Edith May Fultz Cavendish Photographs

The Edith May Fultz Cavendish Photographs, ca. 1940, include 43 unique black-and-white photographs of Madison College while Cavendish (née Fultz) was a student at the school. Dormitory life and dormitory interiors, campus buildings, snowscapes, general student and social life, and fellow classmate portrait photographs are all captured. A few photographs are interspersed that depict locations other than Madison College.

In addition to the portrait photographs of Madison College students, this collection of photographs includes many candid and lighthearted shots of student life and features Cavendish with her fellow classmates. A grouping of dormitory photographs capture typical student life as it relates to on-campus living. Cavendish and her roommates are shown studying, lying in their beds, and posing in bath towels in their dormitory in Spotswood Hall. Wilson Hall and other buildings on the perimeter of the quad are also featured in these photographs. Photographs of the campus snowscape capture Cavendish with her classmates gallivanting in the snow, posing by a recently built snowman, and throwing snowballs. A last grouping of photographs feature general student life with Cavendish and her classmates. The students are captured posing in groups in front of buildings and other landmarks on campus including the kissing rock. Of interest is a photograph of Cavendish with Mary Gregory on Class Day. They are wearing heart-shaped aprons and hats and are described as Heart Throbs. One particular photograph of Cavendish posing with friends on a tandem bicycle conveys the lighthearted nature of this collection.

Fellow classmates of Cavendish featured in the photographs include but are not limited to Mary Gregory, Anne Howell, Margaret Shelton, Eunice Wall, and Katherine Kackley. She refers to her close group of friends as “The Gang.” A portrait photograph of a man known only as Joe is also included.