Stephens: A Look Back - 1900-1965

For more than 60 weeks, we’ve been taking a look back at the history of Stephens College through the eyes of the Stephensophia yearbook.

The series corresponded with the Missouri Digital Heritagecollection, a collaboration between the Missouri Secretary of State, Missouri State Archives, Missouri State Library and the State Historical Society of Missouri.

Alas, the collection—and this series—ended last week with 1965. Of course, the College has hard copies of the yearbook beyond this point, but the intention was to always use the online resource to guide the content for this blog.

It’s been a fascinating series that explored the changes at Stephens from year to year. And, of course, in the later years, it's been fun to follow up and see where a few Stephens Women are today.

We started with the first edition of the Stephensophia in 1900 and explored areas of studies--which aren't drastically different from today. Young women were studying history, economics, ethics, psychology, logic, modern languages and science.

The 1912-13 school year marked the beginning of James Madison Wood’s era on campus. We watched as he truly transformed the educational experience at Stephens through the 1940s.

In 1918, we saw Stephens rally around WWI efforts.

Then 1921 brought about another tradition with the arrival of Jessie Burrall. The Burrall program at Stephens swelled into services, courses, lectures, choirs and other popular activities over the next 40 years.

Of course, 1922 brought us the Ten Ideals and until 1965, we saw the young women who represented each idea every year after.

The 1920s also brought us our educational program and children’s school and our equestrian program.

In the 1930s, we watched as our small college transformed into a larger school with, perhaps, more polished students. Louise Dudley became dean of faculty and, of course, would go on to shape the humanities not only at Stephens but across the country.

Poet Carl Sandburg visited and famed scientist H. Bentley Glass was on our science faculty. Then, in 1938, Maude Adams arrived, solidifying our reputation as a leader in theatre education (today, our theatre program is ranked 12^th by The Princeton Review).

The 1940s were also pivotal for women and women’s roles in the world with World War II opening up new career opportunities. At Stephens, this meant the creation of the aviation program. The annual fashion show, which continues today, is also born this decade as Muriel King is hired as the director of Fine and Applied Fashion Department.

The College continued to welcome prominent guests to campus, including Eleanor Roosevelt and Dorothy Thompson.

Wood left us in 1947.

In the 1950s, we watched Stephens students become more interested in politics and foreign relations.

The new Chapel opened in 1957, just as students were starting to question the college’s emphasis on religion.

Those interests continued in the early 1960s with new Young Democrats and Young Republicans clubs—organizations, by the way, that have been revised on campus this year.

In 1962, we began transitioning from a two-year to a four-year college, and, of course, 1965 brought us the James Madison Wood Learning Center, which serves as the academic heart of campus today.

One of the highlights of working on this series has been meeting Stephens Women over the years and seeing the wonderful successes they accomplished since graduation.

Thanks for reading. We hope you’ve enjoyed this series as much as we’ve enjoyed exploring the pages of Stephens’ past. 

Stephens: A Look Back - 1965

It’s 1965 in the Look Back series, the final year the Stephensophia is archived online.

This is a significant school year for Stephens. It’s the year the James Madison Wood Quadrangle is dedicated. We’re told:

President Seymour A. Smith, along with extensive outside consultants, has worked over a period of five years to complete the Learning Center. The components of the quadrangle include the Hugh Stephens Resources Library, Science Hall, Louise Dud-ley Hall, Fine Arts Center, Walter Hall, and Multi-Purpose Areas. The latest experimental devices have been incorporated to further the educational potential of the college. Faculty and students enjoy a wide range of aids and programs through progressive technology. The quadrangle is an exterior example of Stephen's constant projection into the future. Here is a place where the finest educational equipment is made available giving a student the unique opportunity to develop her mental capabilities, unhindered by time-consuming technicalities. They have eliminated them to the best of the college's ability. Stephens is rightfully proud of the James Madison Wood Quadrangle.

Today, of course, this learning center is the academic heart of campus.

The Stephens Concert Series this year brought in Madame Anita Dorfmann and Lola Fisher.

Portfolio, the campus literary journal, remains strong this year. You’ll recall it began in 1962 as a reimagined version of the Stephens Standard, which debuted in 1921. Today, the journal is Harbinger, and has won Outstanding Literary Journal four out of the past five years.

