Students at Play (c. 1912-1915)

Item Information

Title:
Students at Play (c. 1912-1915)
Description:
This lantern slide, "Students at Play (c. 1912-1915)," shows a group of students playing a game in the center of Pratt Field at the International YMCA College, now Springfield College. In 1911, Herbert L. Pratt donated over $8,000 to Springfield College for the construction of a grandstand (pictured on the left) in Pratt Field, roughly one year after the field formally opened.
Creator:
W. H. Drew, Stereopticons
Date:
[1912?–1915?]
Format:
Photographs
Location:
Springfield College Archives and Special Collections
Collection (local):
College Archives Digital Collections
Series:
Lantern Slide Collection
Subjects:
Pratt Field
Springfield College
Springfield College--Students
International Young Men's Christian Association College
Springfield College--Campus
Springfield College--Athletic Fields
Springfield (Mass.)
Lantern slides
Athletic fields
Grandstands
Athletes
Places:
Massachusetts > Hampden (county) > Springfield
Link to Item:
https://cdm16122.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15370coll2/id/3536
Terms of Use:
Text and images are owned, held, or licensed by Springfield College and are available for personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that ownership is properly cited. A credit line is required and should read: Courtesy of Springfield College, Babson Library, Archives and Special Collections. Any commercial use without written permission from Springfield College is strictly prohibited. Other individuals or entities other than, and in addition to, Springfield College may also own copyrights and other propriety rights. The publishing, exhibiting, or broadcasting party assumes all responsibility for clearing reproduction rights and for any infringement of United States copyright law.
Contact host institution for more information.
Publisher:
Springfield College
Notes:
Finished within a year, the grandstand’s heavy timber beams could hold up to 1,200 people. Beneath the grandstand, Springfield College planned to build storage rooms, a dressing room, a massage room with fifteen tables, washrooms, bathrooms, a “comfortable ladies’ room,” a ticket office, a locker room with two hundred lockers, and a check room. Before the construction of Pratt Field, the college’s outdoor athletics were confined to a single field south of the gymnasium. This area had become inadequate for their needs, and so on December 3, 1909, Springfield College had plans drawn for a track, football field, baseball diamond, and six tennis courts. They planned for the courts to have cement bottoms that could be flooded in winter and converted into a large ice rink for hockey. They also decided to erect an eight-foot concrete fence around the property, one of the first of its kind ever built. On March 18, 1910, Herbert L. Pratt offered to pay the entire cost of construction. The field formally opened in the fall of 1910, in connection with a football game. More information about Pratt Field can be found in “The Pratt Athletic Field” by Elmer Berry (The Association Seminar, vol. 19, no. 09, June 1911).
Text on border reads, "Old South Field YMCA College; No. 1 Somerset St., Boston."; Though text says old South Field, structure shown has been verified as the Pratt Field Grandstand and it is believed that the slide was mislabeled;
Identifier:
LS-01-60