Artifact of the Month: August 2025
Historic Yellow Springs and the Moore Archives Presents: The Sketchbook of Margaret Goddard
From 1916 to 1952, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) operated a Country Art School in Yellow Springs, which taught and trained artists here for over three decades.
During these years, students studied, worked, created, and truly lived in Yellow Springs— honing their craft through critique, collaboration, and community.
The artifact of the month is a sketchbook from the 1930s.
It belonged to Miss Margaret Goddard, one of those students at the Country School.
Goddard studied here for several years in the early 1930s. She filled the sketchbook’s pages with drawings of animals, landscapes, and people from around Yellow Springs. In the final pages, she exchanged love poems with a male friend or classmate— though his true identity remains unknown.
An Artistic Lifestyle
In the pages of this 1930s sketchbook, Goddard draws groups of men and women who socialized together casually, some of whom were even smoking in public.
She portrayed almost all the women she drew with the short “helmet-hair” style associated with the Roaring Twenties, and she tucked a program from a trip to Philadelphia to see a symphony into the margins of her sketchbook.
That symphony featured musicians who had traveled all the way from New York City to perform, and the writing added to the program hints at a potential connection she made while there.
Like many young women of her time, Goddard undoubtedly drew inspiration from the growing emancipation of women and the flapper spirit.
In other words- while art school at Yellow Springs demanded dedication, technique, and talent, students here still found plenty of drama and plenty of fun.
After her time at the Country School, Goddard later married and dedicated her life to social activism and land preservation. In 1992, she donated her 1930s sketchbook to Historic Yellow Springs and archivist Priscilla Waggoner.
With the donation, she noted that she had insured the book for $100. Per Goddard, it contained memories that she considered truly precious.
She described the time of its creation as “rich, happy times”. Though she could not remember the names of all her subjects, she wrote that they “live again” when she looks at the sketches.
To Goddard, they were old friends forever young, forever enjoying themselves – all preserved in the pages of this book.
For us, they offer a glimpse into what life was like here in Yellow Springs – almost 100 years ago.
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Create Your Own Sketchbook Workshop
📍 Where: Chester Springs, PA
⏳ When: Oct 25 – Nov 15th, 2025
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