Immediate Source of Acquisition

This collection was purchased from McBride Rare Books by the Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia Library on 21 February 2024.

Biographical / Historical

Maria Kathleen Robinson, daughter of Mrs. Ernestyne Robinson graduated high school in 1970 and briefly attended junior college in Temple, Texas. She attended a historically-Black college Prairie View A&M University in Texas. She majored in Business Education (and accounting), pledged to the Zeta Phi Beta sorority, was a debutante at a cotillion, a member of the business leadership program, was part of the Blue Dynamics Dance line, and kept a scrapbook of these activities and her friends.

Content Description

Scrapbook assembled by African-American woman, Maria Kathleen Robinson while she was attending historically-Black college Prairie View A&M University in Texas. Maria graduated high school in 1970 and briefly attended junior college in Temple, Texas. She majored in Business Education (accounting) at Prairie View A&M in the early 1970's, pledged to the Zeta Phi Beta sorority, whose Greek letters decorate the cover of the scrapbook. Maria participated in the Blue Dynamics dance line, and more, much of which is captured in the present album.

The photographs are of Robinson and her friends on campus, posing with their cars, alone or in groups showing off the fashions of the day, attending a wedding, standing behind the bench at a football game, hanging out with her sorority sisters, at home with friends, at parties, and more. Some of the photographs feature African American soldiers, numerous children, a Black student posed with their presentation on "Black Awareness," and more.

Of interest is a graduation certificate with "An American Creed" pledging her commitment to do her best, have the freedom to fail or succeed, and to say "I shall never acknowledge any mortal master."

There is also an invitation from the Black Student Fund to attend an evening of Jazz with Wynton Marsalis at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Sunday October 24, 1999. The invitation contains information about the history of the Black Student Fund which was founded in 1964 following the Martin Luther King march on Washington D. C. in 1963.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Women's Scrapbook/ Commonplace Book Collections (University of Virginia)
• African American students
• African American universities and colleges
• African American women
• Prairie View A & M University
• Scrapbooks
• Sororities
• Zeta Phi Beta Sorority