William Sheffield the 3rd, a Phillips Academy student from Newport, Rhode Island, attended the school from 1907 to 1911. Sheffield’s father, William Sheffield Jr., was a United States Representative, and the son of William Sheffield Sr., who was also a US Representative, as well as the Senator of Rhode Island. After graduating from Phillips Academy in 1911, Sheffield continued his academic career at Brown University. During his time at Andover, Sheffield avidly supported the school’s athletics and frequently attended the competitive and spirited sporting events.
In chronological order, the scrapbook focuses primarily on Sheffield’s years at Phillips Academy. Although the side of the scrapbook is falling apart, it is in fair condition, as the pages are still intact and only a few rips appear, making the contents easily comprehensible.

The main theme of the scrapbook is sports, but it also includes documents on a variety of other topics. The majority of the scrapbook contains documents and photographs associated with the athletic games that Sheffield frequently attended such as baseball, football, ice hockey, basketball, and track. The considerable amount of baseball photographs and tickets indicates that he favored baseball. These documents include sports competitions against Yale, Harvard, Brown, and Exeter. Sheffield seemed to particularly enjoy Andover-Exeter games.

He also collected Phillipian newspaper articles and illustrations of sports plays, meal tickets and menus from the campus dining hall, his sick reports, class excuse slips, clippings of Andover preachers, debate club catalogs, laundry expenses clippings, checks sent out to the Andover Athletic Association, and photographs of various clubs and student committees on campus such as the Promenade Committee, Debate Club, Music Club, and Theatre Club. Additionally, the scrapbook contains an invitation from President William Howard Taft for his 1909 inauguration and a Brown University banquet catalogue.

by Fiona Kass, class of 2019

Scrapbook Box 79