Sylvia Plath: A life in photographs: 1950-1955

Plath graduated Gamaliel Bradford Senior High School and spent the summer working on a farm. She entered Smith College in September. Plath's published journals and letters commence at this time and offer the reader a sort of autobiography by which thoughts, themes, and experiences were related privately (journals) and for an audience (letters). While she excelled at Smith, darker forces existed and after her Guest Editorship at Mademoiselle in August 1953, she attempted suicide. This is the story at the heart of her novel The Bell Jar. Once recovered - "patched, retreaded and approved for the road" (Chapter 20) - she re-entered Smith in January 1954. She led a freer life for her last three semesters as an ungraduate, receiving her diploma in June 1955. The next photograph gallery covers the period of 1955-1957, when Plath was a Fulbright Scholar at Newnham College, Cambridge University.

Please contact me regarding use of the photographs on this website. No photographs may be used without my consent.

	Caption: Plath's Royal typewriter	Reference: Now held at the Mortimer Rare Book Room, Smith College.
	Caption: College Hall Smith College Northampton, Mass.	Reference: One of the first thing a visit to Smith College sees.
	Caption: Haven House Smith College	Reference: Plath's residence house from 1950-1952.
	Caption: Haven House	Reference: Plath's room was on the third floor, on the right side of this picture.
	Caption: Lawrence House Smith College	Reference: Plath's residence house from 1952-1955.
	Caption: The front of Lawrence House.	Reference: Lawrence House is next to the Library, off Green Street.
	Caption: Memorial Fountain Smith College	Reference: Looking towards Paradise Pond.
	Caption: Paradise Pond Smith College	Reference: Where, according to Plath, the "girls take their boys to neck on weekends." See Plath's Journals, page 390.
	Caption: 393 Walnut Street Brookline, Mass.	Reference: The home of Olive Higgins Prouty, Plath's benefactress. See "Tea with Olive Higgins Prouty" in the Sylvia Plath Collection, Smith College.
	Caption: Prospect Street New Haven, Conn.	Reference: Plath stayed at a house on this street when visiting Richard Norton.
	Caption: Behind the Sterling Chemistry Building looking towards downtown New Haven.	Reference: See Plath's Journals, pages 51-2 and The Bell Jar, Chapter Five.
	Caption: Sterling Chemistry Laboratory Yale University New Haven, Ct.	Reference: The front of the building is much nicer than the back.
	Caption: 144 Beach Bluff Swampscott, Mass.	Reference: Plath baby-sat for the Mayo's during the summer of 1951.
	Caption: 144 Beach Bluff.	Reference: The lawn looking towards the Atlantic. See Plath's Journals, pages 67-68
	Caption: 144 Beach Bluff.	Reference: The front door faces west, away from the sea.
	Caption: Above 144 Beach Bluff.	Reference: Taken from a plane, the red arrow points to the house and lawn.
	Caption: Looking across to Children's Island.	Reference: At the tip of Marblehead Neck. See Plath's poem "The Babysitters".
	Caption: 47 Cypress Street Wellesley, Mass.	Reference: The Norton family home.
	Caption: The Belmont Hotel West Harwich, Cape Cod.	Reference: Plath waitressed here briefly during the summer of 1952. See her Journals and Letters Home.
	Caption: Site of the Belmont Hotel West Harwich, Cape Cod.	Reference: Now condominiums, The Belmont Hotel stood here.
	Caption: Beach at the Belmont Hotel site West Harwich, Cape Cod.	Reference: Now the beach is private, but once Plath likely swam here.
	Caption: Bay Lane Chatham, Cape Cod.	Reference: Plath was a mother's helper for the Cantor's later in the summer of 1952.
	Caption: Chatham Bars	Reference: The beach near Bay Lane. Plath took the Cantor children here.
	Caption: 14 Wright Street Cambridge, Mass.	Reference: Residence of May Sarton. Plath interviewed Elizabeth Bowen here for Mademoiselle on 26 May 1953.
	Caption: Barbizon Hotel New York, N.Y.	Reference: Plath resided here in the summer of 1953 in room 1511.
	Caption: Another view of the Barbizon Hotel.	Reference: Plath renamed the hotel "The Amazon" in her novel, The Bell Jar.
	Caption: 575 Madison Avenue New York, N.Y.	Reference: The location of Mademoiselle's offices when Plath was Guest Editor in June 1953.
	Caption: Egg Rock off Nahant, Mass.	Reference: See Plath's poem "Suicide Off Egg Rock" and The Bell Jar, Chapter 13.
	Caption: Egg Rock	Reference: From Long Beach, Lynn, Mass.
	Caption: Valleyhead Hospital 84 South Street Carlisle, Mass.	Reference: Plath underwent ECT treatment here in the Summer of 1953.
	Caption: Valleyhead Hospital Carlisle, Mass.	Reference: An area on the side of the building.
	Caption: Valleyhead Hospital Carlisle, Mass.	Reference: The other side of the building.
	Caption: Morses Pond Wellesley, Mass.	Reference: Police and citizens searched for Plath here during her first suicide attempt in August 1953.
	Caption: Newton-Wellesley Hospital Newton, Mass.	Reference: Plath first recuperated here.
	Caption: Massachusetts General Hospital Boston, Mass.	Reference: Plath transferred to the Psychiatric Ward here before being sent to McLean Hospital.
	Caption: Entrance sign McLean Hospital Belmont, Mass.	Reference: Plath's third and final hospital during her recovery.
	Caption: A map of the grounds at McLean.	Reference: The map is reminiscent of a university campus.
	Caption: North Belknap McLean Hospital	Reference: Plath recovered in here; likely the inspiration for Caplan in The Bell Jar.
	Caption: South Belknap House McLean Hospital	Reference: I believe Plath may have convalesced here, too.
	Caption: Administration Building McLean Hospital.	Reference: Plath may have used the color of this building to describe Dr. Gordon's private hospital in "Walton" in The Bell Jar.
	Caption: Wyman House McLean Hospital	Reference: Likely the inspiration for Wymark in The Bell Jar.
	Caption: Widener Library Harvard University Cambridge, Mass.	Reference: In The Bell Jar, Esther meets Irwin at the top of the steps. See Chapter 19.
	Caption: Harvard Yard Harvard University Cambridge, Mass.	Reference: In Chapter 19 of The Bell Jar, Plath writes, "I was standing at the top of the long flight, overlooking the red brick buildings that walled the snow filled quad ..."
	Caption: Elwood Road Wellesley, Mass.	Reference: The inspiration for Dodo Conway's house in The Bell Jar.
	Caption: Bay State Apartments 1572 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, Mass.	Reference: Plath sublet Apt. 4 here in the summer of 1954. See Nancy Hunter-Steiner's A Closer Look at Ariel.