icon for Home page
icon for Kid's Home page
icon for Digital Collection
icon for Activities
icon for Turns Exhibit
icon for In the Classroom
icon for Chronologies
icon for My Collection

Online Collection
Select a page:

Cover
(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
Contact us for information about using this image.



label levels:

As many small towns do today, Deerfield, Massachusetts, struggled with how to fund a free, public high school from as early as the mid-1800s. In 1858, under state pressure, Deerfield Academy opened a free high school that was co-funded by the town. In 1875, a Deerfield widow, Esther (Harding) Dickinson, left a substantial fortune for a separate free high school. The money was combined with funds from Deerfield Academy for one new building, and the "Deerfield Academy and Dickinson High School" opened in 1878. Deerfield students could go to the high school for free, but had to pass the entry test as did paying students. Students who were not from Deerfield paid tuition (which varied by term and department, in this 1888 prospectus). Until 1917, instruction was shared, with only the source of funding differentiating students from each other. Although the two schools were combined, the institution was still quite small -- in 1900 the student body consisted of only eleven students of both sexes.

 

top of page

"Prospectus of the Deerfield Academy and Dickinson High School"

printer   E. A. Hall and Company
creator   Trustees under will of E. Dickinson
date   1888
location   Greenfield, Massachusetts
height   6.25"
width   3.5"
process/materials   printed paper, ink
item type   Books/Booklet
accession #   #L02.069


Look Closer icon My Collection icon Transcription icon Detailed info icon


ecard icon Send an e-Postcard of this object



See Also...

Deerfield Academy, Class of 1904

Deerfield Academy/ Dickinson High School

"Order of Exercises at the Exhibition of the Deerfield High School"

Esther (Harding) Dickinson (1790-1875)


button for Side by Side Viewingbutton for Glossarybutton for Printing Helpbutton for How to Read Old Documents

 

Home | Online Collection | Things To Do | Turns Exhibit | Classroom | Chronologies | My Collection
About This Site | Site Index | Site Search | Feedback