The editor of Portfolio is Peggy Richardson. Richardson would go on to devote her life to training horses and teaching children to ride. She owned and operated Peggy Richardson Stables in Oklahoma.

Sandy Riggins is editor of this year’s Stephensophia. She would go on to be Sandra Morrison and worked for the Navy department as head of public inquiries and research in the office of the Chief of Information at the Pentagon and later at the Dept. of Air Force in the Office of the Surgeon General at Bolling Air Force Base.

And Stacy Holland, president of the 1965 senior class, would go on to be president of Exceptional People International, a staff and recruiting firm based in the San Francisco Bay area.

Missing this year are photos of the women who represent each of the Ten Ideals. In fact, there’s not much about the Ideals in the book other than a new Ten Ideals Emphasis Committee. 

Today, students representing the Ideals are secret and spend the year honoring other classmates, faculty and staff who demonstrate the Ideals.

Some other photos from the year:

Stephens: A Look Back - 1964

The 1964 Stephensophia begins with a series of photographs of clocks, books, religious symbols and other random objects backdropping angst-y quotes like “confused in a world of regulated confusion roused by the jolting alarm cajoled by the movement of the second hand.”

This goes on for about 20 pages.

Of course, this would have been the school year that John F. Kennedy was assassinated, which some argue essentially ended the innocence America had previously known.

Stephens this year received a grant from the Ford Foundation to fund a lecture series brining several big names to campus including well-known author John Updike, cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead and historian Henry Steele Commager.

The Stephensophia includes excerpts of all of the guest lecturers’ writings and talks.

Among the popular clubs this year is Prince of Wales, which hosts a Christmas party and open houses—events still held today.

There’s also an organized modeling squad this year.

Again this year, there are quite a few great images representing Stephens:

Among notable Susies this year:

Alicia Wilson, who represents Appreciation of the Beautiful, went on to be Alicia Mulliken, who owns a popular inn in Door County, Wisc.

Diana Richards made news when she purchased property in North Carolina and turned it into a conservation area to preserve its natural beauty. This year, she represents Cheerfulness.

Sandra Leibson is the Ideal of Forcefulness. She’s now Sandra Rubovits, a social worker.

This year’s Best Dressed Girl (for sure!) is Jane Winton, who went on to be Jane Winton Thalman, a real estate agent in California.

Judy Bosmyer, editor of this year’s Stephensophia, is now Judy Quattlebaum, a retired English teacher.

And Jill Butler, who represents Health, worked in advertising, created a home furnishings design agency, lived in Paris for a while before creating the Jill Butler Collection. She has three fully illustrated books and two other books and is a monthly columnist for the New Haven Register papers. Whew!

Stephens: A Look Back - 1963

A model of the proposed new learning center.

It’s 1963 and the Stephens campus is getting ready to take on a more modern feel.

Planning has begun for the James M. Wood Learning Center, today the academic hub of Stephens. 

The $2.75 million project includes the Hugh Stephens Library, renovations to Walter Hall and buildings that today house our humanities, fashion, film, sciences and marketing courses. Construction is expected to be completed by fall of 1964.

The design at this time is so futuristic at this time that it generates an article in the New York Times on Sunday, Nov. 11, 1962, calling it “tomorrow’s campus.” The learning center is “expected to serve as a national showcase for the latest technical developments in teaching.”

The new facilities include the television stations, used today by our film program, students interested in marketing and journalism and by Columbia Access Television.

The 1963 Stephensophia once again mostly contains images of college life that year. 

It starts with a description of the Ten Ideals with quotes by faculty members.

The Ten Ideals of Stephens College are represented in persons of the past and present who make Stephens a community of those who scorn that which is superficial and lowly and exalt that which is lofty and of utmost value. When these ideals are being achieved, a vision of others appear, until the good, the true and the beautiful become a living reality in our midst. - Dean William T. Hall

These Ideals do not constitute a standard of perfection, a doctrine, or a formal code. They are, rather, images of qualities that every student hopes to possess more fully than she does when she enters college and more fully than she does when she graduates. - Unknown

Each Ideal is a description of desirable forms of thinking, feeling, and acting rather than some far-off something unrelated to life. They are made real in those students who so fully live these ideals. - Dr. Carl N. Rexroad

Among the Ideals this year are twin sisters Elaine Anthony, who represents Appreciation of the Beautiful, and Carol Anthony, who represents Health. Both sisters went on to become artists: Elaine worked in Mexico City, specializing in semi-abstract landscapes, and Carol had paintings in the Smithsonian and Carnegie Institute.

