Marion Brown, Abbot Academy Class of 1911, was a very outgoing and optimistic teenager from Lawrence, Massachusetts. An athlete who played varsity basketball and varsity track in her junior and senior years, she also participated in art, music and drama, attending many performances with her classmates in Boston. Photographs in her scrapbook document the many social events she attended including weddings and formal dances. At times, she was a bit excessive in her social extravaganzas. She was placed on a three-week probation during her senior year due to her interaction with the Phillips Academy boys.

Her scrapbook contains material from her time at Abbot Academy from 1909 to 1911. Materials include many photographs of her track and basketball teams, classmates and her classrooms at Abbot. She also wrote extensively in her scrapbook about her feelings while she was a student at Abbot and especially her feelings about the three-week probation that she had to endure. Overall, though, the general image of her scrapbook was very positive, and it seemed as though Marion Brown had a wonderful time at Abbot Academy.

Brown came from a line of Abbot Academy girls, her grandmother and great aunt preceded her and her niece later graduated from Abbot Academy. After Abbot Academy Mrs. Brown went to Wellesley College and received her Master’s from Boston University and other graduate degrees from the University of Besancon and University of Toulouse, both in France.

Marion Brown introduces her scrapbook by including a timetable of events throughout her day at Abbot Academy labeled “Abbot Prison.” Her classes included Greek, Latin, Bible, Elocution, English, Plane Geometry and Studio Art. She received a School grade of A and a House grade of B. She was very interested in Phillips Academy sports, having every Andover Exeter football booklet from her time at Abbot Academy. Brown also played basketball for Abbot Academy and included is a photograph of the Abbot Academy basketball team and a photograph of them playing basketball outside. Throughout the scrapbook, she has handwritten little personal notes, invitations to dances and letters from her dad, all the letters from her father apparently in reply to her request for money. Strewn across the insides of the scrapbook are also objects ranging from needles, dried flower and mini American flag to a tiny mesh stocking. Interlaced in the scrapbook are decorated paper napkins that Brown had collected throughout her time at Abbot Academy.

By Kenta Nomoto and Katherine Krabek, Class of 2014

 

Scrapbook Box 7