{"id":4060,"date":"2015-07-09T15:39:46","date_gmt":"2015-07-09T15:39:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/archives.library.illinois.edu\/slc\/?p=4060"},"modified":"2023-11-28T19:59:37","modified_gmt":"2023-11-28T19:59:37","slug":"found-in-the-archives-the-most-popular-girl-in-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/slc\/2015\/07\/09\/found-in-the-archives-the-most-popular-girl-in-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Found in the Archives: The Most Popular Girl in School"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written by Caitlin Stamm<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since its inception, the U of I has been home to many illustrious awards and award-winners. One of the more unique titles, though, was awarded to an Illinois student one hundred years ago.<\/p>\n

In April 1914, the Chicago Sunday Tribune<\/i> named ten girls “The Most Popular Girls in College.” The<\/p>\n

\"Article<\/a>
Article from the Chicago Sunday Tribune, April 26, 1914<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

girls\u00a0selected\u00a0represented schools from across the country, from Stanford University \u00a0in California to Wellesley \u00a0College\u00a0in Massachusetts. According to the\u00a0Tribune<\/em>, the defining characteristic of all of the young women selected was “a gracious democracy.” They wrote, “[E]ach and all of the girls chosen possessed above everything else the genius for democracy. It\u00a0was their certain loadstone of attraction.”\u00a0The women were selected after correspondents from the paper sent photographs and a description of each girl, detailing “the traits which accounted for her being the universal choice of her school” [1].<\/p>\n

\"Clara<\/a>
Clara Cronk, From the 1915 Illio<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the ten women selected was Clara Cronk, a senior at Illinois\u00a0in 1914. The Tribune<\/i> described Ms. Cronk as “the most popular girl at the University of Illinois,” who “is a senior, a member of the senior memorial committee, and has always taken a prominent part in class politics” [2].<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Tribune\u00a0<\/em>was right in choosing Clara as one of the most popular girls in school: she was a well-known institution to her class. Clara was known for\u00a0her Southern upbringing;\u00a0her family owned the Birmingham Hotel in Aurora, Alabama [3-4].\u00a0In the 1912\u00a0Illio<\/em>, the editors joke that if Clara were a song, the title would be “My Friend from Dixie” [5].<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The above cartoon was included in the 1911 class calendar. The caption reads, “Feb. 18- Illinois subdues Maroons; Clara Cronk’s hat in front row.” From the 1912 Illio. In the same issue, she wrote, “Do you really think I will get roasted in the Illio?” (p. 199)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Clara had a packed social schedule. She frequently\u00a0attended\u00a0fraternity dances and social events. \u00a0She was a member of the Household Science Club, the\u00a0Illio<\/em> staff, and the first cabinet of the YWCA. She was also on the Woman’s League Advisory Board and the Woman’s League Social Chairman for the four years she was at the U of I.\u00a0Her word was one sought after in campus politics; her opinion in favor of abolishing tango dancing at the University was published in a 1913 Daily Illini\u00a0<\/i>article [6].<\/p>\n

\"Arthur<\/a>
Arthur Morris, Clara’s beau and future husband. From the 1914 Illio.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Clara and her beau were a recognizable campus couple. Clara began seeing Arthur Marvin Morris after arriving in Champaign. Arthur was a member of Phi Delta Theta and Phi Delta Phi, president of the Athletic Association, and was a member of the Senior Hat committee. He\u00a0graduated in 1913 with a degree in law. [7] The pair was mentioned in a poem on popular couples in the\u00a01913\u00a0Illio,\u00a0<\/em>which read, “Behold, here comes Miss Clara Cronk,\/ With Morris, you know Art,\/ Why do they look so cheerful now?\/ They’re pierced by Cupid’s dart” [8]. She was a frequent fixture at Arthur’s fraternity house; a joke meeting minutes for Phi Delta Theta reads, “President Conrad called the meeting to order but a quorum was lacking. Sergeant-at-Arms…instructed to call up Clara Cronk” [9].<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A picture of the Phi Delta Theta dining room from Clara’s scrapbook, which is filled with witty remarks. “Clara here’s where your greatest fault was satisfied.” From RS 41\/20\/238<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After the Tribune’s <\/i>article on popular college women, Clara Cronk\u00a0was also named “The Most Popular Woman” in the 1915\u00a0Illio\u00a0<\/em>[10].\u00a0After Clara graduated, she\u00a0and Arthur were married on September 12, 1914 in Chicago. The couple moved to Aberdeen, South Dakota, where Arthur opened a clothing store\u00a0[11-12]. They had four children, Elmer, Arthur, Suzanne, and Mary [13].<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Want to party like Clara? We’ve got a playlist <\/a>of songs from a 1914 dance she attended.<\/i><\/p>\n

A full view of the<\/em>\u00a0Tribune article is available on their website<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]-[2] – “The Most Popular Girls in College.”\u00a0Chicago Tribune.<\/em> April 26, 1914<\/a>. p. 35.
\n[3] –\u00a0John Wiley.\u00a0The Hotel Monthly<\/em>. v. 14, n. 154<\/a>. p. 29.
\n[4] – RS 25\/3\/17
\n<\/a>[5] –\u00a0Illio<\/a><\/em> 1912<\/a>. p. 517.
\n[6] – “Abolishment of Tango Favored by Co-Eds.”\u00a0Daily Illini<\/em>. October 17, 1913<\/a>. p. 1, 7.
\n[7] –\u00a0Illio\u00a0<\/em>1914<\/a>. p. 503.
\n[8] –\u00a0Illio<\/em> 191<\/a>3. p. 547.
\n[9] –\u00a0Illio\u00a0<\/em>1914. p. 577.
\n[10] – Illio\u00a0<\/i>1915. p. 195.
\n[11] – “Morris-Cronk.” Daily Illini.\u00a0<\/i>September 22, 1914<\/a>. p. 3.
\n[12]\u00a0The Alumni Record<\/em> 1918. p. 503.
\n[13] – Arthur Marvin Morris<\/a>. Star Tribune<\/i>. April 2012.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Caitlin Stamm Since its inception, the U of I has been home to many illustrious awards and award-winners. One of the more unique titles, though, was awarded to an Illinois student one hundred years ago. In April 1914, the Chicago Sunday Tribune named ten girls “The Most Popular Girls in College.” The girls\u00a0selected\u00a0represented […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":626,"featured_media":4063,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1,8],"tags":[49,62,149,225,226,227,281,283,308,318,319],"class_list":["post-4060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-found-in-the-archives","category-uncategorized","category-university-trivia","tag-campus-history","tag-clara-cronk","tag-illio","tag-personal-papers","tag-phi-delta-theta","tag-photographs","tag-student-history","tag-student-life-and-culture-archives","tag-uiuc-alumni","tag-university-of-illinois","tag-university-of-illinois-alumni"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/slc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/slc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/slc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/slc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/626"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/slc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4060"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/slc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4060\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11399,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/slc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4060\/revisions\/11399"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/slc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/slc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/slc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/slc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}