The United States celebrates women’s history in March each year. The national theme for 2023 is Women Who Tell Our Stories. The Tarleton Libraries’ Archives and Special Collections has several archival collections that were created by women affiliated with Tarleton State University. This blog post explores one of those women and the story her collection continues to tell about Tarleton, its history and traditions.
Flora Marguerite Clarke was a co-ed at John Tarleton Agricultural College from 1924 to 1926. She created a scrapbook during those years that tells a story of student life on Tarleton campus. The photographs, notes from friends and male admirers, the Yell Book, and party favors found in her scrapbook demonstrate how involved she was with the activities on campus and with her friends and classmates. In the middle of all the learning, activity, and fun, Flora found time to add comments to her scrapbook, which gave the scrapbook a journal-like quality and added a personal touch to the story of campus life at JTAC almost a hundred years ago.
The “Tarleton Story” Flora told with her scrapbook was one of education, school spirit, campus events and activities, student worker duties, and fellowship with friends and classmates. Flora trained to be a teacher while at JTAC, and her scrapbook shows that she had the friendly, energetic, outgoing personality for that career. Her senior class schedule card not only lists her classes, but also demonstrates how far Tarleton has come in its class registration process. Digital schedules do not provide for penciled-in changes! Notes from the children Flora taught during practice teaching are evidence that she paid attention during her education classes and was able to put what she learned in the classroom into practice in the real world, a goal that a Tarleton education encourages today.
Flora’s story of “Tarleton Spirit” is a well-rounded one. A copy of the Official Yell Book and tickets to two football games (one for the annual Thanksgiving 1925 game against the Grubbs [aka North Texas Junior Agricultural and Mechanical College of Arlington, Texas]) tell us what it was like to cheer for the school teams during the 1920s. Flora’s “Tarleton Story” includes the early formative years of bygone and present day traditions with events like Parents Day/May Fete, with cultural activities such as recitals and plays, with commencement programs that covered multiple days (not because of the large number of graduating students, but the range of different types of commencement events), with photographs and mementos of social activities, and with descriptions of student worker responsibilities.
The social event Flora described the most in her story was the annual Halloween masquerade party which involved costumes, party favors, and beaus. In 1925 she dressed as a witch and Walter Faust walked her home. She was Bo Peep for the 1926 party and her date was Jack Abbott who dressed as an Arabian.
As is common with Tarleton students today, friends were a large part of Flora’s “Tarleton Story.” The many notes written in the scrapbook by her friends and classmates tell the story of a young woman who was liked for her friendly, outgoing manner and bright, smiling face. For her nineteenth birthday, Flora’s friends held a slumber party in one room of the dorms. As part of the activities, the girls wrote notes about the party, the good food, and how much they liked Flora.
Flora and her friends enjoyed taking pictures. They took pictures of each other playing in the snow. Flora, her beau, and another couple took pictures of their kayaking excursion. During her senior year (1926), Flora and her friends took pictures while posing in front of various buildings and landmarks on campus. They demonstrated their friendship by including funny, teasing comments with some of the photographs.
Graduation is a very important part of campus life and the “Tarleton Story.” Flora kept programs for all the commencement events from 1924 through 1926. In 1926 she also kept a party favor of a girl in a cap and gown holding a rolled degree labeled “Flora Clarke.” What a girl wore on such a special day was important, so Flora included samples of the fabric and lace that were used to make her white dress.
Flora’s story is about a young woman improving herself through education at John Tarleton Agricultural College while also enjoying that experience with friends. What is your “Tarleton Story?” Are you expanding your academic experience through establishing friendships and participating in on campus activities? If so, are you keeping a record of your story in order to share it with Tarleton students in 2123?
-By Phyllis Kinnison, Archivist/Librarian
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