Showing 1 - 10 of 48 Records
Genieve Lamson Diary, 1908
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- Creator: Lamson, Genieve, 1887-1966.
- Date Created: 1908
- Description: Genieve Amelia Lamson was born in Randolph, Vt. to Whitcomb Elisha and Hannah Amelia (Philbrick) Lamson on April 29, 1887. Lamson graduated from Randolph High School in 1905. After graduation, she taught for four terms in Vermont district schools and for five years (until 1915) in high schools in Roselle Park, NJ and Springfield, Mass. Lamson completed her undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of Chicago, receiving her B.S. degree in 1920 and an M.S. in geography in 1922. She accepted a professorship at Vassar College in 1922 and taught in the geography department until her retirement in 1952. Lamson traveled extensively during her 20s. In 1909, she visited family and friends in the Pacific Northwest and went on several sightseeing excursions in California, Oregon, and Washington. She and her sister Gail traveled through Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy in 1912, and the pair took a trip to Bermuda in 1915. Lamson was an active suffragist and was appointed by the Vermont Suffragist Association to chair the suffragist convention in Orange County in 1919. Lamson remained an active member of her community throughout her life, donating her time and money to a number of social and professional organizations. She was also a historian and choir member of Bethany Congregational Church, a sponsor of Vermont Symphony Orchestra concerts in Randolph, a member of the Randolph Woman’s Club, and a member of the Randolph Garden Club. Lamson died on September 22, 1966. Topics in Lamson’s diaries include teaching (as well as the process for becoming a certified teacher in Vermont circa 1910), major cities of the West Coast, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle; turn-of-the-century fashion and home clothes-making, the sinking of the Titanic, turn-of-the-century slang, and the local history of Randolph, Vt.
- Parent Collections: Diaries
Caroline Crane Marsh Diary, January 1 - March 1, 1864
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- Creator: Marsh, Caroline Crane, 1816-1901.
- Date Created: 1864
- Description: Mounting political and military tensions between the major powers of Europe serve as the backdrop for this diary: the Second Schleswig War breaks out, four Italians are arrested in Paris for allegedly plotting to kill Napoleon III, and “war fever” whips the rest of Europe into a frenzy. George Perkins Marsh’s brother, Charles, arrives unexpectedly in Turin and settles in with the Marshes for an extended stay. Caroline Crane Marsh closely follows the decline and death of the Marchesa Doria and Barone Giovanni Plana, two of her earliest acquaintances in Italy. The Marshes attend public lectures with their friends, and Caroline Crane Marsh collects autographs from the lecturers and other famous Italians for the U.S. Sanitary Fairs. Topics in this diary include the Count of Cavour, death and funerary practices in Italy, etiquette, the theory of evolution, women and marriage in the nineteenth century, Catholicism in Italy, the royal family of Savoy, and nineteenth-century British authors, including Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Charles Lamb.
- Parent Collections: Caroline Crane Marsh Diaries, Vermont Diaries
Roswell Farnham Diary, 1848-1849
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- Creator: Farnham, Roswell, 1827-1903.
- Date Created: 1848-1849
- Description: Roswell Farnham was born in Boston, Massachusetts on July 23, 1827, the son of Roswell and Nancy Bixby Farnham. Farnham's family moved to Bradford, Vermont in 1840, and he received his education at Bradford Academy and the University of Vermont, from which he graduated in 1849. Married to Mary Elizabeth Johnson on December 25, 1849, Farnham taught school before gaining admittance to the Orange County bar in 1857. When the Civil War broke out, he entered the First Vermont Regiment with the Bradford Guards militia as a Second Lieutenant. Farnham served with distinction in both the First Vermont and the Twelfth Vermont, and left the Army in July of 1863 as a Lieutenant Colonel. Following the war, Farnham became general counsel for the Vermont Copper Company and continued to work as both lawyer and administrator of the VCC for the rest of his life. In addition, he held a number of local and state political offices culminating in his defeat of Democrat Edward J. Phelps for the governorship of Vermont in 1880. After completing a single popular term as governor, Farnham returned to his law practice. In 1889 he also became president of the newly-formed New England Company, a group of Northern investors interested in developing the coal and iron deposits of northwestern Georgia. The New England Company was never a success, and Farnham spent much of the last decade of the nineteenth century trying to save it and the VCC from bankruptcy. Badly injured in a fall in November 1898, Farnham recovered sufficiently to resume some of his work but never regained full health. Roswell Farnham died at his home in Bradford on January 5, 1903, at the age of seventy-five. Three of Farnham’s four children lived to adulthood: Charles Cyrus Farnham (1864–1937), Florence Mary Osgood (1866–1958), and William M. Farnham (1869–1927). His first child, Roswell Phelps Farnham Jr., died in infancy in 1861. Farnham was predeceased by a half-brother, Cyrus C. Farnham, in 1863. Topics in this diary include the curriculum, faculty, and student experience at UVM in the late 1840s; Burlington and neighboring towns in the late 1840s, UVM’s Lambda Iota fraternity, Zachary Taylor and the Whig Party, and teaching in Vermont and Canada in the mid-nineteenth century. Near the end of the diary are several essays written by Farnham during his senior year at UVM. Topics in these essays include religion, natural history, and King Lear.
