The collection contains a scrapbook kept by Wiley Taul Poynter during his tenure at Science Hill School in Shelbyville, Kentucky, as well as his cash and memoranda book.

The scrapbook contains programs and announcements of recitals, concerts, convocations, and commencements from 1893 through 1925. The cash book includes entries for meals and various other daily expenditures beginning on 1 July 1864 and ending on 11 December 1880.

Science Hill School was founded in 1825 in Shelbyville, Kentucky, by Julia H. Tevis, wife of Methodist minister, John Tevis, as a school for young girls who made their homes in the Kentucky wilderness. Her curricula included not only the traditional "gentlelady's education" of reading, writing and the social graces, but added the study of the sciences - something unheard of at that time. It proved to be a success and the school grew under the guidance of Julia and John Tevis to such a degree that they undertook an extensive expansion of the school between 1826 and 1846.

In 1879, Dr. Wiley Taul Poynter became the head of the school and continued to improve the leadership curriculum until Science Hill became one of the top girls' preparatory schools in the country. Under Poynter's administration, the building was expanded again and was included in the famous Lyceum Lecture Circuit from 1888 until around 1938. This brought hundreds of famous and distinguished speakers, writers, and educators of the day to the school.

Unfortunately, the Great Depression, that doomed so many schools across the United States, claimed even Science Hill, which graduated its final class in 1939. During its 114 years, the school built up a reputation for its contributions to education and culture. Upon its closing, the building became a residential inn with only the original structure maintained as the home of Dr. Poynter's daughters, Juliet and Harriet.

Source: "The History of Science Hill," Wakefield-Scearce Galleries. http://www.wakefieldscearce.com/history_sc.aspx (accessed May 20, 2011)