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 undergraduate, 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.
Reference: Plath's Royal HH typewriter. A photograph of Plath working with this typewriter was taken in 1958. The typewriter and a copy of the photograph are now held at the Mortimer Rare Book Room, Smith College. |
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Reference: College Hall, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts. |
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Reference: Haven House, Smith College. Plath's residence house from 1950-1952. |
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Reference: Haven House, Smith College. Plath's room was on the third floor, on the right side of this picture. |
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Reference: Lawrence House, Smith College. Plath's residence house from 1952-1955. |
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Reference: Lawrence House is next to the Library, off Green Street. |
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Reference: Paradise Pond, Smith College. Where, according to Plath, the "girls take their boys to neck on weekends." See Plath's Journals, page 390. |
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Reference: 393 Walnut Street, Brookline, Massachusetts. The home of Olive Higgins Prouty, Plath's benefactress. See "Tea with Olive Higgins Prouty" in the Sylvia Plath Collection, Smith College. |
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Reference: Prospect Street, New Haven, Connecticut. Plath stayed at a house on this street when visiting Richard Norton. |
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Reference: Behind the Sterling Chemistry Building looking towards downtown New Haven. See Plath's Journals, pages 51-52 and The Bell Jar, Chapter Five. |
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Reference: Sterling Chemistry Laboratory, Yale College, New Haven. The front of the building is much nicer than the back. |
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Reference: 144 Beach Bluff Avenue, Swampscott, Massachusetts. Plath baby-sat for the Mayo's during the summer of 1951. |
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Reference: 144 Beach Bluff Avenue, Swampscott, Massachusetts. The lawn looking towards the Atlantic. See Plath's Journals, pages 67-68. |
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Reference: 144 Beach Bluff Avenue, Swampscott, Massachusetts. The front door faces west, away from the sea. |
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Reference: 144 Beach Bluff Avenue, Swampscott, Massachusetts. Taken from a plane, the red arrow points to the house and lawn. |
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Reference: Looking towards Children's Island from the tip of Marblehead Neck. See Plath's poem "The Babysitters". |
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Reference: 47 Cypress Road, Wellesley, Massachusetts. The Norton family home. |
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Reference: The Belmont Hotel, West Harwich, Cape Code. Plath was a waitress here briefly during the summer of 1952. See her Journals and Letters Home. |
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Reference: Site of the Belmont Hotel, West Harwich, Cape Cod. Now condominiums, The Belmont Hotel stood here. |
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Reference: Now the beach is private, but once Plath likely swam here. |
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Reference: Bay Lane, Chatham, Massachusetts. Plath was a mother's helper for the Cantor family at a house on this lane later in the summer of 1952. |
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Reference: The beach near Bay Lane. Plath took the Cantor children here. |
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Reference: 14 Wright Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Residence of May Sarton. Plath interviewed Elizabeth Bowen here for Mademoiselle on 26 May 1953. |
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Reference: The Barbizon Hotel, 63rd and Lexington, New York, New York. Plath resided here from 1 to 27 June 1953 in room 1511. |
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Reference: The Barbizon Hotel, New York. Plath renamed the hotel "The Amazon" in her novel, The Bell Jar. |
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Reference: 575 Madison Avenue, New York, New York. The location of Mademoiselle's offices when Plath was Guest Editor in June 1953. |
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Reference: Egg Rock, off Nahant, Massachusetts. See Plath's poem "Suicide Off Egg Rock" and The Bell Jar, Chapter 13. |
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Reference: Egg Rock. From Long Beach, Lynn, Mass. |
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Reference: Valleyhead Hospital, 84 South Street, Carlisle, Massachusetts. Plath underwent badly administered ECT treatment here on 29 and 31 July 1953. |
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Reference: Valleyhead Hospital. An area on the side of the building. |
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Reference: Valleyhead Hospital. The other side of the building. |
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Reference: Morses Pond, Wellesley, Massachusetts. Police and citizens searched for Plath here during her first suicide attempt in August 1953. |
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Reference: Newton-Wellesley Hospital, Newton, Massachusetts. Plath first recuperated here. |
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Reference: Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts. Plath transferred to the Psychiatric Ward here before being sent to McLean Hospital. |
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Reference: McLean Hospital, Belmont, Massachusetts. Entrance. Plath's third and final hospital during her recovery. |
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Reference: Map of McLean grounds. The map is reminiscent of a university campus. |
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Reference: South Belknap House, McLean Hospital, Belmont, Massachusetts. Formerly known as "Women's Belknap". After a period of time in Codman House, Plath recovered here. |
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Reference: South Belknap House, McLean Hospital, Belmont, Massachusetts. Rear of the house showing a walled-in courtyard and likely part of a tunnel. |
Reference: Plath would have been received and discharged here at the Administration Building, McLean Hospital. Plath may have used the color of this building to describe Dr. Gordon's private hospital in "Walton" in The Bell Jar. |
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Reference: Wyman House, McLean Hospital, Belmont, Massachusetts. Likely the inspiration for Wymark in The Bell Jar. |
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Reference: In The Bell Jar, Esther meets Irwin at the top of the steps. See Chapter 19. |
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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 ..." |
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Reference: The view from Sylvia Plath's bedroom of 23 Elmwood Road. In The Bell Jar, Dodo Conway's house was "set behind a morbid facade of pine trees". |
Reference: Bay State Apartments, 1572 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Mass. Plath sublet Apt. 4 here in the summer of 1954. See Nancy Hunter-Steiner's A Closer Look at Ariel. |