Throwback Thursday - First Summer School Students

Image courtesy of the Samford University Library Special Collection.

If you're attending summer classes at Samford this year, you have something in common with these individuals as Howard College opened its very first summer school 102 years ago yesterday.

In order to provide for the extension of teachers' certificates, Howard College established a Department of Education with the opening of its first summer school on June 7, 1915. The school for teachers was run in conjunction with the summer school for college students. About fifty students were registered the first summer. Professor James W. Norman, who had recently been named to the faculty of the School of Education of the University of Minnesota, was Dean of the Summer School. The school closed July 16th of that year.

We don't know how warm it was the day this picture was taken, but the record daytime high for Birmingham on this day in history is 97 °F in 1933... so the next time you're thinking you're uncomfortably hot while dressed in shorts and t-shirts, just consider the outfits they're wearing here.