in Staunton, Virginia. The school was established in partnership with the Presbyterian Church.
Lavinia Curle Peek (1879-1956) was from Hampton, Virginia and presumably attended Mary Baldwin Seminary (MBS) in the mid to late 1890s. Mary Rieman Hack (1877-1928) was from Winchester, Virginia and also attended MBS, likely at the same time as Peek. The connection between Lavinia Peek and Mary Hack, other than being Mary Baldwin Seminary students, or why materials collected by both women are present in the same scrapbook is unclear.
The single volume notebook/scrapbook contains handwritten notes, poetry, and writings as well as pasted-in newspaper clippings and printed ephemera related to Mary Baldwin Seminary in Staunton, Virginia. The front page is inscribed: "[illegible -tionary] notes. Augusta Female Seminary. Given by Miss Laughton. Owned by Lavinia C. Peek, Hampton, Virginia, Acorn Point." The provenance is made unclear due to the multiple documents within the volume that refer to Mary R. Hack, originally of Winchester, Virginia. These include several pasted-in telegrams written by the Van Horn family in Wyoming that reference or are addressed to Mary Hack in Denver, Colorado.
Newspaper clippings are pasted over notes and writings. Printed ephemera includes Mary Baldwin Seminary event programs (commencement, recitals) as well as Mary Hack's 1895 report card signed by Seminary principal Mary Baldwin. Two pages of flattened and dried leaves were collected at Natural Bridge.
The back page includes a list of body measurements taken on May 14, 1896 while at "M. B. S." (Mary Baldwin Seminary).