A Party for Jewell Cooper (group D)

Guest of Honor

According to her ticket, which is visible to the left on the scrapbook page, Jewell Genevieve Cooper had a party thrown for her in Tampa on or around September 10, 1925. Although we don’t know much about what went on, we can make inferences based on the information she left for us. We know that a multitude of people were in attendance, as is evident by enormity of the guest list found on the page within an article about the party written by what can only be assumed to be the Florida Flambeau, in which she is referred to as the ‘honoree”. 

The party, as she states on the scrapbook page, was thrown for her by Roxie Moulton and an unidentified man only referred to as George. Because of the absence of this particular issue of the Florida Flambeau within Florida States archives, we are unable to identify George’s last name, but can assume that he must have been close with either Ms.Cooper or Ms. Moulton at the time.  Ms. Moulton, however, appears within Ms.Cooper’s scrapbook pages many times. Although there is not any definitive information contained within them to create a biography for Roxie Moulton, we know that she was a fellow student at Florida State College for Women and a good friend of Jewell Cooper. 

The rather large event consisted mainly of party games such as puzzles, critical thinking games, and more. One such game, the intelligence test, when solved was creatively used to signify that the “refreshments”, the cake and ice cream, were ready to be served.  The significance of the location is not explained. 

Baedeker’s Guides

Before yelp, google maps, and other travel websites became readily available via the internet, many relied on Baedeker’s Guides in order to insure their travel time was worthwhile. Founded July 1st, 1827 by Karl Baedeker, a German publisher who in the 1800’s was a forerunner in the industry of worldwide travel guides and owned one of Germany’s largest publishing companies, the books could cover any location from Switzerland to his native Germany (Hinrichsen). The books were meant to promote safe travels and to make copious amounts of knowledge more accessible in order to enhance the experience of travelers everywhere. Baedeker’s guide on Italy is recognized as one of most acclaimed works to this day and deemed his books a necessity for any journey shortly after their creation in the late 1820’s (Essential). Although their necessity has now diminished with the rise of the internet, their influence in modern travel guides has not been forgotten as they have shaped how we describe in detail the places we intend to be visited. 

Although it doesn’t seem that there are any copies of the Baedeker’s Guides that are specific to Tampa at this time period, it is possible that they may have made their own. The majority of official Baedeker’s Guides are bound in red and are much more detailed. The travel guide depicted in the photograph appears to be handmade, or at the very least handwritten, and is therefore probably only modeled after a genuine Baedeker’s travel guide book.

Intelligence Tests

In the year 1905, Alfred Binet, a renowned psychologist, came out with his fist interpretation of an intelligence test. Coupled with the discoveries of D. Weschler, who approached the task of defining intelligence in a more clinical and humanistic manner, IQ testing was created as we know it (Kaufman). In the 1920’s, intelligence tests were just beginning to reach popularity.  During this decade, intelligence tests were standardized and even implemented in schools to track the development of students based on age before interest in the diminished in the 1930’s, likely due to the copious amounts of criticism the tests received by the media and general public of the time (Haney). Because of this, Ms.Cooper and her friends probably took interest, as they were a revolutionary topic at the time that this party took place, as is seen to the left in the party game modeled after an intelligence test, which cleverly spells out “refreshments are ready” when completed.

Other Games 

On page 65 of Coopers scrapbook, glued onto the pages is a series of party games the students played at the party. There was a Penny Puzzle game included on this scrapbook. This trivia game consisted of a series of 35 random questions in which the people playing had to answer on the spot. For example the first question was “The symbol of eternity…” and the answer next to it was a “circle” (65). This game of trivia made the students think fast and was a good interactive game, allowing everyone to get involved and share their answers at the end. 

Along with this game the students also played another 20 question trivia game, it was called “Men’s Wives” (65). The theme surrounding these questions was in relation to matching the question or rather job position with its counterpart. For example question number 7 was “ A sextons…” then the answer being “bell” (Located on scrapbook page 65). A sexton is someone who takes care of the church and the churches graveyard sometimes acting as a bell ringer as well, so she was correct in her answer. This game also featured the addition of something called a booby prize. A booby prize is usually given to make fun of or ridicule the worst player or the one with the worst performance in the contest, or this case, game (Dictionary, 2012). The booby prize for this specific game was a small party decoration as seen below the “Men’s Wives” game.