A student at Abbot Academy, Gail Penniman Turner was from Fairfield, Connecticut and graduated in 1956 with an acceptance to Barnard College and Mount Holyoke College. She entered the school in 1953 as a new tenth grader and immediately joined the Abbot Christian Association. By the end of her years at Abbot Academy, she became a member of an event planning committee, the Bazaar Committee, a Proctor for three years as well as a member of the Abbot Dance group for three years. She participated in plays, Numerals and Fidelio for two years. She was an avid member of the church and frequently attended the South Church. Although the front cover of the scrapbook is meticulously painted in dainty floral patterns with the binding reinforced, it is missing about one-third of the pages in the beginning of the book. Gail’s scrapbook contains many programs from plays, musicals, dances, and recitals at Abbot Academy, Brooks School, and Phillips Exeter Academy. It contains memorabilia as well as her dance cards, programs from shows she attended and articles from athletic events against Exeter. The scrapbook also had a fair amount regarding Abbot Academy’s process for tracking students. It featured a set of Gail’s fingerprints as a form of school identification as well as her driver’s license and college entrance exam papers. The scrapbook also detailed the classes that were taught at Abbot Academy at the time in addition to the school’s rules and regulations. Gail’s scrapbook mainly revolved around religion, the performing arts, and the events held at Abbot Academy that year.

by Abby Enes, class of 2018

Scrapbook Box 89