The terms "smashing" and "crushes," in the context of women's behavior from the late 19th century to the early 20th, refers to a practice of same-sex courting of classmates. The terms were also used to describe particularly intimate or romantic relationships between two women. Smashing has been an especially elusive and cryptic topic for researchers.Below is a selection of secondary and primary sources that are helpful starting points.
The phrase "college girl fiction" generally refers to novels and short stories written about the personal lives of students attending women's colleges. Friendships between women at college were a central theme, and although fictional offer insight into what was considered appropriate and what was not. Related terms include "schoolgirl stories" and "girls' school stories". The height of popularity of college girl fiction dates to approximately 1880-1930
"My Friendships: What They Have Taught and Brought Me," Harper's Bazaar, 46:11 (Nov 1912): 548.
Full text: Proquest
"Your Daughter: What Are Her Friendships?", Harper's Bazaar, Oct 1913
Full text Hathi Trust
Print: Special Collections TT500 .H3
[A Graduate], "College Girls Laughs and Pranks", The Ladies Home Journal, 17:4 (March 1900): 7
Full text: Proquest
[A Vassar Girl]. "'Smashing' at Vassar", Chicago Daily Tribune, 13 September 1875
Full text: Proquest
Full text of Atlanta Constitution reprint: Proquest
[M. A. S.], [Open letter by a student about crushes], Wellesley Magazine, 1:5 (1893-02-18): 250
Full Text: Wellesley College Digital Repository
Ashmore, Ruth. "Your Own Familiar Friend," The Ladies Home Journal, 11:4 (March 1894): 16
Full text: Proquest
Full text of reprint in the book, Side Talks with Girls (1896): Hathi Trust
Ashmore, Ruth. "The Intense Friendships of Girls," The Ladies Home Journal, 15:8 (July 1898): 20.
Full text: Proquest
Ellis, Havelock. Sexual Inversion. Philadelphia : F. A. Davis, 1931 (originally published in German in 1896).
Full text: Hathi Trust
Print: Main HQ21 .E56 v.2
Ewing, Clara. "The Girl with a 'Crush" in Leaders of Girls. New York: Abingdon Press, 1915.
Full text: Hathi Trust
Print: Annex HQ798 .E7
Jones, Grace Latimer. "The Evils of Girls' Secret Societies", Ladies Home Journal, 24: 11 (October 1907): 26
Full text: Proquest
Ryder, Annie H. Hold Up Your Heads, Girls!: Helps for Girls, In School and Out. Boston : D. Lothrop, 1886.
Full text: Hathi Trust
Print: Special Collections HQ1229 .R97 1886
Schwartz, Julia A, "Heroic Treatment," in Vassar Studies, 1899.
Full text: Hathi Trust
Print: Main LD7183 .S3x
Smith, L.R. "Social Life at Vassar," Lippincott's Magazine, 39 (1889): 841-851
Print copy: PDF
Print: Main AP2 .L55
Thwing, Charles F. "Advice of a Father to a Daughter Entering College," The Independent (1911-08-31): 473.
Full text: Proquest
Walker, Emma E. "Crushes Among Girls, Ladies Home Journal, 21:2 (Jan 1904): 21
Full text: Proquest
Gadd, Christianne A. Eclectic Affinities: Intimate Friendships in Women's Colleges, 1880-1930. Lehigh University theses, 2005
Full text: Lehigh Preserve Institutional Repository
Gordon, Lynn D. "The Gibson Girl Goes to College: Popular Culture and Women's Higher Education in the Progressive Era, 1890-1920." American Quarterly 39:2 (summer 1987), 211-230.
Full text: JSTOR
Print: Annex AP2 .A3985
Inness, Sherrie A. “Mashes, Smashes, Crushes, and Raves: Woman-to-Woman Relationships in Popular Women’s College Fiction, 1895–1915.” NWSA Journal, 6:1 (1994), 48–68.
Full text: JSTOR
Print: Annex HQ1101 .N23
Newman, Sally. "'The Freshman Malady': Rethinking the Ontology of the 'Crush'." Rethinking History: The Journal of Theory and Practice, 16:2 (June 2012), 279-301.
Full text: Ebsco
Rouse, Wendy L. " 'A Very Crushable, Kissable Girl': Queer Love and the Invention of the Abnormal Girl Among College Women in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era," The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, published online by Cambridge University Press, May 16, 2022.
