The Cotton Blossom Singers

In August of 1931, Silver Bay hosted the Cotton Blossom Singers from the Piney Woods School. Like the Tuskegee Institute’s quintet and Fisk University’s Jubilee Singers, this was a group sent out in the summers to sing and raise funds for their school.

Founded in 1909, the Piney Woods School provided schooling among poor blacks in rural Rankin County, Mississippi. The school’s founder, Laurence Clifton Jones, escaped lynching only because he was able to convince a group of angry white men that he had not come to preach against them.

In 1923, Jones first sent out the Cotton Blossom Singers on a fundraising tour; in the years to come, he would send out both male and female quartets bearing the name. Also, the Mississippi School for the Blind for Negroes was located at Piney Woods from 1929 to 1951, and among its groups performing spirituals were five blind students who were later known as the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi; their “hard gospel” style of quartet singing, accented by moans, shrieks and wails, influenced soul singers including Ray Charles, James Brown and Wilson Pickett.

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Photo of the Cotton Blossom Singers in 1929 from the Piney Woods School website.

The Word from Wellesley, 1935

“Silver Bay on Lake George, the Mecca towards which daughters of Smith, Holyoke, Connecticut, Cornell, Vassar, Syracuse, Wheaton and many other Eastern colleges— not forgetting Wellesley — flock each June after commencement, is proving to be a greater rallying ground than ever this year. On the wooded shores of Lake George, from June 19-26, well-known leaders are going to conduct the wide awake discussions demanded by the theme: A Modern Christian Faces A Nationalistic World.

“It will be a familiar sight to see Dr. Gregory Vlastos from Canada munching a blade of grass while leaning against his favorite apple tree with an attentive group gathered in its shade.

“Dr. Ira Reid, the negro economist and political theorist, will return to his old haunt, the boat house, to hold forth on communism during the day and old Southern songs at night after the full moon rises.

“College girls proudly displaying college banners and identification tags will meet, mingle and rival each other in friendly competition. The Barnard-Cornell baseball game must take place to make the week a success. Smith will undoubtedly return in high hopes of capturing the swimming-meet title once more, but if Wellesley’s diving is as excellent as last year it should be close.

“The jolly ‘sings’ will undoubtedly be repeated. ‘Neath the Oaks, Problems and Prairie Flower were Wellesley’s contributions to one evening last year. The sunrise will again drag sleepy girls out of bed to scale a mountain, and those who get to the top may view the dawn. Candlelight vespers will undoubtedly be as beautiful as ever. The picture of hundreds of tiny lighted candles floating out over Lake George in paper boats is memorable according to students who have attended the conference in other years.”

– “College Girls Gather At Silver Bay In June ,” Wellesley News, May 1935

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Gregory Vlastos (1907–1991) was a scholar of philosophy, author of works on Plato and Socrates, and a Christian who wrote on Christian faith as well. Vlastos received a PhD from Harvard University in 1931. He taught at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario; Cornell University; Princeton University and the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Robert Meister, a friend and former student, said, “He was the kind of professor who would explore your ideas more than you did yourself, write more on your paper than you did and show what you had said would really mean.” Although Vlastos is best known for his writing on Plato and Socrates, in the 1930s he was also writing Towards the Christian Revolution (1936) with R.B.Y. Scott, and Christian Faith and Democracy (1939).

Ira de Augustine Reid (1901-1968) was an African-American sociologist who did pioneering work with the New York Urban League and published landmark studies on African-American workers and families. Biographer Paul Jefferson noted, “Six feet four inches tall, confident, well dressed, and witty, Reid was an impressive figure. His biting intelligence was acknowledged—if not always appreciated—and his urbane manner made him an effective inter-racial diplomat in an era when black equality was an implausible hypothesis for most white Americans.”

Two Presidents at Silver Bay

In August of 1931, New York Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) visited Silver Bay and addressed a conference of the Silver Bay Industrial Institute, speaking in the auditorium. Two years later, of course, FDR became the 32nd President of the United States (1933–1945) and a central figure in world events.

(Before delivering his speech, Roosevelt had lunch with Stephen H.P. Pell and Sarah Gibbs Thompson Pell at their estate, The Pavilion, on the grounds of nearby Fort Ticonderoga. The Pell family led the effort to restore the historic fort, and Sarah also commissioned Marian Cruger Coffin to redesign the King’s Garden on the estate. It is said that Sarah’s ghost can occasionally be seen on the porch of her home and also looking out a window of the second floor, gazing at her garden.)

In July of 1970, U.S. House of Representatives minority leader Gerald R. Ford of Michigan spoke at Silver Bay, addressing attendees of the Conference on Human Relations in Management. In his speech, Rep. Ford predicted that the 1970s would see American rebuild its cities, clean up its water and air, retrain the unskilled, build vast mass transit systems, make airways safe, end hunger and eliminate poverty. Four years later, Ford became the 38th President of the United States (1974-1977) with the resignation of President Nixon.

Oneita Bay from Mrs. Paine’s Gateway

Photo by Jesse Sumner Wooley

Faculty Parade, 1916

YWCA Conference Faculty lead the way to the annual ballgame, 1916, beating on wash tubs, pan lids, etc. I especially like the woman playing the Cream of Tartar Baking Powder tin. With thanks to Harvard University’s Radcliffe Archives.

Moon Walk

It is one thing — and a good thing — to see the moon rise over the mountains across Lake George, but it’s quite another to actually set foot on that moon. But at least one man who spoke at Silver Bay had been there, done that.

On July 9, 1982, former astronaut James B. Irwin came to Silver Bay and gave a evening talk entitled “From Outer Space to Inner Space.” Eleven years before, Irwin had been part of the Apollo 15 mission of July/August 1971, and the eighth person to walk on the moon.

After Irwin retired from the Air Force in 1972, he traveled as “a goodwill ambassador for the Prince of Peace,” speaking about how his experiences in space had made the presence of God more real to him. One wonders if the moon rose while he spoke that evening at Silver Bay, and gave the people leaving the auditorium something to think about.

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The rising of the moon over Lake George, at Silver Bay, July 2008; detail from a photo by Frieda Celeste Dunkelberg.

James B. Irwin works with the Lunar Roving Vehicle on the surface of the moon; photo by Astronaut David R. Scott.

John L. Lewis

In late August of 1922, Silver Bay hosted leaders in banking, labor and politics to discuss “Human Relations in Industry.” Among the speakers was John L. Lewis, soon to become a legend in organized labor.

John Llewellyn Lewis (1880-1969) was the newly elected president of the United Mine Workers of America, a position he held from 1920 to 1960. As a thundering advocate for coal miners, he brought them higher wages, safer working conditions, pensions and medical benefits. He was also the driver behind the founding of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), which helped organize millions of other industrial workers in the 1930s.

Lewis was known for his bushy eyebrows and ever-present scowl, and his stormy visage appeared on the cover of Time magazine six times.