Student Life
In Their Words
What was life like for a college student in the late 19th and early 20th century? You can hear from students in their own words by browsing letters they wrote to family and friends.
Hamline University student Euphemia Miller Loag Osborn wrote letters to her sister, Julia Loag, about college life and also to her mother, Emily Taylor Snyder. The letters contain details about new cultural experiences, weather, home sickness and health, and difficulty making new friends. This excerpt speaks about attending the St. Paul Winter Carnival parade in 1888.
There were a lot of floats made to look as tho[ugh] they were made of blocks of ice & snow, these were drawn by white horses and led by polar bears (men dressed up, and who looked, and carried out the part splendidly) in the first one was the queen of the carnival her float was drawn by (I think) twelve white horses-then there was the Duchess of Minnesota-and several more. I'll send the paper & let you read for your selves. One of the prettiest features of the procession was the childrens division. There were lots of beautiful little Shetland ponies, & the cutest little sleighs, made in the same styles as the big sleighs, just as elegant in every particular. These sleighs were filled with the cutest children dressed in carnival costumes, blue & white principally but there were some with other colors, some were single rigs, others double sleighs with two horses.
This letter from Carleton College student Thomas Hughes details the 1876 James-Younger Gang bank raid in Northfield, Minnesota - not a typical event for a college student to experience. Note that all misspellings in the original are included in the excerpt.
Well since my last letter Northfield has been visited by one of the Sadest and most terrible tragedys that ever happened in our State. About 2 o'clock last Thursday afternoon a band of eight well armed well mounted men rode into town, dashed up the principle street and when opposite the National Bank Stopped, three of them dismounting entered the Bank while the other five began fireing up and down street at every body and thing. The city was taken by surprise…
Through the following film, you can experience a day in the life of a college student in 1929 at Concordia College in St. Paul, Minnesota. You will see campus buildings, students waking up in their dorm room (01:10), a class session (03:07), gym class (09:21), and a baseball game (11:36).
Dorm Life
As colleges expanded, the need for additional student housing also grew. Several newspaper articles from the time detail how the Duluth Normal School wanted to expand, but could not until they could build more student housing.
It so happens that the Duluth normal school is located in the so-called aristocratic section of the city, where the people are not in the habit of taking in boarders. Consequently the girl students have had great difficulty in finding places to lodge and board.
Read the full article in the scrapbook below:
With a new dormitory, the Duluth Normal School could accommodate twice as many students. Additional funding for the new dormitory was approved in 1905 and the building was completed two years later in 1907.
College dormitories ranged in size and were initially not co-ed. Most students lived with roommates and had to learn how to share space with friends and neighbors. Here are several inside views of a typical dorm room and associated activities in the early 20th century.
- Student room in ladies dormitory, St. Peter, Minnesota
- Typical students' room around 1900, St. Peter, Minnesota
- James Murray in dorm room, Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota
- Two female students relax in their Lawrence Hall dormitory room, St. Cloud State University,...
- Gridley Thanksgiving, Northfield, Minnesota
Below are several exterior views and portraits of various dormitories at Carleton College, Macalester College, and St. Cloud State University. Also pictured is laundry day at Concordia University, Saint Paul, depicting students hanging sheets and clothes out to dry. Several students are holding brooms that they used to clean mattresses.
- Laundry day, Concordia College, St. Paul, Minnesota
- Dormitory, Concordia College, St. Paul, Minnesota
- Women of Gridley Hall, Northfield, Minnesota
- Four women on the porch of The Elms, Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota
- Women stand in front of Lawrence Hall, St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, Minnesota
Recreational and Social Activities
Many college and university students in Minnesota took full advantage of their summer leisure time. Students played recreational sports, went boating, hiking, and on picnics with friends they had made at school.
- Two female students in a boat, Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota
- Women rowing on Lake Winona, Winona, Minnesota
- Prior Lake, Mankato, Minnesota
- Student social activity at Winona Normal School, near Winona, Minnesota
- Student social activity at Winona Normal School, near Winona, Minnesota
- Scrap Book of Duluth State Normal School 1907 - 1914
- Scrap Book of Duluth State Normal School 1907 - 1914
May Day celebrations were common in the late 19th and early 20th centuries at college campuses, marking the beginning of summer. Students from The College of St. Scholastica are shown below participating in the decorating the Maypole ceremony. May Day ceremonies were also celebrated at Carleton College with a May Fete that included the crowning of a May Queen and a Maypole dance.
During winters, students were still looking for fun. They ice skated, tobogganed, had snowball fights, and played cards, among other activities.
This St. Cloud State Teachers College video below shows a range of recreational activities students engaged in. It features a homecoming parade in downtown St. Cloud that happened sometime between 1935 and 1942 (0:33), students ice skating, riding toboggans, and skiing (4:55), more toboggan runs (15:13) followed by more ice skating.
Continue exploring this exhibit using the page links below.