Maine Memory Network

Josiah Pierce (1792-1866) of Baldwin wrote to his father about his graduation part, with which he was pleased, and the lectures he was attending as a senior at Bowdoin College in Brunswick.

All students made presentations at graduation on particular subjects, part of an effort to demonstrate what students had learned during their time at Bowdoin. Students were assigned particular "parts," based on their class rank.

Pierce was the first of a number of Pierce relatives to attend the college.

He especially praised Professor Parker Cleaveland, who taught mathematics and natural and experimental philosophy. Cleaveland's special interest became mineralogy.

Josiah Pierce (1827-1913) wrote to his father about his birthday -- he turned 19 -- and his impending graduation from Bowdoin College.

He wrote, "the time is close at hand when I shall be called, at least 'a liberally educated young man–' "

He commented that he expected his last term to be leisurely, but it had been demanding instead.

He included a letter to his mother in which he wrote, "I wish I had a little of your tincture of rhubarb this hot weather. I am getting dyspeptic as I have left off 'fumigating' to a certain degree."

This is the graduation announcement for the Sullivan High School Class of 1883. The graduation exercises were held at the Methodist Episcopal Church on School Street in Berwick on June 29 at 2:30 p.m.

The 13 students graduating that year were: Mattie Hobbs Lord, Jennie Evelyn Niles, Alice M. Clement, Cora Affie Toothaker, Maude Sophia Nowell, Eunice Mildred Austin, William Henry Libby, Frank B. Mulloy, Sara Hayes, George Herbert Guptill, Sarah Lula Winn, Nellie Frances Blaisdell and Kate Louise Copeland.

The graduation exercise began with a prayer, followed by the singing of the class song, a salutatory address and other usual graduation activities, and concluded with the presentation of diplomas and benediction.

Sarah Adeline Ray received a Westbrook Seminary laureate of arts degree on June 25, 1885. Sarah was one of three young women to receive the degree in 1885.

At the commencement exercises she presented a poem entitled "Vincit Qui Se Vincit" (He/she conquers who conquers himself/herself). The phrase "Vincit Qui Se Vincit" was also the class motto.

Signatures on the diploma are from James P. Weston, D.D., president of Westbrook Seminary and Female Institute; Hon. Sidney Perham, Portland, president of the Board of Trustees; and Grenville M. Stevens, Esq., Stevens Plains, secretary.

Often listed as "Addie" in the Registrar Rank Book, Sarah Adeline Ray was from Saccarappa. She began her Classical Studies at Westbrook Seminary on September 6, 1881, at the age of 15.

Eighth-grade graduates of North School, Congress Street, Portland, in 1886 are, front row, from left, [?] Sheridan, William Wright, Fred Small, Joe Maynard, Will Blossom, and James Donovan.

Second row, from left, are Lillian Erskine, Edith Partridge, Lena Carter, Lizzie Adams, Lillian Munday, and Alice Cushing.

Third row, from left, are Tom Desmond, Harry Haley, Harry Hawkens, Dean Conneen, [?] Charlton, Lucy Ball, and Josephine Andrews.

In the back row, from left, are [?] Winslow, [?] Farrington, Ernest Turner, Pat Sullivan, [?] Sheehan, Will Miller, and Alfred Coseworthy.

Twenty-five students graduated from Maine Central Institute in Pittsfield in 1890, along with a post-graduate class of 5 students.

The 27 people in the photograph are not identified and might be graduates and post-graduates, or might include several faculty members.

Maine Central Institute was founded by Free Will Baptists in 1866 as a preparatory school for Bates College in Lewiston.

The cover of the graduation program for the Biddeford High School, Class of 1890 features the class motto, "Persistere Est Vincere," which means "To persist is to conquer."

Thirty-six students graduated in 1890. The ceremony was held at the City Opera House on Main Street on Monday, June 23, 1890 at 7:30 P.M.

The class included a College Division and an English Division, although the program did not specify which students were part of each division.

Graduating from Blue Hill Academy in 1894 were, from left at rear, Elvie Billings, Elizabeth (Lizzie) Grindle and Cora Doyle. In the front, from left, are Josie Snow Barry, Julia Saunders, and Ethel Stover.

Blue Hill Academy, founded in 1803, was the first school chartered in Hancock County. In 1898, George Stevens Acdemy replaced Blue Hill.

Five students graduated from the North New Portland High School in 1897.

Pictured in the front row, from left, are Frank G. Moody and Arthur L. Henderson. In the middle row, from left, are Venessa Page (who married Arthur Henderson) and Marguerite Page (who married Verne Lishness)

In the back is Arthur G Knowles.

Lizzie Mae Jewell of Sebago was a member of Potter Academy's third graduating class.

The diploma reads: "Potter Academy, Located at Sebago, Maine, Diploma

"This certifies that Lizzie Mae Jewell Has completed the Latin Scientific Course of Study in this institution and upon proper examination is awarded this diploma as a certificate of graduation. In Testimony where of, we have here unto affixed our signatures this 15th day of June, 1899. Charles T. Stone Principal"

Lizzie M. Jewell (1877-1921) married Frank E. True in Hiram in 1906.

The Scarborough High School graduating class of 1902 class picture includes, in the front, Susan Pillsbury, valedictorian, and Clifford H. Libby, salutatorian; and at rear, from left, Lulu Ormsby (Cook), James Lyons, and Lida Harmon (Milliken), historian.

Sister Guillaume, S.C.I.M., made this memento shadow box for her sister, Anna Violette, on the occasion of Anna's graduation from school in June 1906.

Each of the 15 paper doves bears the name of a graduate and is mounted on a tiny spring so that the flock of doves "flutter" with any vibration in the room.

This program is from the graduation of the class of 1906 at Good Will High School in Fairfield.

Graduation was held June 1, 1906 at 10:30 a.m. and featured orations by members of the graduating class on purpose, heroism, prohibition and opportunity.

The final page of the booklet contains the song of the 1906 class, which was sung to the tune of "Trancadillo" by F.H. Brown.

Good Will High School's class of 1906 listed graduates as Carl Cleveland Jenkins, Irving Osgood Scott, Herbert Rice Coffin, Leroy Hamilton Hart, and Ray Wentworth Toby.

Edna St. Vincent Millay posed with her high school friends at Baccalaureate Sunday in June 1909, the year she graduated from Camden High School.

From left are Martha Knight, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Corinne Sawyer, Marion Payson, Maude Fuller, and Margaret Cripps.

Corinne Sawyer became a librarian at the Camden Public Library and collected photos, clippings and letters about Millay's career as a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet.

St Peter's School ('Ecole St Pierre') was the first parish school in Lewiston. It opened in 1878 to serve the French-speaking children of immigrants who poured into Lewiston in the 1860s and 70s to work in the mills.

Although children were taught exclusively in French -- from Canadian textbooks -- until the 1930s, there was a growing desire among parents to "Americanize" their children to provide them with better life chances. Note the large Stars and Stripes behind the graduates.