Blast from the past.
150-year-old love notes written by highschool students were present in the floorboards of a faculty in Maine, in accordance with Bangor Each day News.
Preservation contractor Lee Hoagland began working on the University of Southern Maine’s Academy Constructing in 2022, and over the course of a 12 months he found hidden papers in an area between the primary and second floors of the constructing in-built 1806.
The papers included love letters between former students of what was a private college preparatory school for youngsters aged 10 to 17 for upper-class families.
“Ada, would’nt you wish to swing after school? I’ll stop if you happen to will. Will you? Write and say!” one in all the notes reportedly said.
“My darling, why did…” one other note read.
A special note said that a student named Belle Worcester “is a [prissy or pretty] girl.”
Worcester is mentioned several times within the notes, including in a single that said, “We had a splendid time to (meeting?) last night, for Belle and I passed notes. We didn’t pass many though, for Mr. Lord was right behind us.”
Hoagland also discovered math equations, English conjugations and penmanship exercises in the varsity’s floorboards.
He saved the papers and gave them to associate professor Hannah Barnes.
The scholars also wrote expletives and insults about their teachers within the letters — proving teenage behavior hasn’t modified a century and a half later.
“The past shouldn’t be as distant as we expect it’s,” USM historian Libby Bischof told the Bangor Each day News.
Bischof also addressed how one note featured a drawing of a teacher, Ms. Stevens, with a protracted, cartoon-like nose.
“What really struck me was the Miss Stevens cartoon since it was so crude. Not in crude in a lewd way, but crude like a very bad sketch,” she explained. “And I could tell Miss Stevens had really large eyes because that’s the defining feature.”
While students wrote things about their fellow classmates and teachers on paper back then, nowadays “it’s all text and Snapchat,” Bischof identified.
“We’re not going to have this for future generations,” he added.
Based on Bangor Each day News, the old papers are currently being kept in USM’s Department of Art. There are plans to archive the notes in the varsity’s Special Collections.
Blast from the past.
150-year-old love notes written by highschool students were present in the floorboards of a faculty in Maine, in accordance with Bangor Each day News.
Preservation contractor Lee Hoagland began working on the University of Southern Maine’s Academy Constructing in 2022, and over the course of a 12 months he found hidden papers in an area between the primary and second floors of the constructing in-built 1806.
The papers included love letters between former students of what was a private college preparatory school for youngsters aged 10 to 17 for upper-class families.
“Ada, would’nt you wish to swing after school? I’ll stop if you happen to will. Will you? Write and say!” one in all the notes reportedly said.
“My darling, why did…” one other note read.
A special note said that a student named Belle Worcester “is a [prissy or pretty] girl.”
Worcester is mentioned several times within the notes, including in a single that said, “We had a splendid time to (meeting?) last night, for Belle and I passed notes. We didn’t pass many though, for Mr. Lord was right behind us.”
Hoagland also discovered math equations, English conjugations and penmanship exercises in the varsity’s floorboards.
He saved the papers and gave them to associate professor Hannah Barnes.
The scholars also wrote expletives and insults about their teachers within the letters — proving teenage behavior hasn’t modified a century and a half later.
“The past shouldn’t be as distant as we expect it’s,” USM historian Libby Bischof told the Bangor Each day News.
Bischof also addressed how one note featured a drawing of a teacher, Ms. Stevens, with a protracted, cartoon-like nose.
“What really struck me was the Miss Stevens cartoon since it was so crude. Not in crude in a lewd way, but crude like a very bad sketch,” she explained. “And I could tell Miss Stevens had really large eyes because that’s the defining feature.”
While students wrote things about their fellow classmates and teachers on paper back then, nowadays “it’s all text and Snapchat,” Bischof identified.
“We’re not going to have this for future generations,” he added.
Based on Bangor Each day News, the old papers are currently being kept in USM’s Department of Art. There are plans to archive the notes in the varsity’s Special Collections.
