Featured: SNOWY
More "Places" pages:
THE CHEERLEADER
("Gunthwaite Tour")
HENRIETTA SNOW
(Fire Towers)
Also:
Trivia Quizzes
(for first four books in The Snowy Series)
Literary Pastimes: Essays
"Bigger Than a Postcard, SmallerTthan a Novel"
.
inspiration for Fictional Places
On this page:
Maps: Picturing locations in SNOWY inspired by actual places
Photos: A few of Ruth's photos from her "Bennington Years"
Inspiration for Old Eastbourne
Imagining student life at Bennington College: Jen Davis-Kay's Self-Guided Tour
The Bennington College and Early Eastbourne Years
"So here she was, on Wednesday, October 9, 1957"
For those not familiar with New England georgraphy, this map indicates the relative positions of Laconia (Gunthwaite), Bennington VT (Bennington College) and Boston.
Fun fact: At the time Ruth enrolled at Bennington (1957), the college was relatively new; it was founded in 1932.
"In McCullough, Snowy's house amongst the two matching double rows of white houses separated by the lengthy stretch of Commons lawn . . . ."
This is Ruth in a Bennington College photo from her own album, in front of McCullough.
Jen Davis-Kay, one of our Trivia Masters, visited Bennington College and wrote a travelogue for us, shared at the bottom of this page..
". . . wedding presents that included . . .the set of Bennington Potters coffee mugs Snowy had given her."
Bennington Potters really exists; Ruth didn't change the name to suit the storyline. The mug pictured at left is a "trigger mug" from Bennington Potters; Ruth says that she still has two of her original set.
bennington potters
We are grateful to Bennington Potters for the use of the photo.
Boston Esplanade
The Boston Esplanade is another actual place that is mentioned in SNOWY. The Esplanade Association works to renew and enhance the features of this "historic urban park."
We are grateful to The Esplanade Association for the use of the photo above (from 2007) which shows the Charles River as it winds through the Back Bay area of Boston.
Eastbourne
"The house in which Ruhamah Reed had been born, had lived and died, still existed and was standing empty, having been bought up as a part of a planned Old Eastbourne restoration project."
Ruth says, "Regarding strawbery banke--for the Ruhamah Reed House, I didn't use one there but adapted my grandmother's house in orford--[my father's} mother. His grandmother was born in Orford, and the family owned various houses there. This one was bought by my grandparents, before my father was born, as a summer place, but later my father's sister, Alice, took it over as a year-round home. Much earlier, it was owned by Samuel Morey, who may have invented the steamboat before Fulton, and thus it's called the Samuel Morey House. It doesn't have the Ruhamah Reed House widow's walk, but it is the Federal style, with the beautiful doorway through which Snowy and Alan walk on their first meeting."
"Highland Prince" Cruise Route
". . . Alan selected a short package, an overnight cruise on the Highland Fling out of Portland, Maine. . ."
Ruth says, "I found a brochure for the M/S SCOTIA PRINCE, the "wedding cake" cruise ship that inspired the HIGHLAND FLING on which Snowy and Alan have their romantic honeymoon. Don and I took the mini-trip to Yarmouth, NS, on our 25th wedding anniversary and got into an October storm, but since I'm writing fiction, I switched the storm to June . . ."
The cruise line that Ruth referenced is no longer in business.
Special Feature! "Jen Visits Bennington College"
A Bennington Tour, with Jen
Jennifer Davis-Kay, a member of the Ruth Doan MacDougall website staff, recorded her impressions (photos and text) of Snowy's alma mater when she visited the campus in 2005.
Jen is one of the website's Trivia Quizmasters and has contributed other features over the years. She lives in Massachusetts.
The photo above shows her clowning around in a Bennington dormitory bathtub.
Welcome to Bennington!
The first two shots are general "Welcome to Bennington" kind of pictures.
You really have to hunt for this Bennington sign, it's not at the main entrance!
McCullough Exterior
McCullough, Snowy's house amongst the two matching double rows of white houses separated by the lengthy stretch of the Commons lawn . . ."
The white house I'm standing in front of (swinging from a pillar in my exuberance!) is McCullough!!!! "
McCullough Entry
McCullough Standards:
This sign describes student-selected standards: "McCullough is a Non-Smoking Courtesy House with no set quiet hours."
The Common Room
Dorm Room
Outside .. .
(above) The Bennington Lawn
First, look at the tall thing you can dimly see on the left [and magnified in this second photo]; that's the Bennington Obelisk
". . . an obelisk visible from the campus which inspired many comments about the perversity of a phallic symbol on the horizon of a women's college."
Bennington Ayss & Cliff
- ". . . at the far en of Commons lawn could be seen an abyss" ". . .
". . . an optical illusion named 'The Cliff,' an eye-deceiving brink over which girls claimed they were going to fling themselves to their deaths when papers were due or boys didn't phone. The true result would have been much less spectacular, a headling sprawl onto a field."
(Today's students call this drop-off The End of the World.)
"The Cliff"
The Commons
The next shot is of Commons itself, site of mailbox pigeonholes, dining rooms and the third-floor theatre where Snowy played Pig Pen!
The Barn 1
Last, here's the Barn: " . . . classes were held in a low red clapboard building called the Barn."
And that's the end of Jen's Tour of Bennington College (2007)
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