This year, we're able to observe a few more traditional end-of-the-year celebrations and events like graduation ceremonies. For generations of East Hampton High School seniors, those traditions included a class trip. In this photograph, the East Hampton High School class of 1937 poses in front of the United States Capitol building in Washington, D.C., on April 6, 1937. The travelers are dressed for colder weather, with a couple of young women wearing fur-trimmed coats over their suits and skirts. The young men all wear suits and ties, suggesting it was still rather chilly that April.
While the students are not identified in the photograph, The East Hampton Star names all 39 students, and their two teachers. The traveling students were: Thomas Bennett, Marguret Buckeridge, Emily Calabrese, Mae Carde, George Cavagnaro, Adele Collins, Charles Dayton, Robert Dayton, Felix R. Dominy, Jane Eichhorn, Joseph Ferrara, Mary Flannery, Natalie Gilbert, Constance Greene, Marion Hand, Alice Hawley, Mae Hudson, William Jenkins, Dorothy Johnson, Harry Leek, Dorothea Loper, John Mac Pherson, Thomas McMahon, Walter Mansir, Thomas Mazzanobile, Gertrude Miller, William Park, Winifred Parsons, Frances Passamonte, Gladys Robinson, Mary Ryan, Erwin Schellinger, Virginia Shea, Vivian Skinner, Shirley Smith, Elizabeth Stelzer, Justin Thompson, Fred Tucker, and Doris Zenger. The teachers Lillian Scudder and John Randolph accompanied the students as chaperones. Editorials in The Star reveal that students fund-raised for their trip, but even with these efforts not all of them could afford to join the senior class trip.
The group left East Hampton early on Saturday morning on a 7:02 train with a special car that was moved to the 10:30 a.m. train out of New York for Washington, D.C. Once in Washington, everyone stayed until Wednesday, although several students stopped between Washington and East Hampton to visit for a few days with family in or near New York City. The group traveled around the Washington, D.C., area by "sightseeing automobiles," one of which appears in the background of this image. This group, like prior students, visited the Smithsonian, Mount Vernon, Annapolis, and the Library of Congress.
