A COLLECTION of 29 ORIGINAL CYANOTYPE PHOTOGRAPHS of ST. STEPHEN'S COLLEGE later to become BARD COLLEGE together with 14 ORIGINAL PAMPHLETS, BROCHURES & OTHER ORIGINAL EPHEMERAL PUBLICATIONS, including 3 related to the ritual "BURYING OF THE ALGEBRA".

Annandale, NY: 1890 through 1896. [1890's], [1890's]. Good. - A collection of original photographs and original brochures and ephemeral publications relating to St. Stephen's College of Annandale, NY, which was founded by John & Margaret Bard and was later to become Bard College, of Annandale-on-the-Hudson. Included are 30 original photographs including 29 cyanotypes, 13 of which depict college buildings, the remaining 17 being portraits and scenery, including the campus, Zabriskies Falls, and interiors. The cyan-tinged images range from 4 inches high by 3-1/4 inches wide to 9 inches high by 6-1/2 inches wide with a variety of sizes in between. One of the images is an exception, being sienna-toned and not, in fact, a cyanotype. The photographs are in various condition, some are fine while others are creased or lightly stained with one portrait having several tears to the edges.

Also included in this collection are 14 ephemeral publications and brochures relating to St. Stephen's College with programs and flyers for events, including 3 relating to the ritual burying of the algebra by incoming freshmen. The items were all apparently once removed from a scrapbook and thus the condition varies. A few have stains while several have remnants of paper or glue on the versos.

Following is a list of the images represented by the photographs:

1) The entrance to Potter Hall (part of Stone Row) with a horse-drawn cart.

2) An unidentified image which looks like a dormitory building.

3) Chapel of Holy Innocents and St. Margaret's Well with the Stone Row dormitories in the background

4) Chapel of Holy Innocents & St. Margaret's Well (1890) [Part of Stone Row in the background].

5) Bard Hall (1891). [There are glue or chemical stains to the edges of this photo].

6) An unidentified image. [This is a small photo with creasing & stains].

7) Aspinwall Hall.

8) Interior of the Chapel of Holy Innocents, Christmas 1890. (There is a light corner stain).

9) Chapel of Holy Innocents, 1891. (There is a light corner stain).

10) Interior of the Chapel of Holy Innocents (decorated at Christmas).

11) Chapel of Holy Innocents.

12) Landscape in snow, with the Chapel of Holy Innocents & St. Margaret's Well. (There is creasing to this photo, mainly at the edges).

13) "Stone Row" dormitories (1893), with the Chapel of Holy Innocents & St. Margaret's Well in the foreground.

14) Interior of a dorm room with 2 students.

15) A staged photo of 2 students in wedding attire, one is in drag.

16) Three Class of 1894 students. (This photo has a crease along the center).

17 through 22) Six different photos of Zabriskies Falls. (One, a small sepia-toned photo has a crease along the edge, another has minor creases and a third has a light stain).

23) Large group of students in front of the Chapel of Holy Innocents.

24) Three students. (There is creasing to this photo).

25) A view of the campus.

26) Photo of the Class of 1897. (This photo is quite dark).

27) Interior of a room with 2 students.

28) A group of 13 students (June 1893).

29) A view from the campus showing the Catskills & Hudson River.

30) A portrait of the President of the College, Robert B Fairbairn.

The ephemera related to St. Stephen's College consists of:

1) A 4-page "St. Stephen's College Glee Club" program bound in cream wraps titled in red with a silk cord. The program is dated "March '93" in ink at the bottom of the cover.

2) A 2-page "St. Stephen's College" brochure. The top edge of the second page is trimmed without loss of text.

3) A 4-page St. Stephen's College "Field Day / June 20, 1893" brochure with penciled notes indicating the winners.

4) The 4-page "Thirty-Fourth Commencement" program. Dated June 21, 1894.

5) "The St. Stephen's College Messenger" issue dated April 1896.

6) A broadside of the St. Stephen's College schedule and rules. The broadside is stained.

7) A small card with the program for the "Eulexian Society Reunion Supper" (a literary society), dated June 21, 1893.

8) An announcement printed on mourning stationery regretting that "The Class of Ninety-six" could not invite the recipient to "the burying of its Algebra on account of the secrecy of the burial". Together with the original mourning envelope.

9) A 3-page program for the "Laying of the Corner-stone" of the Hoffman Library dated June 22, 1893. Construction of the library began in 1893 and was completed in 1895.

10) A humorous description of the death and burial of algebra in 1894 and it's subsequent exhumation by the class of 1897. The 4-page announcement is printed on light gray card stock shaped as a tombstone. The original mourning envelope is present.

11) A 4-page program with class statistics entitled "Class Day S. Stephen's College. June 15, 1892". In addition to age, height and weight, the statistics include favorite drink ("brandy", "rain water", "blood" etc), favorite study ("himself", "women", "how to do nothing", etc)), favorite amusement "sleeping", scrapping", "being sick", etc), and others.

12) The 4-page "Thirty-Third Annual Commencement" program dated June 22, 1893 with profuse penciled notes.

13) Unused 4-page "St. Stephen's College" letterhead.

14) The 1894 "Funeral" program for algebra printed in red on buff card stock in the shape of a coffin. Purple mourning lines frame the edges of the 4 pages of card stock which is bound at the top with red cotton ribbon.

The tradition behind the burial of the algebra was sort of a light hazing ritual performed by freshmen students. Thirty days after arriving at Bard, the freshmen were to steal an algebra book which they were to then sign and bury with several bottles of wine. Then, the night before commencement the students now seniors, would dig it up and consume the wine, raising a toast to their graduating class. The ritual is described as follows in a 1930 issue of the Lyre Tree, a student newspaper: "There is a tradition of long standing at St. Stephen's that within 30 days after the close of the first semester the Freshman class shall, with all the ritual and solemnity due to the occasion, secretly inter an algebra, autographed by each member of the class and with it a certain quantity of wine. To be legal, every Freshman must be at the grave during the burial. At the end of the four years, the algebra is exhumed and burned on a funeral pyre, during the Class Day exercises. Toasts are drunk to the college and to the outgoing and incoming Senior class."

"St. Stephen's College was established as a Training College for the Ministry, and as such it was requested to make an annual report to the Convention of the Diocese of New York. The object was the supervision of the young men who had devoted themselves to the ministry of the Church. It was afterwards opened to any who would not disturb the general purpose for which it was originally instituted." [Quoted from "The Thirty-First Annual Catalogue of St. Stephen's College, Annandale, N.Y. 1892-93".

The land now owned by Bard College was once composed of several country estates, Blithewood, Bartlett, Sands, Cruger's Island, and Ward Manor/Almont among them. John & Margaret Bard purchased a part of the Blithewood estate in 1853. Renaming the property as Annandale, they established a parish school the following year. They then began building the Chapel of the Innocents next to Bard Hall in 1857 and the following year donated the unfinished Chapel and surrounding acreage to New York's Episcopal diocese which had promised financial support to grow the school into a theological college. St. Stephen's College was thus founded in 1860. In honor of its founder, the school changed its name to Bard College in 1934. Ten years later, in 1944, Bard became a co-educational school, welcoming female students and faculty.