Lucy Skidmore Scribner Collection

Collection

Identifier: SCA-001

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Lucy Skidmore Scribner Collection is an assemblage of documents, photographs, publications, and objects by and about Lucy Scribner that have accumulated from a variety of sources over many years. It is probable that some items came directly to the College from Ms. Scribner's estate, and eventually made their way into the Archives. A number of items, including a quilt and other textiles, were donated to the College by Carol Keillor in 1987. Ms. Keillor inherited the items from Mary Elizabeth Larsen, who was Ms. Scribner's secretary and companion throughout the latter's later years. An inventory of Ms. Keillor's donation is available in the Department of Special Collections. Several files of Ms. Scribner's original documents and photographs (now housed in boxes 6, 7, and 11) were pulled out of the Archives' vertical subject files and united with the rest of the collection in the spring of 2000. The Lucy Skidmore Scribner Collection has been arranged into six series, reflecting the types of materials represented. Since the immediate origin of much of the collection is unknown, no attempt was made to arrange or divide the collection by provenance.

Dates

Creation: 1837 - 1957

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research by appointment. Please contact the library’s Special Collections department.

Phone: (518) 580-5506

Email: speccoll@skidmore.edu

Biographical / Historical

Lucy Skidmore Scribner was born in New York City on July 4, 1853 to Joseph Russell Skidmore (1821-1882), a coal merchant, and Lucy Ann Hawley Skidmore (1821-1853). Lucy's grandparents were Jeremiah and Judith Ludlam Skidmore and Irad and Sarah Holmes Hawley. In 1875, Lucy Skidmore married John Blair Scribner, son of the publisher Charles Scribner and senior member of the firm Charles Scribner's Sons, New York City. The couple resided at 21 East 48th Street in New York. In 1879, Lucy was left widowed when John Blair died unexpectedly of pneumonia.

Lucy Scribner never remarried, and for several years lived with her stepmother, Anna Holmes Krebs Skidmore (1834-1894), at 32 East 38th Street in New York. Around 1900, Ms. Scribner, who was in poor health, visited Saratoga Springs to enjoy the famous spa's air and water. By 1903, she had become a permanent resident of the city.

As stated in the Skidmore College 1999-2000 catalog, "In 1903 Mrs. Scribner, responding to what she saw as an absence of practical educational opportunity for women in Saratoga Springs, opened the Young Women's Industrial Club of Saratoga. With a few teachers and a handful of promising students, she initiated classes in the fine and practical arts, which were designed to give young women the means to make a living while learning to appreciate the more aesthetic experiences in life." The success of the Industrial Club led Ms. Scribner to expand her fledgling institution, and in 1911 the school was chartered as the Skidmore School of Arts. Under the continual guidance of Lucy Scribner and the experienced hand of its president, Charles Henry Keyes (1858-1925), the school eventually grew to become Skidmore College, chartered in 1922 as a four-year degree granting institution. Ms. Scribner maintained a close involvement with Skidmore College, serving as the chair of the Board of Trustees until her death in 1931. Most of the information in this biographical note was supplied by A Genalogical and Biographical Record of the Pioneer Thomas Skidmore... by Emily C. Hawley, 1931, and the 1999-2000 Skidmore College Catalog.

Extent

9 Cubic Feet (13 archive boxes, 1 oversize box (documents, publications, photographs, objects) unboxed items (publications, journals, photographs, quilt volumes???))