Welcome to the Eliza G. Doane Archival Library's digital repository. This page is dedicated to provide unprecedented access to previously unpublished historical documents, now available for the first time as downloadable PDFs.

Doane Academy, founded as St. Mary's Hall in 1837, was one of America's first academic schools for girls, and our institution holds a unique, one-of-a-kind collection of documents centered on the birth of women's education. Beyond institutional history, our physical and digital collections preserve items such as campus-found archaeological artifacts dating to pre-Columbian history, 17th to 20th century property deeds, early copper and glass plate photo negatives, and foundational trustee records, among many other things. The collections also feature extraordinary personal artifacts, including handwritten documents by founder George Washington Doane, a Library of Congress submission receipt signed by then Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, and personal notes of thanks from Hollywood legend Bette Davis.

We are proud to establish this digital footprint to share these primary sources with the global academic community. We invite researchers, historians, and educators to download these materials and unlock new insights into the past.


(Click on any blue highlighted item below to open it. From there you may download the item.  Once downloaded, open your item and search it by placing a keyword or term in the top search box)

 

St. Mary's Hall - First Annual Catalogue (Printed 1838)
 

Burlington College - Bishop's Doane's Boys School - 1846-1877
 

Ivy Leaves - The Magazine of St. Mary's Hall & Doane Academy
 

Ivy Leaves originated in 1892 and ran until 1895. An attempt to restart Ivy Leaves occurred in 1903, but it lasted for only one edition. Ivy Leaves was begun again in 1905 and it has since been published continuously, in one or more forms, since that year, as you will see below.

"Ivy Leaves - Graduate Edition"
 

Beginning in 1954 there was a second version of Ivy Leaves, called "Ivy Leaves - Graduate Edition." It seems that by this time the original Ivy Leaves had become more of an in-school news magazine, and alumni wanted something that was more focused on them. So, for the next twenty years there were two parallel Ivy Leaves magazines; Ivy Leaves, and Ivy Leaves-Graduate Edition. After 1974 the graduate edition carried on, on its own, until 2006, when it simply became 'Ivy Leaves,' functioning from then on as the magazine for all audiences of the school; alumni, current families, benefactors, as well as for prospective families.