Guest Blog Post written by
Jennifer Housley, SMCM ‘2014, Archive Student PFP Fellow

As a soon-to-be graduate nearing the halfway mark of my last semester, I am struck by several things.

The impending doom of graduate school responses.  The frantic job search.  The panic of last minute OneSearches for that final,  perfect SMP secondary lit source.  And, of course, the already pervasive feeling of nostalgia as we walk down our always comforting campus path, considering the speed with which our time here is coming to an end.  A comfort to those of us leaving St. Mary’s, however, is the timelessness of this place, as is reflected in a new collection of online images in the college’s archives – the scrapbooks of Doris Ann “D.A.” Hughen, née Miller, class of 1945.

D.A.’s time here was, in some ways, very different than ours.  Her college experience coincided with World War II, as is depicted in her photograph taken with a military cadet from Charlotte Hall Military Academy and her snapshot of a military sea plane on St. Mary’s River.

Of course, her time was different in more laughable ways, too.

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But then we see photographs like these, where you can see yourself as clearly as you see Doris laying by the docks with friends, or ice skating in the winter, or peering out over the Garden of Remembrance in one of those rare, quiet moments we have grown to appreciate.

D.A. Miller Hughen graduation photo, 1945

As we go to seek the next adventure, let’s keep in mind that we are not alone in our love for St. Mary’s.  Far from it.  Even as we leave her for a while, she doesn’t leave us.

“Tho’ sum-mer turns to win-ter and the pre-sent dis-ap-pears,
The laugh-ter we were glad to share still ech-oes thru the years.
While oth-er nights and oth-er days have found us gone our sep’-rate ways
We have these mem’-ries of St. Mary’s.”

“Memories of St. Mary’s,”
lyrics found in MSS 007 D.A. Miller Hughen papers

To view all of the images from the D.A. Miller Hughen Scrapbook that have been added to the SMCM Historic Photograph Collection, follow this tinyurl: http://tinyurl.com/p8m8euy