It was 1936, and the Great Depression had begun to ease: New Hampshire’s average hourly wage was 41 cents, and the national unemployment was almost 17 percent – five times higher than today.
Priscilla Noyes must have thought of her grandmother as she drove in 1936 from her hometown of Colebrook, N.H. to attend Keene Teachers College, now Keene State College.
“As a child I was told I was going to college as soon as I was old enough to understand the word,” wrote Noyes in an autobiographical essay. “I followed my grandmother’s footsteps in becoming a school teacher.”
“It’s amazing that my mother attended college,” says Alyson Bristol, Priscilla’s daughter. “My mother grew up in a single parent household. My grandmother, widowed, raised two kids on the income of a small town telephone operator.”
Finances were tight, but Priscilla managed. Tuition was $100 per year from 1936 to 1940. Her books were free.
“I really spent very little money while I’ve been down here,” wrote Priscilla in a letter to her mother. “I have bought things I needed for school and my room and that’s it.”
Board and lodging averaged $250 annually for Priscilla’s accommodations in Huntress Hall.
Food service apparently was as high on a student’s mind in 1936 as in 2023. “I am not having [such] hot food down here,” complained Priscilla to her mother. “I am really starved all of the time. We had beans for supper…Believe you me they weren’t as good as the ones you bake.”
The papers of Priscilla Noyes, Class of 1940, were recently donated to the Keene State College Archives.
The papers offer a glimpse of college life in Keene at the height of the Great Depression and before World War II.
Her photographs include scenes of the 1938 hurricane in Keene and the 1939 Winter Carnival.
Her photographs of ordinary campus life and yearbooks leave the most lasting impression, according to Bristol, who donated the papers.
Priscilla majored in Early Elementary Education. She studied Art, English, Psychology, Home Arts, Library Work, and Mathematics her first year.
She landed a campus job as a typist thanks to Dean Henry Carle, Carle Hall’s namesake. She spent her free time playing sports, playing piano for her church, and watching movies with friends.
“Her time at Keene was blissful,” says Bristol, “with one tragic exception.” Priscilla’s only brother was killed in a hunting accident while she was at school.
After graduating, Priscilla earned a Master’s in Education from Columbia University. She settled in Connecticut with family and taught in the West Hartford school system.
“My mother loved Keene,” says Bristol. “I’m glad her papers are now in the place she held so dear.”
The College Archives plans to digitize Priscilla’s papers, hoping to share the memories of a student who followed in her grandmother’s footsteps.
If you’re curious about what has changed and stayed the same at Keene State, make an appointment to see Priscilla’s yearbooks with all her classmates best wishes by emailing archivist@keene.edu.
Rodney Obien can be contacted at
robien@keene.edu
