Home Digital Collections

Reynolda School Hiawatha Play Photographic Album

Special Collections & Archives

The collection's logo

On May 25, 1921, the Katharine Smith Reynolds' Reynolda School produced a dramatic version of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's epic poem The Song of Hiawatha. The program was arranged by F. E. Moore of Middletown, Ohio and was photographed by the Holladay Studio of Durham, North Carolina. Children from the school performed the play, which included elaborate costumes, modern dance, and a musical score. The outdoor play is documented in this unique bound volume, including photographs of costumed children posing for every scene and text from the epic poem. A piece in the Reynolda Gardens' Gardener's Journal from Winter 2008 written by curator Camilla Wilcox entitled "The Story of Hiawatha at Reynolda" details the history of the photographic album and the pageant itself.