1916 La Vie: The Legend of the Valley

By the early 1900s, Penn State had weathered decades of growing pains as both the institution itself, and the larger land-grant college movement, matured and found their place in post-Reconstruction America. School pride swelled with full-time enrollment tripling during the presidency of Edwin Sparks (1908-1920). Eager to distinguish themselves from peers at other colleges, students began to write songs, establish rituals, and compose stories that reinforced the unique Penn State identity.

During this time period, Pennsylvania’s first official folklorist, Henry W. Shoemaker, published a myth about the origins of beloved campus landmark Mount Nittany in his 1916 book Juniata Memories. Although Penn State students may have heard the story independently of Shoemaker, the modern presumption is that when they came across Shoemaker’s account, they liked it so much they decided to adopt elements of the story for their own special legend, which appeared in that year’s student yearbook, La Vie.

This original, student-authored version of the Princess Nittany story is told in much more flowery language, reflecting the literary tastes of the student body at that time, and is far more concise than Shoemaker’s lengthier account. It also weaves the college’s founding into the mythology.

Then in this broad valley, there rose the Great Mother, not of men but of minds of men. To her came the young men from many miles, and she taught them the wisdom of times past, taught them the use of tools, taught them the art of working… And her sons went out into the world and worked with the arts she had taught them and brought back to her, honor and glory.

A photo of Mount Nittany, depicting the Valley of a very different time, accompanied the legend. This artifact from the Penn State yearbook dating back over 100 years illustrates the close relationship that has always existed between the University that calls Happy Valley home and the Mountain silently watching over it.

The text of the 1916 La Vie Legend, along with two other versions of the Legend of Princess Nittany, can be found in ‘The Legends of the Nittany Valley,’ a collection of regional folklore published by Nittany Valley Press.