1903–10

Young Women's Industrial Club

Skidmore College's predecessor institution, the Young Women's Industrial Club, was founded by Lucy Skidmore Scribner (1853–1931) in 1903. The widowed Mrs. Scribner had first visited Saratoga Springs in 1896 and enjoyed the town so much that she moved there in 1900. Mrs. Scribner's home in Saratoga Springs, located on North Broadway, is now the home of Skidmore's president.

According to its constitution, the Young Women's Industrial Club promoted "the cultivation of such knowledge and arts as may promote [members'] well-being, physical, mental, spiritual, and ability to become self-supporting." To this end, the club offered courses in typewriting, bookkeeping, sewing and dressmaking, physical education, music and folk dancing.

As described in the Young Women's Industrial Club 1904–05 yearbook, students were broken into classes according to age. The elementary sewing class pictured in the photograph to the right consists of students under the age 11, known as the "Junior Club."