- Parent Collections: Diaries
Chester Way Diary, 1919
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- Creator: Way, Chester Murray, 1897-1973.
- Date Created: 1919
- Description: Chester Murray Way was born on November 12, 1897 to Harry Abel and Helen (Phelps) Way. He attended Burlington High School and later enrolled at the University of Vermont, graduating in 1922 with a degree in economics. During his time at UVM, Way was a member of the Alpha Lambda chapter of the Kappa Sigma fraternity, the Burlington chapter of the YMCA, and the editorial board for The Vermont Cynic. He also took part in UVM’s Student Army Training Corps, completing part of his service during the 1918 influenza pandemic. After college, Way ran a farm and became involved in several Vermont businesses, including the Green Mountain Mutual Fire Insurance Co. in Montpelier, the Fli-Rite School of Aviation in Swanton, and his father’s business, the Porter Screen Company, in Burlington. In 1944, Way purchased an inn in Middlebury, Vt. and renamed it the Waybury Inn; the inn was later used as a location for exterior shots for the television show Newhart. Way and his wife, Marjorie Holbrook Scott (m. 1928) were living in Middlebury at the time of Way’s death on October 4, 1973. Topics in Way’s diaries include the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic, fraternities at the University of Vermont, Kake Walk, World War One and UVM’s SATC program, Vermont farm life, and male friendships and relationships in the early twentieth century.
- Parent Collections: Diaries
Mary Susan Davis Kelley Diary, 1883-1893
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- Creator: Kelley, Mary Susan Davis, 1866-1917.
- Date Created: 1883-1893
- Description: Mary Susan Davis was born on January 10, 1866 to Benjamin Webster and Susan Adelaide (Young) Davis in Fairlee, Vt. Davis grew up in a large household consisting of her parents, her three siblings (John, James, and Rosalene), and her uncle, David Young, who suffered from epilepsy and erratic behavior due to a traumatic brain injury. After she graduated from secondary school in 1884, Davis helped her mother at home and with taking care of the boarders who occasionally resided in their home; she also taught in local schools and occasionally performed housework and childcare for hire in other households in the community. Prior to her first marriage, Davis moved to Orange, Massachusetts, where she was eventually employed by shoe manufacturer Jay B. Reynolds as a skiver. Davis was married three times over the course of her life: her first marriage was to Fred Mason on October 25, 1888, her second to Fred Sheldon Pickett in 1897 (following her divorce from Mason in January of that year), and her third to Harry Kelley on April 16, 1906. Davis suffered from chronic health issues, especially heart and reproductive ailments, throughout her life and had at least one miscarriage as a result. Davis died in Fairlee on March 30, 1917. Topics in this diary include women’s health and other subjects relating to health and medicine; the experiences of working women circa 1890, turn-of-the-century courtship and marriages, and the local social and cultural history of Fairlee, Vermont.
- Parent Collections: Diaries
Mary Jean Simpson Diary, 1926
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- Creator: SimpsonMaryJean, 1888-1977.
- Date Created: 1926
- Description: Mary Jean accepts a job as a Bill Clerk for the United States Senate, and she and her mother make the move from Vermont to Washington D.C. in this Diary. Mentions of Senatorial legislation, visits from ambassadors, and national events such as the impeachment of federal judge George English are peppered throughout descriptions of her new job. Much of her diary includes descriptions of dinner parties with coworkers, politicians, family, and friends; visits to the movies, operas, theater, and live music; and shopping for new clothes, especially hats. Mary Jean and her mother also return to Vermont for several months; transit by train and automobile play a large role in her life in 1926. Topics include: 1920s US Senate legislation, Media: Movies, theater, opera, and music in the 20s, early 20th century transportation: trains and automobiles, Women’s fashion in the 1920s, Women’s Club Organizations, Political social life in early 20th century, Vermont and Northeastern Coastal geography, Presbyterian church life.
- Parent Collections: Diaries
Mary Jean Simpson Diary, 1938
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- Creator: SimpsonMaryJean, 1888-1977.
- Date Created: 1938
- Description: This diary discusses Mary Jean’s time as Dean of Women at UVM and getting involved in student and faculty life on campus. She goes to meetings and events at Southwick Hall, attends alumni events, and meets President Bailey. It also focuses on the health of her mother and Mary Jean’s friendship with Elspeth, her mother’s caretaker. Illness takes a center stage in this diary, as Mary Jean, her mother, Elspeth, and her brother John all deal with various sicknesses throughout the year. In the winter, Mary Jean details her experience with serums and intravenous iron supplements to combat illness. Lively descriptions of visits with family and friends and visits to church are emphasized during the various holidays throughout the year. Topics in this diary include transportation and automobile innovations, faculty and student life at UVM, health and medicine in the mid-20th century, weather patterns, and Vermont social life.
- Parent Collections: Diaries
Mary Jean Simpson Diary, 1933
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- Creator: SimpsonMaryJean, 1888-1977.
- Date Created: 1933
- Description: This diary records the end of Mary Jean’s time as Bill Clerk of the Senate including mentions of debates over prohibition, filibusters, and night sessions. The impactful deaths of President Calvin Coolidge and Senator Porter H. Dale (in office) are also recorded in this diary. In the later summer, after the close of Congress, she describes a significant amount of travel around Vermont to make speeches to various women’s groups. A December 13th entry notes Mary Jean’s appointment as Women’s Director under the Civil Works Authority (C.W.A.), a New Deal job creation program. The common topics of daily life including local Craftsbury news; church events; fun and entertainment activities like attending plays, movies, and speeches; housework and chores; the weather; preparing food; and spending time with family and friends are present. Topics of wider interest include American politics, women's groups’ meetings, illnesses and treatments, automobile travel, and financial records.
- Parent Collections: Diaries
Mandana White Goodenough Diary, 1844-1846, 1860-1861
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- Creator: Goodenough, Mandana White, 1826-1924.
- Date Created: 1844-1846\, 1860-1861
- Description: Mandana White was born on January 15, 1826 in Calais, Vt. to Jesse and Lovisa (Tucker) White. Between 1844 and 1845, she taught school in Marshfield and attended the Lebanon Liberal Institute in Lebanon, NH. She married Eli Goodenough in Calais on April 20, 1845, and the couple had four children that lived to adulthood: Myron Alonzo, Flora Gertrude (m. Whipple), Edward Tucker, and Charles Davis. The Goodenoughs lived and worked on a large farm in Hardwick. After her husband’s death in 1860, Goodenough sold the family farm and purchased a smaller one in Walden, where she raised her four children. By 1870, she and her daughter, Flora, had moved to Barre, where Goodenough’s parents then resided; Goodenough lived with them for a time before moving into the house next door. Goodenough made three trips to Oregon in the latter part of her life to visit her son Charles and daughter, Flora, who both lived in the state after 1873. She also moved several times in later life, beginning with her return to Walden by 1900. Around 1910, she moved to Plainfield, where she worked for a time for the Red Cross. In 1920, she moved to Hardwick to be closer to her sons, Myron and Edward. At the time of Goodenough’s death on April 21, 1924, she was living with her widowed daughter, Flora, in Hardwick. Topics in this diary include employment opportunities for women in the 1840s, courtship and marriage, illness and death, and religious beliefs and practices in mid-nineteenth-century Vermont.
- Parent Collections: Diaries
Mary Jean Simpson Diary, 1939
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- Creator: SimpsonMaryJean, 1888-1977.
- Date Created: 1939
- Description: In this diary Mary Jean spends the spring semester at UVM attending YWCA meetings, a Committee on the Worlds Fair, traveling to a Dean’s convention in Cleveland Ohio, visiting John in NYC, going to Phi Beta Kappa events, sorority luncheons, faculty meetings, and attending various student life events. Due to the busy nature of her life, some weeks in this diary are akin to a daily planner for Mary Jean. During the summer months, Mary Jean regularly goes to church, has dinner with friends, works on the Fletcher Farm, and occasionally goes out to see movies. Returning to work at UVM in the fall leaves her with a busy schedule involved in student social affairs and faculty business, once again attending regular meetings and conferences including the Ladies of Faculty, Phi Beta Kappa, and the YWCA. Ending out her year is a lively description of time spent with family around the Christmas holiday. Topics in this diary include student and faculty life at UVM, with a focus on Pan-Hellenic life, church and social life in Vermont, and brief mentions of locomotive transportation.
- Parent Collections: Diaries