Ella Mitze's High School Assignment Book for Costume Design

Name/Title

Ella Mitze's High School Assignment Book for Costume Design

Entry/Object ID

2016.18.2

Scope and Content

A scrapbook and school notebook, made and used by Ella Mitze for her high school costume design class, circa 1920s. The scrapbook is 7.5" (w) x 9.5" (h) x 1" (d), gray hardcover, with 199 paper pages containing printed page numbers and lines in blue. The physical book was originally a Vernon Composition Book; printed information on the inside cover shows the brand and advertisements of Vernon products. Inscription on the front cover in black ink labels the book "Costume Design" along the top, with Ella Mitze's name written in the lower right corner. Inscription on the inside cover shows the number "49" in the upper left corner in pencil, and the text "Ella Mitze, Applied Costume Design" in ink at the top. Ella Mitze went to high school at North High School in Denver, as there was no high school in Broomfield where she lived at the time she attended. She wrote in and compiled the scrapbook for the costume design class at the school. Approximately 130 pages of the book have either notes and other writing about Mitze's classwork, or accompanying book pages, newspaper/magazine clippings and cutouts, and other photomechanical pictures pasted onto the pages. A general index is written on page 1, serving as contents for the book. Subjects listed include: the evolution of clothing; the Egyptians; the Grecians; the Romans; the Byzantine period; the Orient; the Gothic period; the Renaissance period; the Colonial period; and American costume of the 20th century. Most pages in the book include outline-style notes for her class, with the appropriate pasted items across from the writing, often with written captions. Many of the pasted items are cutouts and clippings of women and some men in certain types of dress, from fashion magazines, history books, and advertisements, depicting time periods from ancient times to the 1920s. The latter pages of the book also include clippings and pictures of houses, house layouts, and domestic scenes, some of which Mitze referred to as "My House." Many of the pictures are likely of houses she one day aspired to own. Some additional newspaper and magazine clippings are also loose between the back pages of the book.

Collection

Permanent Collection

Lexicon

Nomenclature 4.0

Nomenclature Primary Object Term

Exercise, School

Nomenclature Sub-Class

Instructional Documents

Nomenclature Class

Documentary Objects

Nomenclature Category

Category 08: Communication Objects

LOC Thesaurus for Graphic Materials

Scrapbooks, Schools, Costume design drawings, Costumes

Search Terms

North High School

Archive Details

Date(s) of Creation

1925 - 1928

Archive Size/Extent

One book, stored in a .5 linear foot archive box.

Archive Notes

Date(s) Created: Circa 1920s Date(s): 1927 circa Copy/Orig/Other: Original

Relationships

Related Person or Organization

Person or Organization

Thaete, Ella

Related Entries

Notes

2016.18.3