1899 Graduates of the Friends� Select School

The school is known today as Sidwell Friends.

Melvil Dewey, who addressed the students at the commencement exercises, was the famous inventor of the Dewey decimal classification system for library books used widely today.

Commencement Program:

Address to the Graduates: Dr. Melvil Dewey, Secretary of the University of New York.
Presentation of Diplomas: Professor Thomas W. Sidwell, School President.
Musical Numbers:
Piano: Mr. Harvey Murray, solos from Mendelssohn and Ruff
Soloist: Mrs. Thomas C. Noyes, Meyerbeer's "Vesper Sicilian" and selections from Bartlett and Schlesinger.

The 1899 Graduates of Friends' Select School:

Syria Florence Brown
Charles Whitney Dall
Thomas Hovendon
Archibald King
Constance Leupp
Constance Lydia Mills
William Edmonston Pearson
Harriet Rodman Southerland

The names of the graduates and details about the commencement program were taken from the May 20, 1899, edition of the Washington Post, Washington, DC, page 2.