Treasures from the Archives
“Hail to her majesty, Queen of the May!”

(Click photo for enlargement) More pictures from this article (Click for enlargements): Related link: Manchester College Archives

IT WAS MAY DAY 1953 and Queen Jean Childs ’54 Young was royally robed in purple, accompanied by 10 other members of her court.

The May Day weekend was filled with fun and fanfare, with a coronation, a parade through downtown North Manchester, a maypole and relays.

And dolls, too – dressed with scraps from the women’s own handmade gowns.

The 1953 breakfast shown above was hosted by Etha Neher, a 1920 Mount Morris College graduate and wife of biology Professor O.W. Neher, a 1917 Mount Morris graduate.

The 1953 queen doll, now in the MU Archives with another court member’s doll, wears a royal purple robe – the first such robe for the Queen of the May, recalled Myrtis Becker ’54 Justiniano in an interview with Archivist Jeanine Wine ’76 during the 2009 Alumni Days. (Mrs. Justiniano donated her May Day photographs to the MU Archives.)

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