May Day Gleaner dance

May 15, 1915

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May Day Gleaner dance
  • Title
  • May Day Gleaner dance
  • Date
  • May 15, 1915
  • Identifier
  • PCW000156
  • Description
  • Students recreate Jean-François Millet's 1857 painting "The Gleaners." The elaborate 1915 May Day pageant coincided with the formal inauguration of college President John Carey Acheson. Local newspapers reported that 5,000 people attended the production, which was titled "Pakkennodan," "The City of Smoke Vapor or The City of Mist." According to college historian, Laberta Dysart: "The pageant, written and produced by Miss [Vanda E.] Kerst [head of the expression department] and Miss [Helen] Abbott [an instructor in physical education], symbolized in music, poetry, dance, and color the growth of Pittsburgh. Part One represented the natural aspects of the city--the hills and the rivers, the fog and the mists. Part Two represented both the industrial life, typified by coal and steel, and the picturesque river trade. Part Three was devoted to the cultural life,--education and the arts. Part Four represented the sun shining through the mist, its rays casting a rainbow above Pittsburgh--prophetic of a glorious future." A copy of this photograph can also be found in the scrapbook of Edna McKee Houston (class of '05), located in the Chatham University Archives.
  • Place of Publication
  • College Campus
  • Type
  • still image
  • Genre
  • photographs
  • Subject
  • Women college students--Pennsylvania--Pittsburgh
    Shadyside (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
    Pennsylvania College for Women
    May Day--United States
    Pageants--Pennsylvania--Pittsburgh
    Dilworth Hall Preparatory School (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
    Costume
  • Geographic Subjects
  • College Campus
  • Source
  • Chatham University May Day Collection
  • Contributor
  • Chatham University
  • Collection
  • Chatham University May Day Collection
  • Rights Information
  • Copyright Not Evaluated. The copyright and related rights status of this Item has not been evaluated. Please refer to the organization that has made the Item available for more information. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use.
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