“Oh, it doesn’t bother me to tell my age. I think I’m 84. I was born in 1898. Would that be right?” (Audrey Haworth in Interview by Lois Kaiser Customoris)
Born in Aroma, Indiana, on June 20th, 1898, to Olive “May” (Williams) Haworth and Emmett Terrence Haworth, Audrey Viola Haworth was a librarian at the Noblesville Public Library. Audrey lived in Aroma (where in 1836 her family had received a land grant) and attended Aroma Grade School until moving to Noblesville in 1913. There, she began attending Noblesville High School, from which she graduated in 1917. When Audrey graduated, she created a scrapbook detailing the social events of her and her friends as they went through their senior year.
As a senior in high school myself, I was particularly invested in viewing Audrey Haworth’s scrapbook from over a century ago. As it documents her own experiences with her final year of high school, it was an opportunity to view that while different eras have different methods to catalogue memories, the feelings that accompany these memories are largely the same. Instead of taking senior year photos on her phone as many girls her age do today, Audrey compiled the important events and special mementos from her life in a scrapbook.
Each page of her “Graduation Days” scrapbook is made thoughtfully and artistically and contains a glimpse into the life of girls like Audrey- providing insight into how she and her peers enjoyed their high school experience amidst a time plagued by the fears of war. This duality in her life is apparent throughout her scrapbook- pages containing dance cards and ice cream shop menus are followed by the latest updates from the war, as well as photographs of young men from Indiana who were on the battlefront. At least two of these soldiers attended NHS concurrently with Audrey, graduating two years before her.
While it contains items such as tickets for concerts, sports events, and photos of friends, “Graduation Days” has certain unexpected additions: a bar of unused soap sealed in an envelope, dried flowers of different varieties, and locks of hair. Beyond that, Audrey’s scrapbook is compiled carefully, and her creativity can be seen through each page…