The pictures collected here are from the New York Public Library’s Picture Collection, a room full of folders upon folders of pictures. The images are torn from books and magazines, mounted onto thick card stock and cataloged by subject. Amelia will now have a weekly feature sharing her vintage image finds from the Picture Collection—
What is it about all-girl sleepovers that adults find so fascinating?
Sure, it’s that juncture of innocence and awakening. Sure, it’s sugar highs and other highs, too. Sure, it’s secrets. But sleepovers also represent a unique and inimitable intimacy—the kind that few experience in quite the same way past mid or even early teens.
Intimacy is where you don’t mind sharing a room with a friend, let alone a bed, for as many nights as your parents will allow. It’s creating a space where your pal/s get to see you in your second-most vulnerable state: asleep. They will meet your family, but the real risk is that you might not be invited to meet theirs.
![To Bed 3](https://www.teenagefilm.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/To-Bed-3-e1321820595328.jpeg)
What goes on behind closed doors can never truly be captured, but many a photographer has tried. These images of sleepovers, from the 1950s and beyond, show us what the private looks like without the sweet complexity.
![To Bed 6](https://www.teenagefilm.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/To-Bed-6-e1321820778710.jpeg)
![To Bed 2](https://www.teenagefilm.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/To-Bed-2-e1321820878558.jpeg)
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Amelia at work researching at the Picture Collection.
![photo](https://www.teenagefilm.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/photo-e1321836134868.jpg)