On the back of this photograph is a handwritten note:
Friends of Doris Dinwiddie at St. Terresa [sic] Academia (Early graduates of)
I searched online for St. Teresa Academia, but was stumped because there were too many possibilities. So I looked on Ancestry and found family trees containing Doris Cecil Dinwiddie Crawford (1893-1968). A photo of her also appeared on a blog in 2016. Fortuitously, on the back of that photo is a note that she attended St. Teresa’s Academy in Boise, Idaho, and graduated with honors at age 18. Since she turned 18 in 1911, that provides a possible year for the photo of her two friends above. Of course, they could be a year or two older or younger, so the date is approximate.
St. Teresa’s Academy was founded by nuns in 1890 as a Catholic high school for girls. Boys were integrated in 1933 and the school closed in 1964.
Maybe someone will find this post and recognize one of these young women in their lovely graduation dresses.
Tokens of Companionship 
Cheers to these clever girls!
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Too bad we don’t know their names. Thanks, Luisella. 🙂
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The dresses are so beautiful! I wonder why the girls look so serious.
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Good question! Maybe the prospect of graduating was weighing on them? 😉
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I wonder what the exposure times were for cameras in 1911. Were they instructed to adopt that “deer in the headlights – frozen expression” because it was easier to hold?
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I think exposures were quick by 1911. But the experience of being photographed was probably still novel for most young people. It would be interesting to know how many families owned a camera in a place like Boise.
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It seems it was as much the era of big hair as it was of big hats!
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I think 1911 was near the end of Gibson Girl era, which included big hair. The full sleeves and bodice of the standing young woman’s dress certainly belong to that era. I’m not sure if the seated young woman’s dress would be considered more modern or more traditional.
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Two Beautiful young women and a mystery with some wonderful clues! I love the way their fans are kept close by with a long satin sash tied in a bow. ☺️ Thank you, Brad! This brought me very happy memories of my own graduation from Catholic school in a pretty white dress. Take care!! ☺️✨
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Thank you for sharing the memory of your dress at graduation, Suzanne! Do you have a graduation photo? 😉
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I do! ☺️
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This portrait is a good reminder that school graduations were much more formal occasions than they are now. The girls are even wearing white gloves!
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I wonder if high school graduation was considered a more significant milestone then than it is today? For most women it was probably the end of their formal education.
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I definitely think it was, yes.
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I love the contrast of their facial expressions. As if they are seeing two different futures.
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That’s a great comment, Micah! I wonder if their lives were already planned out?
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As I recall my own graduation photo from 47 years ago, it was taken 9 or 10 months before we graduated and I was wearing a jacket that belonged to the photo studio!
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That’s funny! My school photos were mostly pretty bad, but not so awful as to be mortifying.
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Beautiful photograph and well done on the research! The girls look like they’re dressed in whipped cream 😉
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Haha, you’re right! You made me smile! 😄
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Beautiful faces.
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Yes, and dignified but not cold. The anonymous photographer did a great job.
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I had to go back and look again when I saw the mention of fans. I think they’re both holding their diplomas — scrolls, tied with a ribbon. They certainly are beautiful young women, and those dresses are out of this world. Pretty snazzy for a Catholic school — or perhaps not, for graduation. A friend’s granddaughter attended Houston’s St. Theresa Academy, and it was uniforms for them!
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Yes, I also think they’re holding diplomas–or pieces of paper made to look like diplomas. I’ve seen graduation portraits where the sitter is holding a diploma open for the camera, which is neat. Your mention of school uniforms made me wonder when they became commonplace. I never see them in older photos from the USA (pre-1940).
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Yes the young girls look serious…But in any case, the picture is very, very interesting. The sitting one looks more sad. What stories hide behind their gazes?
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Danke, Xavier! I wish we knew something about these young ladies. For example, where did their families come from? Twenty years earlier, Idaho was still the Wild West. When it became a state in 1890, it had a population of only 88,548, and Boise had just 2,311 residents. By 1910, the population of the state had increased to 325,594, but Boise still had just 17,358 residents.
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These young women, and their dresses, are beautiful. I admire them for (A) graduating and (B) keeping those dresses so pristine-looking! I can’t wear a white dress for 5 minutes without spilling something on it.
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Oh, that’s funny! I almost never wear white dress shirts, for the same reason. They do look spiffy, though.
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We dress like slobs today compared to them.
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Well, in fairness, they probably wore dark dresses most of the time. Or dark skirts with white blouses in this time period.
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They wore dresses though. Men wore suits, even for jobs that today a man might wear a company uniform.
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That’s true. Men who lived in warm climates probably sweated constantly in those suits.
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Such finery! And for a high school graduation? Wow. Gloves, intricately-detailed and frilly white frocks, almost like wedding dresses. Surely their family had money, and lots of it, unless the clothing was borrowed for the photo. Having lived in Idaho recently, and knowing Idaho culture, it’s hard for me to imagine anyone but the most wealthy owning that sort of clothing in the early 1900s or having their daughters pose in such finery for a school graduation photo. The rich are definitely different from you and me 😉
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That’s a great point, Rebecca. I know almost nothing about Idaho, but it must have been a rough place in 1911. These girls look very refined. And not just their clothes, but also their bearing. They were probably well-read and well-traveled. They probably spoke French or German and played the piano. And they probably didn’t stay in Boise, which was a very small pond at that time.
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I have observed that graduation events are sometimes “steeped in tradition”. Perhaps those charming white dresses were a requirement by this Catholic School, as were white dresses (as were accessories) at Spelman College when my daughter graduated in 2016 – even though it was largely covered by a black gown. Stewart
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Yes, a white dress was probably obligatory. It’s a nice tradition, isn’t it?
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Such a lovely photo! The girls look beautiful in their white dresses, very elegant. It must have been quite an event in their lives. 🙂 Linda
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Thanks Linda! White dresses seem to have been reserved for confirmations, graduations and weddings. 🙂
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Those are gorgeous dresses. I had a look at the academy and on much later photos (from 1956) the girls there are wearing similarly splendid dresses. So I would think that there was a tradition there of dressing up to that degree. Have a look: https://www.flickr.com/photos/65359853@N00/34766191643/in/photostream/
Tthe clothing in this photo reminds me of confirmation dresses, from a lot of vintage photos I’ve seen over the years.
Oh and I wonder if the fabric with raised dots on, in between the frills in the seated girl’s dress, is the same type as some I still have that had belonged to my grandmother. I’m not sure of the fabric, but it is sheer.
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I also thought their dresses resembled confirmation dresses!
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