By Jayne Caron, ’10, The Lens Section Editor, and Kathryn Black, ’11, The Lens Editor

In the midst of the Great Depression and with the world on the brink of war, Cincinnati Country Day School was just beginning its storied tenure in Cincinnati.  Things were different at our school in the 1930s.  Fencing was offered as a sport, and the average grade was a C. The fledgling Scroll sold for 3 cents and, although it contained the occasional news story or opinion piece, was composed primarily of short stories and poems. However, the few news stories that did appear were rich with information and revealed students’ outlook on world affairs.  The pages that follow are central to the history of our school.  They are from The Scroll of the 1930s, the first decade of the newspaper’s publication.

An editorial heralding the arrival of The Scroll:

The first front page of The Scroll:

A student examined the slang of the day: its origins and its relationship to Adolf Hitler’s intoxicating speeches:

The staff researched CCDS history and wrote about incoming “masters” (now known as teachers):

Students contemplated Nazism and Communism as both ideologies gained influence in the late 1930s:

The Scroll welcomed 18 new boys to the school (bringing enrollment to 100), while also contemplating World War II:

The Scroll of the 1930s published community notices such as the honor roll, the headmaster’s notes, and announcements about new metal-working machinery and charitable donations of oil paintings: