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Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. For more information, please see the Permissions and Copyright page on the West Virginia and Regional History Center website.

Conditions Governing Access

No special access restriction applies.

Preferred Citation

[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], Mabel Marie Griffith, Compiler, Scrapbooks of a Morgantown Resident, A&M 3530, West Virginia and Regional History Center, West Virginia University Libraries, Morgantown, West Virginia.

Biographical / Historical

Mabel Marie Griffith was born February 28, 1896, the daughter of Edwin Warren Griffith (born December 29, 1869) and Alice Estella Holt Griffith (born April 5, 1868). Senator Waitman T. Willey was Edwin Griffith's cousin. Mabel Griffith was a music student at West Virginia University until her marriage to Rudolph Stoyer on October 10, 1920. She had a brother and sister, Harry and Irene, who were born in 1899 and 1907 respectively.

Scope and Contents

Two scrapbooks (10 in. x 13 in.) compiled by Mabel Marie Griffith (born 02-28-1896) documenting her life in Morgantown, West Virginia in the period 1914-1926, including her personal and family life, education (Morgantown High School and West Virginia University), and her attendance of athletic, musical, and theatrical events. There is documentation of the effects of World War I (WWI) on Morgantown, Redpath Chautauqua, the impact of the influenza epidemic on the family of Charles Holt (the brother of Mabel Griffith's Mother, recorded in a newspaper clipping), and Mabel Griffith's wedding to Rudolph Stoyer (10-10-1920).

There are illustrations (clipped and pasted into the scrapbook), photographs, clippings, programs, postcards, grade school report cards, and ephemera. Ephemera includes calling cards, dance cards, and greeting cards.

World War I material includes clippings of the newspaper headline announcing the Armistice (scrapbook 2, pages 82-83) with caption ("War ended today; was in Pittsburg [sic] with Uncle & Auntie - some celebration"), and a William Penn Hotel account record of her stay in Pittsburgh at that time (scrapbook 1, page 55). There is also an announcement of a celebration for the home-coming of soldiers to Morgantown (7-4-1919) (scrapbook 2, page 61).

There are four Redpath Chautauqua programs for the 1920, 1923, and 1929 seasons in Morgantown (in a folder of "loose" printed material found inserted in scrapbook 2); and there are undated clippings from a Chautauqua program in a scrapbook (scrapbook 2, page 63).

A clipping regarding the impact of influenza on the Charles Holt family, Mabel Griffith's relatives, can be found in scrapbook 2, page 43.

Photographs include identified pictures of Mabel Griffith and her immediate family members and friends. Clippings include obituaries for her grandparents and poetry. Programs are extensive and diverse and include many for events at the Strand Theatre and West Virginia University's Commencement Hall, including minstrel shows. Ephemera includes a Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company ticket for a trip from Grafton to Fairmont, West Virginia (1917) (scrapbook 1, page 57).

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Chautauquas
• Griffith family
• Griffith, Mabel Marie
• Monongalia County (W. Va.) -- World War, 1914-1918
• Morgantown (W. Va.)
• Schools - Morgantown.
• Scrapbooks
• Stoyer, Rudolph Samuel.
• Strand Theater.
• West Virginia University - athletics.
• World War, 1914-1918 -- Monongalia County (W Va.)