Scripps College grads

Pardon the low-res camera-phone image but this is one 1939 item that you can visit in person just as it was then. A covered outdoor walkway at Scripps College in Claremont has murals painted by graduating classes. It appears that images of graduates at the bottom transform into their names stretching into the distance. Many of the names seem to be nicknames such as Hazie, Diz and Crossie. The large figure sowing seeds of knowledge is an amateur copy of the one on the Scripps trademarked logo. That logo has the Latin inscription “INCIPIT VITA NOVA” that translates to “A NEW LIFE BEGINS.” That phrase is at odds with the “AND THERE WAS LIGHT” text on the mural that an online search reveals no other usage at Scripps.

Funny face

Image: one of a collection offered on ebay by an estate seller.

A teen mugs for the camera in 1939 at Huntington Park High School.

First grade

Image: from http://www.familyoldphotos.com .

Class photo of first grade students and teacher at Eucalyptus School, Hawthorne.

College frosh

Image: Metate yearbook image via https://www.pomona.edu/timeline/1930s/1939 .

First year women at Pomona College, Claremont, paint the slang term for freshman on their foreheads.