Introducing Brooklyn Friends School’s new visual identity is exciting, yet it also makes us fondly recall logos from our past. Let’s take a look back at what can be considered our main logos through the years, beginning with today’s and ending with our earliest-known visual identity. “The Inner Light,” 2014 In our new visual identity, […]
The First May Day, 1928 Some readers may recall BFS May Day celebrations held at Friends Field and perhaps at Pearl Street. May Day was a huge lower school event that began in 1928. Each year had its own unique theme such as early U.S. settlers, nations around the world, the circus, toys, candy, and […]
1928-1936 BFS Lower School Scrapbook,news clipping of the first May Day, 1928“Emulating the May Day Celebration of the Early Settlers…” Sometimes history reveals a past that is not always what we want it to be, even at BFS. A few months back, I wrote about our school’s path to enrolling students of color, particularly to […]
1925, BFS Boys Basketball Team, with the Friends School League Championship Trophy It’s a great basketball season for BFS teams, so today let’s look back 89 years ago to February of 1925, when BFS won the Friends Schools national title in boys basketball by defeating Wilmington Friends. The BFS Digital Archives has this photo of our 1925 boys basketball […]
These days BFS yearbooks are hard-bound volumes, about 200 pages in length, often have color photos, and provide an overview of the year for the entire school. The earliest known BFS Yearbooks, from 1927 to 1932, differ in many aspects from today’s norm. The 1927 BFS Yearbook was the Commencement Edition of The Life, which […]
Examining the history of Brooklyn Friends School means also examining the history of education in Brooklyn and New York City. Brooklyn Friends School has a long history of educational innovations, but it also has a long history of allowing innovative educators to implement their ideas at BFS. Ella Frances Woodward exemplifies our long-standing commitment […]
In 1914, Friends School – as it was then called – was expanding at all levels, with its young high school program being one of them. Our athletic program had only just gotten off the ground and it was soon clear that the school needed athletic facilities to go further. Our second athletic director, […]
The second school song written for BFS is The BFS Alma Mater. The lyrics were written by noted sci-fi author and BFS alum Edgar Pangborn ’24 and the music was composed by BFS music teacher J. Trevor Garmey during the 1920s. Read also Our School Songs, Part 1. To read more about Brooklyn Friends School’s history, visit […]