Elaine Anthony

Carol Anthony

Linda Faber, who this year represents Courtesy, also went on to be an artist. Linda Walker was a graphic designer-turned pastel and watercolor artist.

Linda Faber

This year’s Civic Association President is Karen Katz, now Dr. Karen Musher, a speech language pathologist who was recognized with a Woman of Courage Award in Houston.

Karen Katz

Also among this class is Linda Shewalker, who is fittingly this year's chair of the Educational and Cultural Commission. Linda Biehl went on to found the Amy Biehl Foundation Trust, earning her the Aline and Norman Felton Humanitarian Award in 1999. Biehl’s story started with the tragic death of her daughter, Amy, in 1993. Amy was a Fulbright scholars in South Africa when her party was attacked by a mob. Linda and her husband, Peter, responded by taking up her work to support South Africa’s transition ot democracy. Today, two of Amy’s attackers now work for the Amy Biehl Foundation. You can read more about Linda’s amazing story here.

The series will continue Sept. 19

The series will continue Sept. 17

Stephens: A Look Back - 1962

The 1962 Stephensophia is dedicated to “our Far Eastern Susies” with the following dedication:

The sound of happy voices, the spirit of genuine cooperation, the development of ideas and aspirations, all blend together in the WORLD OF SUSIE STEPHENS. So that in future you will be able to relive your college days as you turn these pages, the yearbook staff presents the service activities, the social, intellectual and cultural events, and the honor presentations in a tribute to the ideals that we hold the highest. Through these, each Stephens girl has broadened her knowledge and has created new friendships, thus preparing herself for her place in life. In contributing to the variety of backgrounds and nationalities, the Stephens girl endeavors to strengthen her own convictions through an understanding of the ideas and beliefs of her fellow students. In the WORLD OF SUSIE STEPHENS, the East meets the West. To our Far Eastern Susies, Chai Kyung Chung, Seoul Korea, Mei Tottori and Reiko Seki, Tokyo, Japan, and Chitta Techaphailve, Amphut Seriniyom, Adchara Satrabhandhu, Bangkok, Thailand, whose influences are seen throughout our campus, whose ideas have become a part of our lives, and whose smiles have warmed our hearts, we dedicate the 1962 Stephensophia.

The book this year really emphasizes the social aspect of college life, with information and photos from MU football games, 'blue rooms,' dances, trips to the public telephone and excitement over Johnny Mathis’s visit to Columbia.

We’re starting to see signs that Stephens is transitioning from a two-year to a four-year college. This year, we’re told third year students are candidates for BFAs in dance, fashion and theatre arts.

Okoboji Summer Theatre in Iowa is also starting to become a permanent fixture in Stephens’ world. The first theatre season there opened in 1958 and in 1961, Stephens signed a five-year lease for the building and added children’s plays to the summer schedule. This year, the theatre building and land is turned over to Stephens, which has agreed to operate the theatre for a minimum of seven years. Spoiler: It will continue to thrive for decades and is still producing excellent shows, including children’s plays, today.

Among visitors to campus this year are Hon. Charles Malik, former president of the U.N.; Barbara Ward, an English writer; and journalist Edgar Snow.

The Stephens Standard has been renamed to The PORTFOLIO. The magazine presents the best material produced on campus, including paintings and photographer, poetry, essays, drama and more. Today, the magazine is Harbinger and has won Outstanding Literary Journal by the national English honor society Sigma Tau Delta four out of the past five years.

The Burrall program is still going strong, some 40 years after it began. The initiative includes services, discussions, classes and projects.

Paul Akemann oversees Burrall this year. It’s fitting. She would go on to be Dr. Paula Drewek, a retired professor of humanities who has served in a number of international initiatives. She is on a number of interfaith boards and organizations that promote understanding and peace.

Julie Choplin, now Julie Reynolds, an interior designer in Dallas, serves as vice-president of the Group Living Commission at Stephens this year.

And Margaret Nunn, who represents the Ideal of Self-Discipline, is Margaret Todd, a guidance counselor in Alabama.

Some more great photos from the 1962 Stephensophia: