Biographical Note

In 1852 Emily M. Higgins Adams (d. 1862) married frontier preacher George Athearn Adams (1821-1903), Oberlin College Class of 1847. Their ten-year marriage produced six children. Although we know that George Athearn Adams was a graduate of Andover Seminary, that he was ordained to the Presbyterian ministry in Bowling Green, Ohio, in 1852, and that he held abolitionist leanings, we know very little of Emily M. Higgins Adams. She and her husband had a four-year courtship that was more romantic than businesslike. She grew up in Rochester, New York. Emily corresponded with Lucy Mahan, wife of Oberlin College President Asa Mahan.

Scope and Content

The 13 folders consist primarily of the correspondence between George A. Adams and Emily M. Higgins Adams, dating from 1846 to 1858. These letters document their courtship, 1846-1851. Letters written by Emily also document the reading habits of a young lady, as well as the development other mental culture and her social and religious views. One letter (Nov. 27, 1851) makes reference to her decision not to join the Anti-slavery Society in Rochester, and several others offer glimpses into her attitudes towards black Americans. A second letter, dated March 19, 1852, and addressed "To my Sabboth School Class" in Rockville, Indiana, reveals her deep-seated religious commitment. In the file "Letters from Classmates and Professors" are letters from Lucy Stone and Elvira Mack.

Biographical Note

Phoebe Haynes Ainsworth (1838-1925), came to Oberlin with her family in 1853. She studied in the Preparatory Department and College from 1854 to 1858 but did not graduate. Instead she followed her musical interests, specializing in voice and devoting her life to teaching and studying music throughout the United States and in Germany. In 1866-67 she taught in the Oberlin Conservatory with music professors John Paul Morgan (d. 1879) and George W. Steele (d.1902). After Daniel Ainsworth—her husband of 12 years—died in 1922, she made her home in Oberlin with her sister, Angeline (Mrs. Henry O.) Swift, and her niece, Cora I. Swift.

Scope and Content

The diaries consist of six small volumes, 1866-1870, 1875, and loose sheets, 1863-1867. They cover a trip to New York and New Jersey in 1866, a stay at the home of the Rev. Lyman Abbot in New York City in 1869, and periods when Ainsworth was in Oberlin. The diaries are devoted to her musical activities and interests and to the activities other friends. A few of Phoebe's recollections and diary entries from her college days are included in the collection.

Biographical Note

Kathryn Reinhard Albrecht (1889-1950), a life-long resident of Lorain County, Ohio, was born in Amherst Township and moved to Russia Township after her marriage to Clarence Albrecht. She was a member of' St. Peter's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Amherst, the Woman's Club, the North Russia Needle Guild, and the Russia Township Farm Women's Club.

Scope and Content

The papers, consisting of three scrapbooks dating from 1928 to 1948, contain obituaries of area residents. There is also a folder labeled "Miscellaneous Items" that contains newspaper clippings (mainly wedding announcements) about local individuals.

Biographical Note

Caroline Mary Rudd (1820-1892, A.B.1841) of Huntington, Connecticut, was one of the first three women in the United States to receive a college degree. In 1841 she married George Nelson Allen (1812-1877, A.B.1838), who was well known in Oberlin as a professor of geology and natural history (1846-1871) and music ( l 841-1864). Two of their daughters, Carrie and Alice (Lit. 1867), studied in the Oberlin Conservatory and literary course and then taught music in Cincinnati.

Scope and Content

This collection, largely correspondence, documents the daily life of Caroline and George, including their household routines and her relationship with George N. Allen and with other women. Information also exists on the family in general and on their daughter Carrie in particular. Caroline Mary Rudd Allen, known as Mary, wrote 35 letters to George Allen, 1840-1858, regarding their engagement, her religious concerns, and family news. Four folders of George's letters to Mary, 1840-1855, report on their courtship and their close married relationship. Correspondence between Mary and her daughters, especially from Mary to Alice, 1871-1883, concerns Mary's routine activities, her visits to her children, and news and commentary on family and friends. An 1836 letter from Mary's Aunt Sally Rudd discusses arrangements for Mary to come study at Oberlin. Ten letters dated 1836 to George Nelson Allen from Pamela Seabury and four letters dated 1839 from M.A. Eells reveal the spiritual struggles and Christian conversion of these two women. Six letters to Carrie from Mary P. Ament, 1891-1894, regarding her missionary work in Peking contain news about her "Auntie" and her children, and a discussion of religious issues in missionary work. Also included is a notebook, 1849-1852, that Helen Finney (Cochran) Cox kept on the growth and activities of her son William Cochran, who later married Rosa, another of the Allen daughters. A three-page essay by Li Ting Jung on Chinese foot binding is dated 1894. An important collection of photographs, daguerreotypes, tintypes, and ambrotypes of members of the family and other prominent Oberlin personalities also is included.

Biographical Note

Sarah A. Curtis, from Genesee, Michigan, was a student at Oberlin from 1840 to 1843. Her husband and classmate, Archibald McCullum Ball, received the A.B. degree in 1844 before they were married by President Asa Mahan (1799-1889). Ball then continued studying in the Oberlin Seminary. Irene Ball (b. 1815), Archibald's sister, preceded him at Oberlin, attending in 1836-37. She left school to marry Alabama abolitionist William Allen. Sarah Curtis' sister Elizabeth was also being educated during those years (1835-1838) at the Middlebury Female Seminary in Connecticut. Sarah Bedell Ball (b. 1880), a granddaughter of Sarah and Archibald Ball, compiled this genealogy of six generations of descendent s of the Ball-Curtis family and of ancestors going back to the Mayflower and Arbella.

Scope and Content

The genealogy fills 12 three-ring notebooks with an accompanying volume that contains an introduction and an index. In addition to the genealogical information, the notebooks include letters and documents of family members, plus historical and biographical sketches. Significant components of the collection are letters by Irene Ball (Allen), 1836-1842, describing life as a student in early Oberlin and as the wife of an abolitionist minister in Illinois; an eight page typescript of a notebook written by Elizabeth Curtis covering the four years before to her marriage to Orrin Safford in 1839 and containing poems to friends and writings on education, Catherine Beecher, and the Bible; several letters between the sisters Sarah, Elizabeth, and Salome Curtis; and information on Sophia Smith's ancestors, some of whom were related to the Ball family. Also included are early family photographs and Sarah Bedell Ball's own reminiscences.

Biographical Note

PhebeBeard (1895-1925) was the daughter of Willard L. Beard (1865-1947) and Ellen Kinney Beard(1868-1953), both Oberlin students in the 1890s. Phebe was born in Foochow China, where her parents were missionaries from 1907 to 1947. She returned to the United States for her secondary education in 1910, and she received the A.B. degree from Oberlin in 1919. At Oberlin Phebe Beard was active in the Oberlin Band of Student Volunteers for Foreign Missions. In 1921 she was commissioned by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) to teach at the Girls' School in Ponasang, Foochow. She died there in 1925.

Scope and Content

The collection consists primarily of letters between the Beard parents and children, 1910-1925. There also are some photographs of the family and China, as well as some printed materials regarding the children in their high school and church in Oberlin. Many of the letters are from Phebe Beard, 1920-1925, and report on the period right before and during her missionary years in China. In these letters she writes of her thoughts and apprehensions about being a missionary, as well as of daily news and family matters. Some letters from other sisters and brothers also are included.

Biographical Note

Emilie Royce Bradley (1811-1845) traveled to Siam (Thailand) with her husband, Dan Beach Bradley (1804-1873), in 1835 to join the new mission station there. Both had been strongly influenced by Charles G. Finney's liberal doctrine of sanctification, which later resulted in their mission's break from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM). Before her marriage, Emilie Royce had been educated at the Clinton Female Seminary, which was conducted by her three aunts in Oneida County, New York. She began teaching there when she was 15, and four years later she left to become preceptress of the female seminary in Manlius, Onondaga County, New York.

Emilie Royce Bradley bore five children after leaving for Siam, two of whom died as infants. She died in 1845, after 10 years in the missionary field. Dan Bradley's second wife, Sarah Blachly (A.B. 1845) shared his religious convictions and missionary aspirations. They married in 1848 and returned to Bangkok, where they had five children. Dan Bradley was active as a medical missionary (credited with the introduction of surgery and vaccination to Siam), as a preaching missionary, and as a printer and publisher of a newspaper and religious tracts. Both Emily Royce Bradley and Sarah Blachly Bradley, along with the few other Western women at the mission, taught and spread the Gospel among the women of the Siamese court and among the servant class, in addition to maintaining their families and households. After her husband's death, Sarah Blachly Bradley remained in Siam with her daughter, Irene, until her own death in 1893.

Scope and Content

Journals, family letters, and business correspondence relating to the Bradleys' missionary work in Siam are significant in their revelation of information about the lives of missionary families in the early and mid-19th century. Emilie Royce Bradley's papers figure prominently in the collection. Two of her diaries, covering the years 1831-1833 and 1834-1836, discuss her spiritual struggles, the journey to Siam, and her experiences there. Another journal-style letter of 1834 describes the voyage to Siam. A notebook contains a record of letters Emilie wrote and notes on their content—primarily major events, births, and deaths. A diary, covering the years 1840 and 1842, contains information and advice to be passed on to her daughters in the event that she did not survive an illness, as well as a description of the illness and death of her baby daughter, Harriet. Verses and thoughts written for Emilie in other hands fill another undated notebook. Two sketches of the life of Emilie R. Bradley by her husband are included in his journal and in his letter to the Rev. Lyman B. Peet, both dated August 1845.

Correspondence includes the letters of Sophia Bradley MacGilvary (daughter of Emilie and Dan Bradley) to her parents and sisters, 1865-1888, and business and family correspondence of the Bradley family, 1832-1873. A letters and an index are provided. Correspondents include Emilie R. Bradley, Sarah J. (Mrs. Lewis) Tappan, Dan Bradley, Mrs. Stephen Johnson (another Siam missionary), Mary Royce of Clinton New other female members of the Royce and Blachly families, Sophia Cobb of Brooklyn, New York, Maria C. Robinson of Seward Seminary in Rochester, New York, Sophia Bradley, George Whipple, and Anna Leonowens (a missionary covered in Bangkok and author of The English Governess at the Siamese Court). Among subjects covered in the letters are the voyage to Siam; the life and work of missionary women in Singapore and Bangkok; Emilie R. Bradley's illness and childbearing; the health of the missionaries' children; Dan Bradley's romance with his cousin Jane Bradley (Shephard) before his first marriage, and their later friendship (her letters are missing); the history of the Royce Family of Clinton, New York, and of Hamilton College; news of family and home; abolitionism; news of the Finneys; religious issues; the Bradleys' doctrinal disagreements with the ABCFM; and Dan Bradley's quest for a second wife. In addition to the correspondence, Notices of the Protestant Missions to Siam, 1827-1846, contain information on the activities of the missionary women.

Biographical Note

Professor of Biology Anna Ruth Brummett (1924-1985) served on the Oberlin faculty for 24 years. A native of Fort Smith, Arkansas, Brummett received her undergraduate education and the master's degree at the University of Arkansas. After earning the Ph. D. degree from Bryn Mawr College in 1953, she taught biology at Carleton College in Minnesota. She joined the Oberlin faculty in 1961. While a professor at Oberlin, Brummett seved as associate dean of the College for the academic year 1967-68, and as chairperson of the biology department from 1974 to 1981 and 1982 to 1983. Cytology, light electron microscopy, human embryology, and developmental neuroanatomy were her primary areas of study. Her contribution to the scientific community was her extensive research on the embryology of bony fish.

During her years at Oberlin Brummett was a source of support to her woman students and colleagues as well as a leader in dialogues on women's issues. In 1967 she was chosen to chair the Ad Hoc Committee on the Status of Women. The committee's reccomendations to improve the status of women students, faculty members, and administrators resulted in the establishment of a standing committee to further those goals and to develop a women's studies program.

Scope and Content

The papers consist of correspondence, notes, memoranda, questionnaires, evaluations, reports, speeches, and minutes—mainly dealing with matters related to Oberlin College and to the various committees on which Professor Brummett served. Subjects, committees, and organizations covered include the Committee on the Status of Women, 1967-1983; the Ad Hoc Committee on Grading, 1969-1970, theAdmissiones Committee, 1984-85; the General Faculty PlanningCommittee, 1977-1980, 1981-1983; the Long-Range Planning Committee, 1977; the College Faculty Council, 1974-1985; women in science, 1975-1979; the African-American community and Student Development Program, 1972-1975; AAUW Fellowships, 1975-1983; the library budget, 1972-1982; winter term, 1969-1985; and Phi Beta Kappa, 1973-1979, among others. A small amount of personal correspondence, 1963-1985, includes letters to Brummett from some of her former students.

Biographical Note

Ellsworth C. Carlson (b. 1917, A.B., 1939) was an Oberlin history professor and College administrator (1950-1981), director of the East Asian studies program (1965-1970), and a Shansi Memorial Association trustee (1953-1971 and 1975-1982). Carlson's administrative posts included those of provost (1969-1975) and acting president (1969-1970 and 1974-75) When he first graduated from Oberlin, he served as an Oberlin Shansi Memorial Association representative in China (1939-1943). He was chairman of the history department from 1961 to 1966. The Oberlin News-Tribune named him "Oberlinian of the Year" in 1974.

Scope and Content

The correspondence, minutes, reports, and printed matter in the collection all deal with OSMA affairs. Reports from returned representatives and some letters from representatives in the field cover the years 1956-1981. [See Carlson, Oberlin in Asia, for a list of representatives, half of whom were women.] Correspondence with Margaret H. ("Peg") Leonard, OSMA's executive secretary from 1943 to 1981, covers the years 1953 to 1981. Leonard's letters discuss members and business of the board, news about the representatives, and concerns of the program. Her reports as executive secretary to the trustees, 1959-1981, are also included. A few letters to OSMA trustee and Dean of Women Florence Mary Fitch, 1953-1958, and information regarding the Florence Fitch Memorial Fund for Shansi reveal her important contributions to that organization. Printed matter about Lady Doak College for women in Madurai, c. 1958, is also included. Throughout the correspondence are scattered references to Florence ("Bobbie") Dunn Carlson (A.B. 1940), Ellsworth Carlson's wife.

Biographical Note

Tirza Benton Vaill (d. 1922) married Oberlin businessman Henry G. Carpenter (1823-1892} in 1871. Both their daughters attended Oberlin College—Elizabeth (1877-1939) received the A.B. degree in 1900, and Alice (d. 1968) studied in the Conservatory and the art department from 1900 to 1908. Melissa Smith, whose papers also are included here, owned a cheese factory in Parkman, Ohio, in the 1890s.

Scope and Content

The collection consists mostly of letters of the Carpenter, Vaill, and Smith families, as well as a few miscellaneous letters of other families and some business papers. Among the 50 letters received by the members of the Carpenter family and dating from 1880 to 1906 are five letters (1900-1903) from Alice's male acquaintances, including her future husband White Sutton; two letters (1886-1888) from cousin Annie E. Vaill to Fred V. Carpenter, son of Tirza and Henry, and several wedding invitations. In addition, the file contains some 30 letters dating from 1887 to 1904 written to Elizabeth Carpenter by her beau Edward L. Hutcher; these focus primarily on his recreational activities and his studies in Cleveland. Eight additional letters dating from 1904 to 1906 are from her friend, Harry G. Howard. Miscellaneous items (1837-1882) relating to Tirza Benton Vaill include a few letters to her from family members. Smith family letters, dating from 1848 to 1907, are mostly to Melissa Smith from her sisters and other female relatives; they frequently discuss illnesses in the family, community support networks, and work. Letters are postmarked from Cleveland, Burton, and Nottingham, Ohio, and Yuba City, California. Griffith family papers include a letter dated 1861 from Eleanor Griffith to her aunt describing a diphtheria epidemic, plus an inventory of her estate compiled after her death in 1864.

Biographical Note

Miriam Locke (1878-1928), who studied in Oberlin's literary course and in the Conservatory from 1899 to 1903, married Paul Leaton Corbin (1875-1936, B. D. 1903) in 1904. Soon afterwards they departed for China to reestablish the Oberlin Mission in Shansi, which had been destroyed in the Boxer Rebellion in 1900. Although they were commissioned by the ABCFM to serve until 1932, Miriam Locke Corbin died four years before her commission ended. One of the major results of their work was the establishment of the Oberlin Memorial Schools in Shansi.

Scope and Content

The collection of circular letters, reports, minutes, and printed matter contains information by and about women missionaries in China, 1904-1936. Five folders of circular letters from missionaries, 1908-1935, contain many letters by women discussing subjects such as girls' and women's schools, various universities, interactions with Chinese women, the flood at Tianjin, health care, and political events in China. Quite a number of the letters were sent from the Shaowu Mission in Fukien, while others are from various missions in China and Korea. There are five large boxes of miscellaneous printed and duplicated material dealing with China, Korea, and Japan, and missionary activities in those countries.

Biographical Note

Carolyn Corwin '71 was assistant to the solicitor general at the U.S. Department of Justice as of 1986.

Scope and Content

Carolyn Corwin's 75-page study, "Oberlin College Students and the Race Issue in the 1950's," was completed in 1971 for Geoffrey Blodgett's history seminar. The paper includes a bibliography and sample of her questionnaire. The questionnaires, completed by over 150 former students and faculty and staff members, are restricted. Also included is an article titled "the Race Issue at Oberlin in the 1950's" from the Oberlin Alumni Magazine (Sept.-Oct. 1972), adapted from Corwin's paper.

Biographical Note

Mary Emily Taylor (1869-1957) received the Ph.B. degree from Oberlin in 1890. She held a teaching fellowship in French during her postgraduate studies at Oberlin in 1890-91, and she tutored in mathematics in 1891-92. She married Kirke I. Cowdery, also a French instructor, in 1892. Though she did not finish her master's degree until 1913, she continued to teach and tutor in the Oberlin Academy from 1899 to 1924. She was assistant professor of French in the College from 1924 to 1935, after which she was granted emeritus status.

Scope and Content

The records consist entirely of poems, songs, and prose in French (mostly typescript and mimeo), which probably served as class material for the Cowderys. The papers are undated.

Biographical Note

Betsy Mix Cowles (1810-1876) was an educator, abolitionist and women's rights activist in the Western Reserve, a part of Northeastern Ohio settled by inhabitants from New England and New York. She grew up in Austinburg, Ohio, where her father was a minister and where she began her teaching career at age 17. When she was 28 she entered the Ladies Course at Oberlin, graduating in 1840 with the first class of women to read graduation essays in a private ceremony the night before the men's Commencement. As an educator, she not only taught, but also served as an administrator (one of the first women to do so) and helped establish a number of' public schools and normal schools in the Ohio towns of Austinburg, Massillon, Canton, Hopedale, and Painesville, as well as in Bloomington Illinois. During the early 1830s, Cowles advanced the cause of the "infant school" movement, advocating the creation of programs to instruct the very young in correct conduct and in the three R's.

In addition to her professional career, Cowles was an activist in the antislavery and women's rights movements. By 1835 she was the leader of the Female Anti-Slavery Society of Ashtabula County and a well-known figure in Ohio abolitionist circles. Her activities included singing abolitionist ballads with her brother and sister as the "Cowles Family Singers," public speaking, and writing for the Garrisonian Anti-Slavery Bugle of Salem, Ohio. As a women's rights activist, Cowles presided over the first Ohio Women's Convention, held in Salem in 1850. At the Akron Woman's Rights Convention in ] 851 she presented a report on the inequalities in men's and women's wages. A year later, she became a member of the executive committee Lithe newly created Ohio Woman's Rights Association

Scope and Content

The collection primarily consists of copies of Betsy Cowles' correspondence, 1835-1868, from or related to Oberlin. The originals are deposited in the archives at Kent State University. Most letters are from members of the Cowles family or from friends and acquaintances, though two are written by Betsy herself: A calendar of' the complete collection of' the Betsy Mix Cowles papers at Kent State is available. Copies of biographical sketches of Cowles, 1937 and 1981, also are included.

Biographical Note

The Cowles family, one of the prominent early Oberlin families, came to the College in 1835. Married in 1830, both Henry and Alice were originally from Norfolk, South End, Connecticut. Henry Cowles (1803-1881) was a professor of theology and Old Testament from 1835 to 1848 and editor of the Oberlin Evangelist from 1848 to 1862. Alice Welch Cowles (1804-1843), a leader of the moral-reform movement in Oberlin, was principal of the ladies Department from 1836 until her death of pulmonary consumption. She left behind six children: Helen, Henry, John, Sarah, Mary, and Charles. Sarah Cowles (1838-1912, A.B. 1859) went to Janesville, Wisconsin, in 1861, where she taught for 14 years and was superintendent for 16 years at the State School for the Blind. She married Thomas H. Little in 1S62 and was widowed in 1875.

Scope and Content

The collection, consisting of correspondence and essays written by women in the family, spans the second two-thirds of the 19th century. There are a few early letters (1824-1857) to and from female members of the family, including Alice, Helen, Sarah, and Henry's sister Maria. Sarah Cowles Little's considerable correspondence with her father, other family members, friends, and colleagues (1867-1908) reports on both her professional life at the school for the blind and her personal life. Essays include "Wisconsin as a Home Missionary Field," probably by Sarah Cowles Little, c. 1882; an account by Mary Holten of her family's trip from Vermont to Illinois in 1835; a group of essays on world history by Mary Cowles, from the 1850s; and a 36-page diary dealing with the death of Mary Edmondson (d. 1853), a former slave who studied at Oberlin, by her friend and roommate (unnamed). Letters from Harriet Beecher Stowe regarding the education, room, and board of Mary and Emily Edmondson, 1852-53, are included among genera] correspondence.

Biographical Note

Mary Elizabeth Rodhouse (1882-1970), a free-lance writer and librarian born in Wellington, Ohio, graduated from Oberlin College in 1905. She began work in library science at Western Reserve University and worked as a librarian in a wide variety of institutions and locations. Among them were the Schauffler Missionary Training School and Adelbert College in Cleveland and libraries at a number of military and veterans' hospitals in Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and other states, as well as at newspapers and the Veterans Administration. After her marriage in 1921 to Major Harold Creglow, the couple was stationed at numerous army posts.

Scope and Content

Mary Elizabeth Rodhouse Creglow's undated writings make up the bulk of the collection, along with some correspondence and religious school lessons. Her numerous poems, stories, and plays for both children and adults are mostly moralistic or religious, though a few are adventures or detective stories. A 20-page essay titled "Optimism: Is It Rational?" and three articles from the 1930s on VA hospital libraries are also included in the collection. Some correspondence exists on her literary work, 1909-1963. Undated Sunday school lessons she prepared comprise the remaining files.

Biographical Note

Olive Bell Daniels (1891-1984) received the A.B. degree from Oberlin College in 1913. After graduation, she spent four years as a teacher in Minnesota before marrying Farrington Daniels, a professor of physical chemistry at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Among other creative projects, Olive Bell Daniels wrote a volume of reminiscences titled "Minnetonka Mornings and Other Memories" (114 pp., 1981). This volume covers the first 26 years of her life and includes a chapter on her experiences as a student at Oberlin College.

Scope and Content

The papers consist of College memorabilia, including a memory book, photographs, programs, an expense record (1909-1913), essays, letters, and a bound copy of "Minnetonka Mornings." Copies of letters written by Mrs. Daniels to family members, 1960-61, describe her travels in Europe and Asia with her husband.

Biographical Note

Helen Mary Kellogg (Dart Leonard) (1825-1916) was the mother of artist Francis Henry Dart (1845-1935), who was enrolled in the Oberlin Academy from 1864 to 1868. Born in Worthington, Massachusetts, Helen Kellogg studied as a teenager at Twinsburg Academy in Ohio. Her marriage to Duranson Dart resulted in repeated moves throughout five states. Partly because Helen was unhappy with the constant moves, she and her husband separated sometime after 1867. She married Harvey Leonard around 1874.

Scope and Content

Helen Leonard's nine-page autobiography, 1904, and two pages of Francis Dart's undated "Recollections" describe her life. Subjects covered in her autobiography include her trip west as a child with her family to Brecksville, Ohio; her critique of the "women's rights" fervor; her separation from her husband; the hardships and sacrifices she underwent for her family; and the effect of the Civil War on her life.

Biographical Note

Lydia Lord Davis (1867-1952) was born in Ravenna, Ohio, in 1889 and married Francis W. Davis (d. 1900, B.D., 1889). She accompanied her husband to China as a missionary under the sponsorship of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) in 1889, where she founded the first two girls' schools in Shansi province. After her husbands death in the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, Lydia fjord Davis in 1903 became a fund-raiser in the Oberlin area for Congregational mission work. From 1929 to 1941 she was executive secretary of the Oberlin Shansi Memorial Association, a group that supported educational work in Asia. She made a return trip to China in 1924. Between 1927 and 1932 she was assistant secretary of the Home Department of the ABCFM.

Scope and Content

This collection, largely correspondence, contains information on female missionaries in China and on circumstances surrounding the murder of the Shansi missionaries during the Boxer Rebellion. In addition to the hundreds of letters from Davis to her parents in Ohio, 1889-1898, and her diaries (2 vols.),1889-1899, there are approximately 125 letters from other late-19th century women missionaries in China, including Jennie Pond Atwater, Rowena Bird, Jennie Rowland Clapp, Mary Fisher Goldsbury, Vesta Greer, Anna C. Merritt, Mary Louise Partridge, Eva Jane Price, Tinnie D'Etta Hewett Thompson, Myrtie H. Wagner, Maggie Whitaker, Emily Whitchurch, and Alice Moon Williams. These letters illuminate the lifestyles of these female missionaries Davis' own letters describe the running of a missionary household and her interest in the education of girls. In a set of letters between Lydia Ford and Francis Davis before their marriage, June-July 1889, the barely acquainted fiancees discuss their moral, spiritual, and intellectual compatibility, as well as their views on marriage. Also included are letters from Davis' parents, Eleazer and Mary Lewis Lord, 1889-1896, reporting on news at home;letters received regarding her husband's death, 1900-1904; correspondence regarding her work for the ABCFM, Congregational missions, and the Oberlin Shansi Memorial Association, 1920-1941; correspondence between Lydia and Francis Davis, 1898-1900; letters from members of the Leavitt Street Congregational Church in Chicago, sponsors of Lydia and Francis Davis' missionary work for a year, 1900-1904; and letters from Judson Smith of the ABCFM, 1899-1905, and from the United States Department of State, 1900-1909, regarding the murder of the missionaries in Shansi and the subsequent indemnity awarded to the surviving families. A typescript copy of "Letters to My Grandchildren: The Story of Our Family," by Lydia Lord Davis, 1944, recounts family history, the period in China, and her work and friendships upon returning to the United States.

Biographical Note

Frances T. Densmore (1867-1957) came to Oberlin from Red wing Minnesota and spent l884 to 1886 as a student in the Conservatory of Music. Over the following 15 years she studied and taught music in various places. In 1893, her interest in American Indian music led her to a new career as one of the most outstanding ethnomusicologists of her era. With the support of the Bureau of American Ethnology at the Smithsonian Institution, she made wax recordings of nearly 2,500 American Indian songs, transcribed them, and lectured and wrote about the music. In 1924, she was awarded an honorary A.M. degree by Oberlin College.

Scope and Content

The papers consist mainly of letters written, notes taken, and sketches drawn by Frances Densmore while she was a student at Oberlin. The letters, 1884-1886, deal with such topics as her life in a women's dormitory her teachers and her music lessons (mainly organ), recitals and other programs attended, music studied, and rules for students. She also tells of the fire at Second Ladies Hall in 1886. Among individuals discussed are faculty members Adelia A. Field Johnston, Celestia Wattles (1849-1933), Grace Fairchild (1857-1893), and Elizabeth Russell Lord. Included in her notebooks are notes on art lectures by Mrs. Johnston, 1885, and exercises in harmony, 1884-1886. Densmore's sketches include the layout of Oberlin buildings, her living arrangements, persons, and flowers. There are a few notes, essays, and programs from her post-Oberlin years, 1886-1904.

Historical Note

This organization of house directors was begun in 1904 as the Matrons' Association. By 1906 it was known as the Association of Heads of Residences and Dining Halls, and in 1938 the present name was adopted. At the outset, its object was "to keep the matrons in touch with the college and with each other and to promote a greater uniformity of method and management." By 1963 its stated purpose was "to provide opportunities for social enjoyment, for professional development, and for discussion and direction of' the policies affecting the House Directors of' Oberlin College."

Scope and Content

The records consist mainly of minutes (2 vols.), 1904-1961; a cash book, 1938-1964; various versions of the organization's constitution, 1904-1963;and lists of matrons or house directors. Although much of the contents concern the social side of meetings and talks presented, the early minutes do refer to such matter s as arrangements for reserving rooms, times when girls could walk with boys, and rising food costs. Wartime matters dominate during the first half Lithe 1940s . In 1948 directors' salaries and hospitalization benefits are mentioned . Members included Carrie ("Mother") Lawrence, director of Talcott Hall, 1908-1935, and Alice Moon Williams, director of Lauderleigh, Metcalf; and Burroughs houses, 1912-c. 1930.

Biographical Note

Ruth Eastern (1886-1957) earned the A.B. degree in mathematics from Oberlin in 1910 and was assistant in the Office of the Secretary of the College from 1913 to 1946. When she was placed in a nursing home, Robert Brown was appointed her guardian.

Scope and Content

Papers relating to the guardianship, financial matters, death, and funeral of Ruth Easton make up this collection, 1952-1958.

Biographical Note

The Eddys, a fat thing family from western New York state, were among the early settlers of Grain County, Ohio. They settled in Camden Township in 1834.

Scope and Content

These are primarily legal and financial papers of the Eddy family Items of interest are a note dated l815 dealing with Ethel Bronson's purchase of the Eddy farm; a bill of Sale for household items, recipes for rheumatic drops and preserved cabbage; a letter from someone in Camden. g Ohio, relating the news (especially deaths) of a number of women there; a handwritten obituary of Hattie M. Allen Ritzenthaler (first wife of Phillip Ritzenthaler) from the Kipton Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry; letters to Annette Eddy Ritzenthaler (Phillip Ritzenthaler 's second wife), 1879-1887; two pages of notes for evaluating a female teacher; a 1905 letter to Miss Flossie Ritzenthaler (A.B. 1913, daughter of Annette and Phillip) describing a missionary social; copies of 16 postcards to Mrs. N.E. Lindquist, 1917-1919; pamphlets from the s Women's Christian Temperance Union; and a poem titled "A Visit to a Mother's Grave."

Biographical Note

Helen Estabrook '23 was secretary of the Order of the Pearls from 1928 until its demise. The Order of the Pearls was founded in 1923 by 35 senior-class women who lived in Talcott Hall; they wanted to keep in touch with each other and the College as alumnae and brides. Members of the order voted to disband the group in 1971.

Scope and Content

A scrapbook contains a constitution and information about the order and its members. Correspondence from the 1950s gives information al)out the group's gift of books to the Art Library.

Biographical Note

Florence Fitch (1875-1951), the daughter of Anna Haskell Fitch and the Rev. Frank Fitch, both members of the Oberlin Class of 1870, graduated from Oberlin College in 1897. She was one of the first women to receive the Ph.D. degree from the University of Berlin, where she studied philosophy from 1900 to 1903. Fitch was Oberlin's dean of women from 1904 to l920 and a professor of philosophy and biblical literature from 1904 to 1940. Before her retirement, she also was chairperson of the religion department. As dean, she directed the founding of the Women's League, a student organization that served as an umbrella for all other student organizations for women; it also represented women students in major decisions about student life and regulated and enforced proper behavior for women students . Other activities included service as a trustee of the Oberlin Shansi Memorial Association, president of the Phyllis Wheatly Community Center, which was dedicated to fostering interracial cooperation in Oberlin, and president (national and state) of the Association of Biblical lnstructors.

After her retirement, Florence Fitch was known for her nine children's books on world religions, including the best-seller: One God: The Ways We Worship Him (1944). She also was a world traveller, always studying the religions and customs of the places she visited. Countries she visited included China, Japan, Siam (Thailand), Ceylon (Sri Lanka), lndia, Burma, Palestine, Egypt, Greece, Romania, and Germany.

Scope and Content

The papers consist of' letters, diaries, manuscripts, notes, lectures, photographs, postcards, and clippings. Of significance are Florence's weekly letters to her family spanning her teenage years through her entire adult life. Among the subjects covered during her period as a student at Oberlin are the social dynamics of the College community, problems with young men, her friendships, lectures, recitations, social events, concerts, mock political conventions and congresses, the YWCA (of which Florence was president her senior year), students in Talcott and Baldwin halls, and her clothing needs. People frequently mentioned are her sister Anna, Dean of Women Adelia A.F. Johnston, Mary Safford, and Elizabeth Russell Lord.

Anna Haskell Fitch, Florence's mother, accompanied her to Germany and stayed with her in Berlin during her first year of graduate study, 1900-01. Their letters and diaries, 1900-1903, report on their travels through Europe, new friendships, Florence's decision to study for a Ph.D. degree, her relationships with her professors, male attitudes toward women doing graduate work in Berlin, and her dissertation and final oral exams.

During her professional years at Oberlin, Fitch's letters discuss her students, colleagues, and friends, her work and friendship with President Henry Churchill King and his wife Julla her teaching, her social life, the residence halls and their staffs, her responsibilities, her troubles and successes with female students, the American Association of University Women, the Women's League, World War 1, conferences on education and deanship, her summers in New England, 1930-1932, and her return trip to Europe in 1926.

Documenting her tenure as dean and professor at Oberlin are manuscripts and notes, as well as lecture outlines for classes, conferences, and General Exercises (the monthly lectures by the dean for the women students on proper behavior, marriage, and other topics deemed appropriate for young ladies.)

Florence Fitch's retirement is also covered. Manuscripts, correspondence, and clippings, 1945-1951, document her authorship of children's books. In addition, letters (c. 1915-1947), account books (1926-27, 1936-37), photographs, postcards, and lectures describe her travels. Some information on the Oberlin Shansi Memorial Association is included, most notably a 1909 letter from Alice Moon Williams charting the early history of the organization.

Included in this collection are papers of Fitch's parents and earlier ancestors, with genealogies of both the Fitch and Haskell families. Letters to Fitch's great-grandmother Hannah McKowne Coleman, 1807-1820, discuss the concerns of early 19th-century women, such as child care, housework, entertaining, and marriage. The Civil War letters of Martin L. Fitch to his wife Eliza (Florence's grandparents) report on the family's financial status during the war. Letters to Frank Fitch (Florence's father) from his mother and other female relatives, 1856-1863, describe schools in the mid 1800s from the standpoint of students, teachers, and mothers of pupils. Letters from Anna Haskell (Florence's mother) to her parents, 1865-1873, document her student activities at Oberlin, such as participating in Musical Union, public reading, studying, working as a housekeeper, and planning her wedding. College essays by Anna Haskell are included. Letters and clippings that Florence Fitch received upon the deaths of both her parents trace their later lives.

Biographical Note

Robert S. Fletcher (1900-1959), an Oberlin graduate of 1920 who earned the Ph.D. degree from Harvard University in 1938, taught history at Oberlin College from 1927-1959. A History of Oberlin College: From Its Foundation through the Civil War (Oberlin College, 1943). written by Fletcher, is still regarded as the authoritative work on Oberlin College. Among Fletcher's other scholarly publications, including two other monographs, is "The First Coeds" (The American Scholar 7 [1938]: 78-93).

Scope and Content

This collection consists mainly of the papers Fletcher gathered in doing the research for A History of Oberlin College. Included are original documents, photostat and typescript copies of l historical documents, and Fletcher's correspondence (1927-1946) regarding Oberlin's early history.

Original documents include the following: letters from student Mary Chamberlin Chittenden (1874-1906, A.B. 1898) to Cousin Mary, 1890-91, regarding social life, Musical Union, and her studies; the diary of Mary Louise Cowles, n.d. (April-August 1854?); Reed-Thayer letters, largely to and from people from Indiana (seven folders), 1850s-1894, including letters from a female student at Oberlin College in the 1860s (perhaps Hattie M. Reed, prep. 1864-1866); papers of' Hannah Warner Huntington (A.B. 1845, A.M. 1848), 1840-1863, including letters to her family on religion, family matters, her studies at Oberlin, etc., and letters to Hannah from Martha Rawson Congdon (A.B. 1847, A.M. 1860) with Oberlin community news, including items on such notables as Lucy Stone, the Finneys, and other professors and preachers; a six-page manuscript dated 1923 by Mary S. Rice Whitney and titled "Oberlin Sixty-five Years Ago"; two letters by Delia Fenn describing room and board arrangements at Oberlin, 1835; Nancy Prudden's letters from Lockport, New York, and Oberlin, 1836-37, offering comments about Oberlin before and after her matriculation there, and a letter from her mother, Charity Prudden, describing Nancy's breakdown from extreme spiritual strivings; and miscellaneous letters, 1837-1946, including some from women discussing issues and individuals, such as temperance, antislavery, clothing an Oberlin College student, Charles G. Finney, L. Beecher, Professors Asa Mahan and Henry E. Peck, Oberlin and religion, a black college at Ambertsburg, Canada, commencement, monetarygifts to Oberlin College, and the Sheffield Institute.

The bulk of the collection is typescript or photostatic copies of letters, diaries, minutes, and other historical documents. (The originals either are deposited in other repositories or are now lost). Copies of documents pertinent to women's history include coverage of Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Emily P. Burke, Alice Welch Cowles Minerva Dayton Penfield Cowles, Abby Kelly Foster, Mary Louisa Cowles, Helen M. Cowles, Marianne Parker Dascomb, Julia Finney Monroe, Nancy Prudden, Delia Fenn, Lucy Stone, Hannah Warner, the Female Moral Reform Society of Elyria, the Ladies Literary Society, the Maternal Association of Oberlin, and the Oberlin Female Moral Reform Society. Topics covered include the antislavery movement, black education, coeducation, the Ladies Department, moral reform, teaching, temperance, and uses of coffee, tea, and tobacco. Daily life at Oberlin College—including specific information on student dress, room and board arrangements, regulations, religiosity, and male attitudes towards women—also is treated. Excerpts from periodicals that covered the female moral reform movement are also included.

Finally, Fletcher's correspondence regarding Oberlin history with past Oberlin students, faculty members, residents, and others connected with Oberlin is included; this correspondence covers the years 1928 to 1947. Correspondents include Alice Stone Blackwell, among others.

Biographical Note

Lois Chandler Gilbert (d.1969) and her husband, the Rev. Lewis Loder Gilbert (1898-1978),went to China in 1925 to teach in the college of Yali, Yale-in-China, at Changsha. Due to warfare they were evacuated to the United States in 1927. The Gilberts returned to China in 1929 and, except for a furlough in 1935-36, were stationed in Shantung as missionaries for the United Church of Christ until June 1941. Lewis Gilbert was a lecturer in Oberlin's Graduate School of Theology from 1954 to 1961.

Scope and Content

This collection consists of 16 spiral-bound volumes containing typescript copies of letters written by the Gilberts while they were in China. Lois and Lewis wrote separate letters to their respective parents. Her letters describe people she met (especially female missionaries and Chinese women), her work in schools and with the YWCA, and the social life of foreign missionaries. The originals and carbon copies are in the library of the Yale University Divinity School. This set was made by Jo Gilbert, second wife of Lewis.

Biographical Note

Amy J. Gittler '72 argued and won a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case in 1982 that ensures equal annuity payments for men and women in employer-sponsored retirement plans. Gittler, a lawyer at the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest, represented Arizona state employee Nathalie Norris in Arizona a Governing Committee for Tax Deferred Annuity and Deferred Compensation Plans v. Nathalie Norris, Supreme Court case number 82-52. Norris' case was endorsed by the National Organization for Women, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Women's Equity Action League, and the AFL-CIO.

Scope and Content

The collection consists of Gittler's brief, the official transcript of the proceedings before the U.S. Supreme Court, and a copy of the majority opinion of the court. A copy of an Oberlin Alumni Magazine article on the case and a letter from Nathalie Norris on behalf of the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest asking for contributions for that organization are also included.

Biographical Note

Elliot F. Grabill (1837-1912, A.B. 1865) and Anna Sutton Jenney (1839-1913, Lit. 1862) met as students at Oberlin before the Civil War and were married in 1865. Elliot Grabill joined the Ohio Volunteer Infantry to fight in the war. In 1866 he moved to Greenville, Michigan, to edit and publish the lndependent. Anna J. Grabill remained with her parents in Greenwich. Ohio, for several years before joining him there.

Scope and Content

One folder of letters written by Anna J. Grabill to Elliot F. Grabill, 1864-1868, while she was in Greenwich discusses their courtship and her desire to teach upon arriving m Greenville. Her frustrations over receiving less money than a man for teaching are documented. Another folder consists of her miscellaneous correspondence, 1862-1865 and n.d. Three of her essays, and her notes on mineralogy and trigonometry from Oberlin are contained in a single notebook, 1859-60. Another undated notebook holds poems collected (and possibly written) by Anna Grabill. Among letters received by Elliot Grabill, 1864-65, are several from his sisters, Cynthia and Mary, and from a friend named Lydia. His letters to his wife, Anna Jenney Grabill, 1863-1871 (23 folders), are concerned largely with the war.

Historical Note

The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), an organization for Union veterans of the Civil War, gave mutual aid to the members and assisted veterans' widows and orphans. The Woman's Relief Corps was the women's auxiliary to the GAR. Henry Lincoln Post #364 was organized on August 27, 1883; it merged with the local American Legion post in 1930.

Scope and Content

One notebook includes the accounts of the trustees of the Woman's Relief Corps, 1906-1910, and minutes of meetings, 1908. A volume titled "Personal War Sketches of the Members of Henry W. Lincoln Post No. 364, Oberlin" (c.1891-92) contains information about Ann W. Lincoln, mother of Henry Lincoln.

Biographical Note

Charles Martin Hall (1863-1914), chemist, manufacturer, and Oberlin College benefactor, was horn in the village of Thompson in Geauga County, Ohio. He was the son of the Rev. Heman Bassett Hall (1823-1885, A.B. 1847, B.D. 1850, A.M. 1866)and Sophronia H. Brooks Hall (d. 1885, Class of 1850, Lit. Course). He took his preparatory work in Oberlin High School, graduating at the end of what was then a three-year course, and supplemented this by one year in the Oberlin Academy. Hall received three degrees from Oberlin College—the A.B. in 1885, the A.M. in I893, and the honorary doctor of laws in 1910. He was a member of the Oberlin College hoard of trustees from I905 to 1914.

Encouraged by Frank Fanning Jewett (1844-1926), his college chemistry professor, Hall, working in an Oberlin woodshed, discovered the only commercially successful process of extracting aluminum from its ore (patent applied for, 1886; granted, 1889). When the Cowles Electric Smelting and Aluminum Company of Lockport New York, gave up the option on the patent, Hall obtained financial backing from the Mellons and other investors to form the Pittsburgh Reduction Company, located in Kensington, Pennsylvania. Cowles later brought suit against Hall, accusing him of stealing the process, hut the United States Circuit Court approved Hall's originality in an 1893 decision. (The process was independently discovered by Heroult in France, and it was patented there in February 1886.) Hall's technological achievement resulted in great reductions in the price of aluminum and brought the metal into general use. It also was the basis of his great commercial and financial success—the Pittsburgh Reduction Company was the forerunner of the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa). Hall shared his personal financial success with the College—he not only made gifts for endowment, but also for such specific purposes as the Finney Chapel organ (a joint gift with Mr. Frederic Norton Finney), the auditorium building fund ($600,000), and other projects of personal interest relating to the care of the campus and grounds. The total of the magnificent bequest from the Hall estate exceeded $10 million.

Scope and Content

The approximately 18,200 pages of material consist of personal correspondence, 1883-1914; business correspondence, 1886-1910; Hall patents, 1889-1918; papers relating to patent litigations, c. 1890s; typescripts and manuscripts relating to Hall's patents and lawsuits as well as business contracts, 1886-1930; and printed material. The 600 pages of personal correspondence, including 41 letters to his devoted sister Julia, are probably of the greatest significance and research value. These letters reflect on Hall's contributions and influence as an inventor, document the discovery and early development of aluminum as a commercially manufactured commodity, illustrate the complexity of patent litigations, and reveal Hall's relationships with his family, business associates, and friends. Although the letters show Hall's personality and agile mind, they do not reflect directly on his views of women or why he never married. Unfortunately, the collection does not contain Julia's letters to Charles Martin.

Biographical Note

Ada E. Hitchcock (1851-1892) earned the literary degree from Oberlin in 1872 and married her classmate Lyman B. Hall (1852-1918) in 1878. He was an Oberlin professor of Latin, Greek, and history from 1883 to 1918. After his first wife's death, Lyman Hall married Caroline I. Caldwell in 1899.

Scope and Content

Among the letters, journals, and writings are three folders of letters from Annie Mannington ( A.B. 1890)71886- 1894, discussing Ada Hall's surgery in ] 891, news of friends and family, and her travels to Europe; two folders of letters from Ada Hall during a trip to Germany, 188889, describing cultural events, social life, and travels; Lyman Hall's letters from the same trip discussing his wife's illness, health care in Germany, and the condition of women servants in Germany, letters from C. B. Martin in Germany, 1885-1893, including information on women workers and servants; letters to Lyman and Caroline Hall from various women, including Lyman's cousin Hattie and Julia C. King. Also included is a 24-page typescript of a "Sketch of the Life of John J. Shepherd" by his wife, Esther Raymond Shipherd(1797-1879). Lyman Hall's journals, 1884-1918, with a calendar, include a few entries on such topics as College affairs, temperance, the resignation of Dean of Women Adelia A.F. Johnston, and women's suffrage, and such people as Jane Addams, Kitty Fairchild, and Dean Alice Luce.

Biographical Note

Adelaide Hemingway (Truesdell; 1906-1974), Esther Jane Church (Rosenow; 1906-1985), and Everett ("Red") D. Hawkins (1906-1970), friends from the Class of 1928, all went to China as Oberlin Shansi Memorial Association (OSMA) representatives. OSMA representatives taught English and other subjects in Chinese schools and colleges. Adelaide Hemingway, born in Taigu of missionary parents, and Esther Church were the first two women OSMA representatives, serving from 1928 to 1930. Everett Hawkins taught in Taigu from 1927 to 1929. Adelaide Hemingway received the master's degree in English from Oberlin in 1933 and went on to become a public-school teacher in the Washington, D.C. area. Esther Church earned the S.B. degree from Simmons College in 1932, and she became a social worker.

Scope and Content

Hawkins' papers contain one folder of 17 letters written to him by Adelaide Hemingway from Taigu, 1929-1931. In her letters, Hemingway describes the landscape, people, culture, and art of China, her family travels, her social life and teaching, and the political situation in China. In her letters she frequently mentions Esther Church and the other representatives, and she occasionally discusses people back in Oberlin, such as Lydia Lord Davis (1867-1952), who was a Shansi missionary from 1889 to 1897 and the OSMA executive secretary from 1929 to 1941.

Biographical Note

Alta Harvey Eleiser (1877-1970) of Hamilton, Ohio, was the mother of Karl Florien Heiser (b. 1904, A.B. 1926). Educated at Cincinnati University from 1896 to 1898, she became a historian of Ohio and, beginning in 1934, a newspaper columnist for the Hamilton Daily Journal News. Among her publications are Quaker Lady (1941), Hamilton in the Making (1941), History of the Woods Family (coauthor, 1936), and a number of historical articles.

Scope and Content

Included in this collection of' personal correspondence are nine folders of letters written between 1929 and 1952 by Alta Heiser to Karl Florien, his wife, Jennie, and other family members. The letters reveal the intimate workings of the Heiser family, consisting of the parents, five sons, and their wives and children. Alta clearly expresses her opinions on raising a family; she also reports occasionally on her historical work in later letters. Copies of clippings of Alta's newspaper columns from 1946 are included among the letters.

Restrictions

Restricted until the year 2000, unless permission granted by Mr. or Mrs. K. F. Heiser.

Biographical Note

Dr. Hope Hibbard (1893-1988) earned the B.A. degree (1916) and the M.A. degree (1918) at the University of Missouri, the Ph.D. degree (1921) from Bryn Mawr College, and the D. es Sc. degree in zoology (1928) from the Sorbonne. She joined the Oberlin faculty in 1928 and retired at the rank of professor in 1961. In 1952 she was appointed the Adelia A. Field Johnston Professor of Zoology. She was chairperson of her department from 1954 to 1958 and was a trustee of the marine biology laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Hibbard's research topics included marine biology, invertebrate animals, and the structure of cells. She published papers based on her studies of the tissues and organs of limpets, earthworms, squid, and silkworms and on Golgi apparatus. In addition to her teaching and research, Hibbard was active in the American Association of University Women and became an honorary life member in 1987. She also was very active as a charter member of the Oberlin branch of the-League of Women Voters.

Scope and Content

This collection, which documents Hibbard's dedication to research and teaching in the first half of the 20th century, is divided into three series: correspondence, lectures and speeches, and surveys.

The correspondence series, 1913 (1915-1943) 1961, mainly covers her career and the teaching of science. Detailed information exists on her scholarships and fellowships, as well as on the salaries received by a female professor who held various academic positions. One letter dated 1941 discusses the effects of the World War II on her various European colleagues.

The four folders in the lectures and speeches series, (1927-1945) 1962, mainly address the subjects of science and women. Among the many papers written by Hibbard are the following: "AAUW," 1933; "Vocations for Women and How College Can Prepare Them," 1935; "Women in Research," 1937; "The Life of Oberlin Women Today," 1937; and "A Tribute to Mildred McAfee," n.d. There also are copies of numerous speeches on Hibbard's research.

During her tenure as chairperson of the zoology department, Hibbard distributed a newsletter to alumni of the department and the premedical program. The survey series consists of responses to Hibbard's letter and questionnaire, 1954-55. Approximately onethird of the 10 folders of questionnaires were completed by women. Information provided includes major, advanced degrees, current profession, professional affiliations, publications, and family information. Some alumni also wrote letters describing more fully their work, activities, families, and interest in Oberlin . About 30 of these letters were from women. Quite a few of them discuss the teaching of science in public schools.

Biographical Note

Frances Juliette Hosford (1853-1937)—College professor, administrator, and local historian—began her career as a teacher at Lake Erie College in Painesville, Ohio, and at high schools in Elyria and Cleveland. She then earned the bachelor's and master's degrees from Oberlin in 1891 and 1896, respectively. She became a tutor, instructor, and finally associate professor of Latin, first in the Oberlin Academy and then in the College. She simultaneously served as a member of the Women's Board of Managers (1892-1912) and as dean of academy women and assistant dean of college women (1911-1920). As a historian, she researched early Oberlin history for articles that appeared in the Oberlin Alumni Magazine and for her book, Father Shipherd's Magna Carta, A Century of Coeducation in Oberlin College (1937). Oberlin twice honored Hosford by conferring on her the degree of honorary doctor of letters (1931) and by awarding her the Distinguished Service Medal of the Alumni Association.

Scope and Content

This collection, which is organized as an alphabetical file, contains correspondence, including reminiscences, copies of manuscripts, and research materials. Individuals and subjects covered include Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Betsy Mix Cowles, Mary Hosford Fisher, Charles Grandison Finney, Marianne Parker Dascomb, the Amistad slave-ship case, antislavery, the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue, early Oberlin women, and Elmira and Wesleyan colleges. Statistics on the occupational and marriage patterns of Oberlin graduates, 1837-1926, are included in an undated paper by Louis D. Hartson. Among Hosford's correspondents were James T. Fairchild, W. G. Frost, Emma Monroe Fitch, W.B. Gerrish, Helen Keep, Julia Finney Monroe, Margaret Maltby, Edward S. Steele, Eloise Steele, and Florence M. Snell.

Biographical Note

Associate Professor of Physical Education Sara Louise Houston (1913-1973), a native of Pittsburgh, received the bachelor's degree in 1934 and the master's degree in 1935 from Wellesley College and the doctoral degree from Ohio State University in 1967. She taught physical education at Denison University from 1935 to 1950 and at Oberlin College from 1950 to 1973.

Scope and Content

Houston's papers consist mainly of material gathered for her doctoral dissertation, "A Phenomenological Study of Movement Behavior," and a few other unpublished papers. The research for her dissertation, which studied body-movement styles and personality, was conducted with 20 Oberlin women students. Very little correspondence is included.

Biographical Note

Gertrude F. Jacob (1908-1989) received the A.B. degree from Oberlin College in 1929 and the M.A. degree in philosophy from Ohio State University in 1930. She served the College in various capacities, most notably as secretary, recorder, registrar, and finally executive secretary for the Graduate School of Theology (GST) from 1944 to 1966. When the GST merged with Vanderbilt Divinity School in 1966, Jacob remained in Oberlin, where she continued her career as an administrative assistant in the Oberlin College Archives. She retired in 1975, but continued to serve the archives as a volunteer in research until she was hit by a truck crossing the main intersection of Oberlin. As a volunteer, she maintained contacts with many firmer faculty members and graduates of the GST, as well as with many other Oberlin people.

Scope and Content

The collections divided into two sections: general correspondence (mostly relating to the GST and Vanderbilt and covering primarily the years 1966 to 1974) and correspondence with Oberlin missionaries, 1939- 1982. There is some printed material among the correspondence . The letters from missionary women include correspondence from Margaret G. Hammaker in India, 1941-1962, and at Pilgrim Place retirement home for missionaries in Claremont, California, 1962-1975; Edith Husted in India, 1942- 1945, in Japan, 1945- 1967, and at Pilgrim Place, 1967-1975; Martha and Richard Lammers in India, 1954-1982; Miriam Rogers in India, 1947-1980; E. Loleta Wood in India, 1945-1972; and Alma Woodruff in Bulgaria and Turkey, 1939-1950. All the missionaries had some connection with Oberlin, mostly as students. Subjects of interest are the women's training school in Sholapur, India; Shinonama Girl's School in Matsuyama, Japan; political issues in India; Pilgrim Place retirement home; and female friendship (see the letters from Margaret Hammaker and Edith Husted).

Biographical Note

Adelia A. Field Johnston (1837- 1910), one of the more important figures of' late 19th-century Oberlin, received the literary degree from Oberlin in 1856. She was married in 1859 to James M. Johnston, but was widowed in 1862. Following teaching appointments in Tennessee and Ohio, she returned to Oberlin in 1870 to become principal of the Women's Department, on the condition she be allowed to teach. Johnston was the first ladies' principal—and indeed the first woman at Oberlin—to insist on and receive membership on the faculty. She served the College as ladies' principal/dean of women until 1900 and as professor of medieval history until 1907. Her courses in art history and architecture were very popular. One of her major contributions to the town of Oberlin was the organization of a the Oberlin Village Improvement Society, which built; parks and campaigned to keep the town clean.

Scope and Content

This collection contains miscellaneous papers of a business and legal nature dating primarily from the early 1900s; correspondence, 1896-1910; and a manuscript grade notebook 18631874. There are two copies of a privately published account of two women's experiences of the Civil War, written by Johnston and titled "Two Sides of a Shield: A Story of the Civil War" (1911). A notebook kept from 1863 to 1865, when she was principal and teacher at Kinsman Academy in Kinsman, Ohio, includes students' names and attendance and recitation records. Another 18 pages of the notebook cover rules for deportment of women students at Oberlin College and topics for General Exercises (the monthly lectures for women students given by the principal dean of' women), 1871-1874. Copies of her article "Oberlin College" (in The Education of American Girls, ed. Anna C. Brackett, 1874) and letters and newspaper clippings about Johnston are also included. Financial records and some letters regarding the Oberlin Village Improvement Society complete the collection.

Biographical Note

Mary Elizabeth ("Bessie") Johnston (1890-1982), a native of Sandusky, Ohio came to Oberlin with her family in 1908 after the death of her father. She completed Oberlin's public schools and then enrolled in Oberlin College, but was forced to leave the College in the second semester of her junior year (1912) due to lack of money. She taught at St. Augustine's College, a school for blacks in Raleigh, North Carolina, for 26 years. During that time she studied in summer sessions at Oberlin, Kent State University, and Shaw University. She received the A.B. degree from Oberlin in 1937 (although she prefers to be classed with the Class of 1913) and the M.A. degree in library science from Kent State in 1952. At odds with the director at St. Augustine's, she resigned from her position there in 1938 and moved to New Jersey. After several years of work in that state, she was hired as a teacher and eventually dean of women at a black industrial training school in Bordentown, 1946-1914. She traveled to England and Scotland in 1955 and then moved to Cleveland, where she was involved in the activities of' Karamu House (a community institution dedicated to bridging the gaps between racial and ethnic groups), the Episcopal Church, and the elderly community.

Scope and Content

These papers consist of scrapbooks containing photographs, clippings, programs, letters, notes, cards, invitations, brochures, and other similar materials that document Johnson's career, interests, and travels. Two files include letters from or about her mother, Mary Phillips Johnston. Two other folders contain letters and photographs from her niece, Pauline Johnston, whose education at Kent State was subsidized by Mary. Handwritten materials that Johnston used in her classes also are included in the collection.

Biographical Note

Mary Burwell (b. 1900), a 1923 Oberlin graduate in botany, was one of many students who participated in Prof. Lynds Jones' summer ecology trips. She later married Jones' son, George. George T. Jones (b. 1897), who received the A.B. degree in 1920 and the A.M. degree in 1923 from Oberlin, taught botany at his alma mater from 1924 to 1965, first as an instructor and then as professor.

Scope and Content

Among the diaries, letters, papers, and biographical and autobiographical writings are scattered women's history sources. A paper by Mary Burwell, written after the 1923 ecology trip, is titled "A Discussion of the Ecological Formations of Central and Western United States of Sea Life ." A log of the 1928 western trip kept by Clara (Mrs. Lynds) Jones is also included. Lynds and Clara Jones' account book, detailing household expenditures from their first year of marriage (1892-93), is preserved in typescript form, with an introduction by George T. Jones. Circular letters (1931-1951) from the Jones family, many written by Clara Jones, report family news. Another box contains letters from friends and former students, including women, 1935-1975. One folder of letters, dated 1839-1842, is from Mary Grant Burgess, who with her husband was a missionary to India. A biography of Lynds Jones written by George and George's own autobiography contain some information about women in the Jones family during the last quarter of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century.

Biographical Note

Elizabeth Kadelbach, of Berlin, Germany, was a guest in Oberlin during 1914-15. She had been teaching during the summer at the University of Wisconsin, but due to the sudden outbreak of the war in Europe, she was unable to return to Germany. Among her former students in Berlin were Arletta M. Abbott, who taught at Oberlin from 1893 to 1921 and was head of Oberlin's German department, and German Professor William E. Mosher, who taught at Oberlin from 1899 to 1919.

Scope and Content

Primary in this collection are the personal letters and postcards written to Elizabeth Kadelbach from Germany while she was in Oberlin, 1914-15. Almost all the letters are in German, and they mostly discuss events of World War I. Many of the postcard prints promote the German war effort.

Biographical Note

Lucy Fletcher Kellogg (1793-1891), a homemaker who lived in Massachusetts, New York, Louisiana, and Oberlin, was the mother of Mary Kellogg (1819-1890), one of the first four American women to enter a college course for a degree. Mary began the College Course at Oberlin in 1837, but was unable to finish because her family moved to Louisiana. She later returned to Oberlin to marry James Harris Fairchild (1817-1902), who was Oberlin's third president from 1866 to 1889.

Scope and Content

This collection, which consists of correspondence, notebooks, legal papers, and printed materials, provides information on the lives of Lucy Kellogg and her family as well on life the Louisiana cities of Minden and New Orleans from 1836 to 1851. Kellogg's account of her life is preserved in both manuscript and printed forms, 1879 and 1881. In addition to information on family life and changes of residence, Kellogg describes her youth in New England, where she produced textiles in her parent's home to support herself. Family letters among siblings, cousins, and aunts, 1836-1851, discuss devout Protestants' feelings of isolation in the apparently unchristian rural areas of' Louisiana, the education of children, and abolitionism. Lucy Kellogg's two notebooks contain copied poetry and diary entries from throughout her life. Two notebooks kept by Kate Birge, 1882 and n.d., contain pieces of poetry and some recipes. Some family legal papers and 19 Civil War letters written by George M. Kellogg are also included.

Biographical Note

Julia Turney, a Connecticut native, met and married Leonard King, a native of Rhode Island, when both were in Oswego County, New York. They then lived in the town of Mexico in Oswego County. Leonard King spent the years 1852 to 1854 in the gold fields of California. In 1855 he took his family to Huron County, Ohio, near New London where they later built a cheese factory.

Scope and Content

The papers consist of the letters Leonard and Julia wrote to each other while he was in California, 1852-1854, plus a few she wrote to him in 1859 when he went to the Rocky Mountains on another quest for gold. Julia's letters (four folders) express her concern for her husband and encourage him to live a Christian life, and they tell of family matters, local news, her financial affairs, and the management of the household. Leonard's letters tell of his work and his longing for his wife and two sons.

Biographical Note

Daniel C. Kinsey (1902-1970), a Gold Medal winner in track in the 1924 Olympic Games, received the B.S. degree in education from the University of Illinois in 1926 and the M.A. degree in physical education from Oberlin in 1935. From 1928 to 1959 he taught physical education and coached cross country, track and field, wrestling, swimming, and fencing at Oberlin. Kinsey's other activities included work with the Boy Scouts, the Society of Friends, the Oberlin Shansi Memorial Association (OSMA), and the YMCA. He also was the first chairperson of the Oberlin City Recreation Committee. Before retiring, he taught at Earlham College (1959-l961) and Delta College (1961-1967).

Scope and Content

This collection consists of the following series: minutes, correspondence, research notes, printed material, and athletic records. The records not only document Kinsey's career and activities, hut also provide information on the history of physical education at Oberlin. Notes for his thesis, "'the History of Physical Education in Oberlin College, 1833-1890," are undated, but probably are from the 1920s and 1930s. Included is information on the ladies gymnasium, 1873-1890, and its director, Dr. Delphine Hanna(1854-1941), who served from 1885 to 1920. A letter from Hanna to "her girls" describes her initial training in physical education, her early experience at Oberlin, and the Ladies Hall fire of 1885. Among the historical materials are notes from a conversation with Fannie Wright, 1933, a nongraduating student of the 1880s. Wright taught physical education with Hanna in 1888 and replaced her while she was on leave until 189().

The Department of Physical Education staff meeting notes, 1940- 1958, document both the women's and men's physical education and athletic programs. A newsletter and a 1954 alumnae directory report on department news and list names, addresses, and current activities of physical education alumnae from the classes of 1894 to 1954. Single documents include a paper by student Helen M. Foster titled "The Bacteriology of Milk" (n.d., post-1937) and the "Report of the Committee to Evaluate the Recreation Program of the Phyllis Wheatly Center" (1949). In Kinsey's lecture notes and printed matter on sex education for boys and men, 1905-1939, is descriptive and prescriptive material on male-female relationships and information on contraception, venereal disease, and sexual activity. Correspondences 19221970, includes a number of letters from women in behalf of organizations or institutions regarding recreation, sports, job recommendations, the American Friends Service Committee, and OSMA. Finally, there are several programs and publications from activities sponsored jointly by the YWCA and YMCA spanning the 1930s to 1950s.

Biographical Note

Ellen NicKenzie Lawson (b.1944) earned the B .A. degree from Swarthmore College, the M. A. T. degree from Wesleyan University, and the Ph.D. degree in American history from Case Western Reserve University. In the early 1970s she lobbied for the introduction of women's studies at Oberlin College. At one point she was an instructor in history, teaching a course surveying the history of 19th-century American women. By 1972 Lawson was an interim special consultant at the College, working in the effort to establish a program in women's studies. She al so was involved in the Oberlin community, sitting on the board of the Oberlin Early Childhood Center. In 1980, Ann Fuller and Ellen Lawson conducted a follow-up survey of 120 Oberlin faculty wives who were involved at the College in the early 1970s. A summary of this report, "The Faculty Spouse and the Women's Movement," appeared in the Observer in 1983.

Ellen NicKenzie Lawson's interests in Afro-American women's history led her to participate in the "Antebellum Black Coed and Women's History Project." Along with Marlene D. Merrill, she wrote The Three Sarahs: Documents of Antebellum Black College Women (1984). Lawson is now a free-lance writer and historical consultant in the Cleveland area.

Scope and Content

This collection is organized around Ellen N. Lawson's interest in Afro-American women's history and women's rights. The files contain research notes, clippings, correspondence, notes, and reports pertaining to women's studies courses, Professor of History Gerda Werner (b. 1920), the Oberlin Early Childhood Center, and the status of women and women's studies at Oberlin. Included in the files are articles and plays written by Ellen N. Lawson. The Lawson collection also contains interviews audiotaped in 1980 with Elberta Smith of the Early Childhood Center and in 1984 with retired Professor Hope Hibbard.

Historical Note

This collection of research notes, documents, papers, and published articles was gathered for the "Antebellum Black Coed Project and the Women's History Project" done between 1977 and 1984 by Ellen N. Lawson and Marlene D. Merrill, research associates of Oberlin College. They identified 152 black women who had attended the Oberlin Collegiate Institute, 1835-1850, and Oberlin College, 1850-1865, and researched their family backgrounds, Oberlin experiences, and later lives. Of this number, 56 were enrolled in the College, either in the literary/ladies course or in the classical course leading to the bachelor's degree. Twelve received the literary degree, and three received the A.B. degree. The research also resulted in the publication of a number of articles and a book titled The Three Sarahs: Documents of Antebellum Black College Women (Edwin Mellen Press, 1984).

Scope and Content

In this group of papers collected during the research project are 58 files of documents and notes on individual students or families. Of these, two noteworthy "firsts" were Lucy Ann Stanton (Day/Sessions), the first black woman to graduate from an American college (Lit. 1850); and Mary Jane Patterson, the first black woman to receive the A.B. degree (1862). The collection also includes material on such prominent women as Frances M. Jackson (Coppin),principal of the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia for 37 years and a leader in classical (college-preparatory) education; Sarah Jane Woodson, alleged to be the granddaughter of Thomas Jefferson; Rosetta Douglass (Sprague), daughter of Frederick Douglass; Emily and Mary Edmondson, sent to Oberlin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (file includes transcriptions of letters from Stowe); Sarah Margru Kinson (Green), the first African woman to attend college in the United States, who then returned to Africa as a missionary; Mahala McGuyire (Gray), a black American missionary to Africa; Caroline M. Wall (Langston) who married John Mercer Langston and became prominent in Washington circles; and Mary Church Terrell (who studied at Oberlin after 1865), founding member of the NAACP, suffragist, and the first black school-board member in Washington, D.C. There are extensive research notes on Sarah M. Kinson (Green).

Subjects covered include race relations at Oberlin, First Church in Oberlin (Congregational), black communities in Cincinnati and Cleveland, black women teachers of the American Missionary Association, female preparatory students, and black women and temperance. Several lists of black students at Oberlin are included. In addition to the personal papers of individuals, records exist for the American Missionary Association. Finally, there are copies of articles by others on topics related to black women and education and revisions of papers by Lawson and Merrill.

Biographical Note

Bertha M. Hopkins (1879-1944) received the master's degree from Oberlin in 1904 and directed the women's physical education department at Ohio State University from 1907 to 1908. She also taught summer sessions at New York University and Columbia University. In 1908 she married Dr. Fred E. Leonard (1866-1922, A.B. 1889, A.M. 1892), director of Oberlin College's men's gymnasium. She taught women's physical education at Oberlin from 1925 to 1937. In addition she supervised physical education for girls at Oberlin High School and taught a teacher-training course.

Scope and Content

Papers include four folders of letters from Bertha M. Leonard to Fred Leonard, 1912-1920, and 12 folders of personal and professional letters received by Bertha Hopkins (Leonard) from Fred Leonard and other individuals, 1908-1921. The lives of Fred Leonard's sisters, Kate and Ella, are documented in their childhood compositions, in Kate's diaries (6 vols., 1902-1931), and autograph book, and in postcards exchanged between the two sisters and brother. Letters dating from 1879 to 1890 from Fred and his brother, Arthur, to their mother, Mary Louise Raymond Leonard, are also in the file. One folder is devoted to Kate's friend, Katharine Wright Haskell (1874-1929, A.B. 1898), who was an Oberlin College trustee firm 1924 until her death in 1929. The file consists of obituaries; a short, handwritten biography by Kate Leonard, and newspaper clippings about Haskell and her brothers, Wilbur and Orville Wright. Fred Leonard's notes (23 pp.) on educator Catherine Beecher include information on her 1831 calisthenics course for young ladies. The file on Oberlin College's physical education program contains a history of men's and women's physical education at Oberlin, as well as information on the first two directors Lithe women's physical education program. Delphine Hanna, M.D. (1854-1941), a pioneer in physical education, directed the women's gym from 1885 to 1920 and was professor of' physical training/education from 1903 to 1920. Helen Finney Cochran, M.D. (1885-1923) became professor of physical education in 1916; she became director of the gym in 1920, when Hanna retired, and held that position until her death in 1923.

Biographical Note

Betty Lind (b. 1913), a professional dancer, teacher, and choreographer, was a professor of dance in Oberlin's physical education department from 1964 to 1978. She began her career as a dancer in 1932 and studied with such dance performers as Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, Hanya Holm, Jose Limon, and Merce Cunningham. Lind received her college degrees later in life—the A. B . degree from Brooklyn College in 1963 and the M.A. degree from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1966. Before coming to Oberlin, she taught at Douglas College, the Pratt Institute, and the New York Academy of' Ballet. Lind was a choreographer, dancer, and teacher at Theater Dance, Inc., in New York, and served that organization as president and member of the board of directors for five years. She initiated the American College Dance Festival Association. In 1969-70, she conducted research comparing Western and Eastern approaches to dance theater, and in 1970-71 she studied developments in modern dance and new approaches to teaching dance at colleges and studios on the East Coast. She was a member of Actors Equity Association.

Scope and Content

The collection consists of papers relevant to Lind's study and teaching of dance at Oberlin College. Included is a detailed report of her research on dance theater in Hawaii, Hong Kong, Thailand, Java, Bali, Manila, Taiwan, and Japan; this work was conducted under an H. H. Powers Travel Grant during the summer of 1969. Her 1966 humanities series lecture, "Night Does Follow the Day," deals with the development of modern dance, and a 1967 lecture delivered to the Renaissance Society of America discusses the reconstruction of an Italian Renaissance dance suite. Proposals, reports, and other materials concerning the modern dance program at Oberlin College from 1966 to 1973 also are included.

Biographical Note

Alice and Elizabeth Little were granddaughters of Henry and Alice Welch Cowles, professor of theology and second principal of the Ladies Department, respectively. Alice Little (18651958), the primary subject of this collection, received the literary degree from Oberlin in 1888. After graduation, she taught for five years in a missionary school on Kusaie, in Micronesia. The maps she collected and the detailed notes she took on trips to the surrounding islands were later used by the United States Navy in World War II. Upon her return to the United States, Alice worked for seven years for the Woman's Board of Missions of the Interior (WBMI) in Chicago. In 1907 she moved back to Oberlin to live with her sister Elizabeth ("Bessie"), although she remained active in missionary work as treasurer and trustee of the WBMI. She also was a trustee of the Ohio Congregational Conference for nine years.

Elizabeth Little (1863- 1944) studied at Oberlin in the preparatory department in 188687 and in the Conservatory in 1898-99. Aside from some letters to "Bessie," this collection contains no other information on her.

Sarah Cowles Little (1838-1912, A.B. 1859), their mother, was a teacher and then superintendent of the State School for the Blind in Janesville, Wisconsin, from 1861 to 1891. She married Thomas H. Little there in 1862, but was widowed in 1875. Upon returning to Oberlin, she supported the establishment of the Tank Home for missionary children.

In addition to the papers of the Little family, the file includes correspondence of the Dart Leonard family. Like Alice Little, Clara Miller Dart (Mt. Holyoke 1904) and Sidney Dart (A B 1910) were missionaries, devoting 25 years to working in Angola and other parts of Africa, 1911-1936. Sidney's parents, Francis H. Dart and Mary T. Leonard Dart, attended Oberlin in the 1860s and 1870s but did not graduate.

Scope and Content

The Little collection, which is mostly correspondence, contains several personal letters to Sarah, Alice, and Bessie Little (some regarding the Tank Home), letters from missionaries around the world, and four files of letters written to Alice Little regarding the 50-year reunion of the Class of 1888. The last set of letters contains a wealth of information on the activities of members of that class and their families since their graduation. Among the miscellaneous items is a manuscript of Sarah C. Little's 1883 essay, "Oberlin and the Education of Women," (printed in Oberlin Jubilee 1833-1883, pp. 146- 158); an article by Sarah Little about Elizabeth Russell Lord from the Oberlin Alumni Magazine; printed matter from various women's and missionary organizations, including the Women's National Sabbath Alliance; notes from lectures by Parker Cleveland at Bowdoin College, 1853; and a coverless volume on Christian influence in Micronesia titled The Old and the New in Micronesia (Chicago: WBMI, 1907), by Florence A. Fensham and Beulah Logan Tuthill.

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