Full text: Cambridge University Press
Rupp, Leila J., A Desired Past: A Short History of Same-Sex Love in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999
Full text: Internet Archive
Print: Main HQ76.3.U5 R86 1999
Sahli, Nancy. "Smashing: Women's Relationships Before the Fall." Chrysalis, 8 (Summer 1979): 17-27.
Full text: JSTOR
Print copy: PDF
Smith-Rosenberg, Carroll. “The Female World of Love and Ritual: Relationships Between Women in Nineteenth-Century America.” Signs, 1:1 (1975), 1–29.
Full text: JSTOR
Vicinus, Martha. “Distance and Desire: English Boarding-School Friendships.” Signs, 9:4 (1982), 43–65.
Full text: JSTOR
Vicinus, Martha. "The History of Lesbian History." Feminist Studies, 38:3 (Fall 2012), 566-596.
Full text: Proquest
Wilk, Rona M. "What's a Crush? A Study of Crushes and Romantic Friendships at Barnard College, 1900-1920." OAH Magazine of History, 18: 4 (Jul 2004), 20-22.
Full text: JSTOR
Print: Main E175.8 .M34
A curated collection of college girl fiction is available on Hathi Trust. See also the Smith College Archive's Selected College Fiction. The list below includes work by Vassar faculty and alumnae as well as books not available via the Hathi Trust.
Blanchard, Amy Ella. Janet's College Career. Philadelphia: G. W. Jacobs, 1904
Print: available via Worldcat and Interlibrary Loan
Blank, Clair. Beverly Gray, Junior. NY: Grosset and Dunlap, 1934
Full text: borrow from Internet Archive
Ellis, Katharine Ruth (VC 1901). The Wide Awake Girls at College. Little, Brown and Co, 1910
Print: Special Collections 1901 Barrett
Guest, Mary Lapsley Caughey (VC 1921). The Parable of the Virgins. New York: Richard R. Smith, 1931
Print: Special Collections 1921 Guest
Millay, Kathleen (VC ex1921). Against the Wall. New York: Macaulay, 1929
Full text: Hathi Trust
Print: Special Collections 1921 Millay
Neff, Wanda Fraiken. We Sing Diana. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1928
Print: Special Collections PS3527.E286 W4 1928
Ray, Anna Chapin. Sidney at College. Little, Brown and Co., 1908
Full text: Internet Archive
Ray, Anna Chapin. Sidney, Her Senior Year. Little, Brown and Co., 1910
Full text: Internet Archive
Schwartz, Julia (VC 1896). Elinor's College Career. Boston : Little, Brown, 1906
Full text: Hathi Trust
Print: Main PS3537.C797 E4
Speed, Nell. Molly Brown's College Friends. Hurst & Company, 1921
Full text: Project Gutenberg
Webster, Jean (VC 1901). When Patty Went to College. New York : Grosset & Dunlap, 1903
Full text: Hathi Trust
Print: Special Collections PS3545.E365 W53
Foster, Jeannette Howard. Sex Variant Women in Literature. New York: Vantage Press, 1956
Full text: Hathi Trust
Print: PN56.S53 F6
Inness, Sherrie A. Intimate Communities: Representation and Social Transformation in Women's College Fiction, 1895-1910. Bowling Green State University Press, 1995
Print: Main PS374.U52 I56 1995
Lindgren, Gunilla. Higher Education for Girls in North American College Fiction, 1886-1912. Stockholm : Dept. of English, Lund University, 2005
Full Text: Lund University Research Portal
Print PS374.W6 L562 2005
Marchalonis, Shirley. College Girls: A Century in Fiction. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1995
Print: PS374.U52 M37 1995
Reese, Ashley N. The Rise of American Girls' Literature. Cambridge University Press: 2021
Full text: Cambridge University Press
Rosoff, Nancy G. and Stephanie Spencer. British and American School Stories, 1910-1960: Fiction, Femininity, and Friendship. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, 2019
Full text: Unavailable. Table of contents and sources available via Springer PDF
Available in Archives & Special Collections :
Copeland, May VC 1891. Letters Home. (378.7V EC79 ) - Letters to her mother about life at Vassar. Beau named Genie? Included are transcripts of valentines she sent.
See also the material in our Digital Library:
Student Diaries
Student Letters
Newspaper Archives
