Collection: Zella Hale Webster diary

This diary, titled “The Girls of Camp Nameless,” documents a Fourth of July vacation spent by ten teenage girls at a vacation house on Irondequoit Bay, outside Rochester, NY. The group of friends included Helen Crippen, Helene Whipple, Margaret Ryan, Florence Matthews, Margaret Matthews, May Williams, Hannah Graeser, Zella Webster, and Doris Hill. The diary consists of humorous poems, illustrated with photographs and with watercolor sketches by Zella Webster. In addition to describing each day's activities and adventures, the diary includes biographical sketches of each girl. At the end of the book is a list of the girls who attended a bridal shower ten years after they spent their vacation at Camp Nameless.

Verses are written on unlined pages in black ink. Sketches are pen and ink, many with watercolor. Black-and-white photographs (some with applied color) are pasted on pages. Binding is cardboard. The front is labeled “U. of R. Note Book, No. 55½ .”

Dates

1913

Creator

Webster, Zella Hale (Person)

Extent

1 Files (Housed with Individual manuscripts, Box 1. )

Additional Description

Abstract

This 1913 diary, titled "The Girls of Camp Nameless," contains illustrations, poems, photographs, clippings, and details about a Fourth of July vacation at a house on Irondequoit Bay, outside of Rochester, New York.

Biographical Note

Zella Hale Webster grew up in Rochester, NY. She graduated from West High School in 1915 and received an art degree from the Mechanics Institute (now the Rochester Institute of Technology) in 1918. By 1928 she was a drawing teacher at her high school. She married Thomas D. McGaw and lived in Cobourg, Ontario in the 1950s. She is buried along with her parents, Judson H. and Fannie D. Webster, in Garland Cemetery near Clarkson, Monroe County, NY.