Series 8: Student Life, 1837-2016, inclusive

The sub-series contains assorted student publications, dating from 1849 to 2016.

All True Tales (autobiographical comics, 1988)

Celadon (literary magazine, 1988)

Compositions (literary magazine, 1859-1867)

Packer Current Items (literary magazine, 1909-2014)

Packer '90/Packer Fagots (literary magazine, 1889-1895)

The First Act (student newspaper, 1921-1922)

The Kumquat (humor newspaper, 2003)

The Literary Novice (Brooklyn Heights Seminary literary magazine, 1854)

Middle School Poetry Anthology (literary magazine, 1987)

The Neophyte (literary magazine, 1860-1861)

PALM: Packer Alternative Literary Magazine (literary magazine, 1990s)

Pelican Brief (arts and entertainment magazine, 2004-2005)

The Packer Pen (literary magazine, 1964-1967)

The Packer Perspective (writings from Headmaster Peter T. Esty and students on curriculum, 1971-1972)

The Packer Press (student newspaper, 1953-1968)

The Phoenix (literary magazine, 1867-1868)

Picturae Clair Instituti (Class of 1896 publication)

The Packer Prism (student newspaper, 1968-2016)

Packer Publishers (literary magazine, 1990)

The Packer Quarterly (literary magazine, 1868-1879)

School Room Echoes (literary magazine, 1853)

Serious Stuff and None of That Fake Psychedelic Crap (zine, 1989)

Something Normal (zine, 1986)

Underwater: A Collection of Middle School Poetry (literary magazine, 1988)

Variations (foreign language publication, 2005-circa 2010)

Issues of The Literary Novice from the Brooklyn Heights Seminary are dated May 19, October 6, October 30, November 3, November 17, and December 15, 1854. These issues were sent to Mrs. Harold Quantin at Packer in 1943.

Packer Current Items was first published in 1909 – a copy of vol. 1, issue 1 is included in this series. The publication continued into the twenty-first century, marking it as the longest-running student publication at Packer. Date, volume and issue numbers are sometimes inconsistent. A few issues are missing (see container list for details). Also included in this series is correspondence from various alumni regarding the 50th anniversary issue of Packer Current Items, which was celebrated in 1959.

The sub-series contains an assortment of material relating to Packer students, including school work, scrapbooks, autograph books, correspondence, class and club meeting minutes, artwork, and ephemera, dating from 1837 to 2009.

Some highlights include:

The scrapbook of Mrs. Paul D. Shafer (1940s-1950s), which primarily contains information and clippings about her husband (Packer president); Mrs. Harriet Pecket Cabbage's scrapbook, which contains updates on members of her class (1901), including correspondences and family information, including birth and death dates; the 1893 scrapbook of Louise Van Arden, which contains a letter from Florence Nightingale congratulating Van Arden on her graduation; Bernice Dhuy's chemistry, physics, and psychology compostions books (1903-1905); and student accounts of September 11, 2001.

This sub-series contains material pertaining to Packer's theater productions, dating from 1859 to the 2000s. Student productions were split into senior and junior performances during the theater's later years. Most of the images, press coverage, and papers in the series collection address senior productions. The students staged a Christmas Pageant every year that included a theatrical reenactment of the Nativity. In addition, repertory and modern productions were performed in the early spring of each year. The stage sets were built and the performances directed by students with adult guidance. In 1979, Packer Theater celebrated its 125th Anniversary by hosting "Today & Yesterday." For publicity purposes, retrospective material was collected about past theater productions for the Packer "Pelican" yearbook. Contents relating to individual plays vary, ranging from photographs and news clippings to promotional material, playbills, scripts, personal notes, and stage budgets.

The sub-series also includes some items relating to the Alumnae Dramatic Association.

Additional programs can be found in Sub-series 12.4: Curriculum files. Additional photographs of theatrical productions are found in Sub-series 17.1: Packer Collegiate Institute photographs. Audiovisual recordings of theatrical performances can be found in Sub-series 18.5: Theatrical recordings.

The sub-series contains student handbooks and study guides, dating from the 1930s to 1996.

The sub-series contains the collected papers of two individual students, Susan Losee and Elizabeth Post Morrow.