Boarding school beauty

Phillips Exeter Academy in 1911.

Phillips Exeter Academy in 1911.

"Devon is sometimes considered the most beautiful school in New England....It is the beauty of small areas of order -- a large yard, a group of trees, three similar dormitories, a circle of old houses -- living together in contentious harmony.''

-- From the novel A Separate Peace, by John Knowles

The famous novel is based to some extent on Mr. Knowles's memories of his years as a student at Phillips Exeter Academy, the large boarding school in Exeter, N.H.