Kidd-Key College and Conservatory records

A Guide to the Collection

Biographical Note

Lucy Ann Thornton Kidd-Key, was Kidd-Key College's foremost supporter as well as its president for almost three decades. She was born in 1839 in Kentucky to parents Willis Strother and Esther (Stevens) Thornton. Following her formal education at Georgetown, Kentucky, she married Henry Byrd Kidd. Dr. Kidd died in 1876 or 1877, leaving Lucy heavily in debt with three children to raise. Her precarious financial position and her educational background in fine arts led her to seek work as an educator.

Kidd first found employment as an assistant principal at a female institution in Kentucky and then as the presiding teacher at Brookhaven, Mississippi’s Whitworth College. In this position, Kidd established her reputation as a successful educator, leading Bishop G. D. Galloway to recommend her to the Southern Methodist Conference for the position of president for the debt-ridden North Texas Female Academy.

Kidd married Methodist bishop Joseph S. Key in 1892. To avoid losing the name familiar to her friends and patrons, she attached Bishop Key’s appellation to her own, henceforth signing all professional and personal papers as "L. A. Kidd-Key." Kidd-Key retained her position as president of the college for twenty-eight years, until her death in 1916.

Historical Note

Kidd-Key College and Conservatory began in the late 1860s as the Sherman Male and Female High School, an enterprise that was supported by the North Texas Methodist Conference. In 1874, this institution became the North Texas Female College. A charter was granted the school in 1877, but financial instability led to its closing in 1886. In 1888, the school was reopened under the presidency of Lucy Ann Thornton Kidd, who tirelessly promoted the school as a bastion of fine arts education for genteel ladies.

Kidd’s marketing strategy was successful. The college continued to expand and by 1893, shortly after her marriage to Bishop Joseph S. Key, Lucy Kidd-Key began advertising the establishment as the North Texas Female College and Music Conservatory. From a modest beginning in 1888 with 100 students, the college reached, by 1908, its peak enrollment of 521 students.

Yet, despite hiring the finest teachers and furnishing students with the best equipment, including 120 pianos by 1910, the school began to decline. Kidd-Key’s strict rules, including mandatory church attendance and requiring all students to be chaperoned when off campus, became less popular after the turn of the century. By 1916, when Kidd-Key died, enrollment was down to about 400 students in all departments.

Succeeding presidents relaxed rules, added new and more timely subjects, and refurbished buildings and grounds—to no avail. Kidd-Key’s long reign as president had set too firmly the reputation of the college as a venue for producing young girls of Victorian manners and morality. Changing the name of the institution in 1919 to Kidd-Key College and Conservatory probably furthered this connection in the public mind. In addition, the opening of Southern Methodist University in 1912 diminished Methodist support for smaller institutions in Texas. This reduced support, coupled with the financial contraction of the Great Depression, led to the closing of the college in 1935.

Source:

Kidd-Key College Archives; Larry Wolz, "Kidd-Key College," Handbook of Texas Online

Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Kidd-Key College Archives consists of 22 linear feet of material.

Included in this collection are records of the college from August 1876, shortly before the school was chartered as North Texas Female College, to its closing in 1935, as well as biographical and historical information and alumnae records extending to 1989. These materials include student and faculty records, correspondence, writings, clippings, minutes, scrapbooks, yearbooks, catalogs, photographs, artifacts, transcripts, and financial ledgers.

Material for the early years is extremely sparse, consisting of a contract dated August 1876, a certified copy of the original charter in 1877, several pictures of faculty members including the president, J. R. Cole, and a few items relating to operation and activities of the school.

The bulk of material dates from 1888 to the mid 1920s, a period which includes the years that Kidd-Key served as president, as well as the first of two separate presidential tenures by her son, Edwin Munger Kidd.

The final series in the collection (Boxes 28-30) consists of duplicate copies of some materials found in other series.

Restrictions

Access to Collection:

Collection is open for research use.

Publication Rights:

Permission to publish materials must be obtained from the Director of the DeGolyer Library.

Copyright Statement:

It is the responsibility of the user to obtain copyright authorization.

Related Material

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Kidd-Key College and Conservatory records, DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University.

Acquisition Information

Gift.

Custodial History

In a special ceremony held on June 4, 1938, Southern Methodist University adopted the alumnae of Kidd-Key College and Music Conservatory, replacing their Kidd-Key diplomas and certificates with credentials confirming them as alumnae of SMU. At the same time they were adopted by the university, they were also granted membership in the SMU Alumni Association. These events marked the beginning of a warm relationship between the "North Texas Female College and Kidd-Key Conservatory Alumnae and Ex-Student Association" (hereafter referred to as the A&E-SA) and their new alma mater.

The A&E-SA began holding their annual April meetings in Dallas near SMU, and eventually moved them onto university grounds. Given a room in the Fondren Library on the SMU campus, the A&E-SA began collecting their letters, pictures, papers, yearbooks, and other memorabilia of their college years in an effort to prolong the memory of Kidd-Key College and Lucy Ann Thornton Kidd-Key. Thus was founded the Kidd-Key College Archives, now housed at DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University.

Processing Information

Processed by Constance Bishop in August 2002.

Encoded by

Lara Corazalla, 2006

Detailed Description of the Collection