This series contains photographs that follow events in Alfred Schmied's life from high school to before his professorship at the University of Tennessee. It holds photographs from 1926-1945, including photos of Schmied's high school class (1926), The Rudolph Ganz School of Music (1928), The Fortainebleau School (1930), and The St. Louis School of Music (1944-1945). Famed music educators Camille Decreus and Nadia Boulanger appear in the 1930 Photograph. Also included is a signed photo of Decreus with a short note to Schmied in French. Another photo in the series is of an unidentified woman with an illegible signature on the lower right hand corner, whose name does not resemble that of Schmied's mother, sister, or wife.