Showing 11 - 20 of 48 Records
Mary Jean Simpson Diary, 1927
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- Creator: SimpsonMaryJean, 1888-1977.
- Date Created: 1927
- Description: This diary records Mary Jean’s continued work as a Bill Clerk of the Senate, helping to process the hundreds of bills passed in 1927. Mary Jean spends much of her free time going to social events, and often describes the church sermons she hears each Sunday. Mary Jean also takes a ten-day transcontinental trip through the Midwest with Senator Dale and his family after the close of Congress. Returning to Vermont for the summer and early fall, Mary Jean travels around speaking to Women’s groups, rotary clubs, attending various committee meetings, and going to town fairs. In the late fall, Mary jean returns to her work as a Bill Clerk in DC and goes to various movies, musicals, and dinners. The end of her diary is largely focused on the Great Vermont Flood of 1927 and the relief programs she is involved in aimed at supporting the state in its aftermath. The common topics of daily life include church events and sermons; entertainment activities like attending plays, movies, VT town fairs, dinner parties, and learning to golf; and spending time with family and friends. Topics of wider interest include American politics specifically, the Great Vermont Flood of 1927 and Charles Lindbergh’s Goodwill Tour; women's groups’ meetings, and automobile and train travel.
- Parent Collections: Diaries
Mary Jean Simpson Diary, 1942
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- Creator: SimpsonMaryJean, 1888-1977.
- Date Created: 1942
- Description: This diary most prominently features the death of Mary Jean’s mother in late February, a hugely significant figure in her life. Much of the diary discusses the loneliness that comes with the death of a parent, especially around the holiday seasons. Topics in this diary include family death, grief and faith, UVM student affairs, University requirements during World War II, and Women’s Groups. Throughout the year Mary Jean busies herself with women’s groups and student life at UVM, dealing with a student theft incident at Allen Hall, going to Delta Kappa Gamma and YWCA events, and attending meetings on Student Aid. In the absence of her mother, Mary Jean writes about spending time with her cousin Jean and Aunt Kate and expresses misery at the distance created between her and her brother, John. Peppered throughout emotional passages are mention of going to plays and concerts, attending dinners, and in one instance a Faculty Senate meeting with the War Council on student physical education requirements. Topics in this diary include family death, grief and faith, UVM student affairs, University requirements during World War II, and Women’s Groups.
- Parent Collections: Diaries
Mary Jean Simpson Diary, 1941
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- Creator: SimpsonMaryJean, 1888-1977.
- Date Created: 1941
- Description: This diary features Mary Jean’s time as Dean of Women at UVM and details her busy work life. Visits to New York and Maine, and travel across Vermont for conferences, club meetings, and funerals are common in this diary. Mary Jean describes the busyness of UVM summer school, the convocation for UVM’s 150th year, a social work conference in Brattleboro, and attending the Women’s Student Union Association Convention. She also details the death of her Aunt Harriet, her mother’s bout with the flu, and a general sense of weariness from her constant work and travel. A note in late December marks her relief at UVM closing for winter break. Topics in this diary include automobile transportation, Women’s groups, church life including funerals and weddings, UVM’s Sesquicentennial, Social Work, and Mary Jean’s family life.
- Parent Collections: 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
Caroline Crane Marsh Diary, April 8 - June 14, 1863
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- Creator: Marsh, Caroline Crane, 1816-1901.
- Date Created: 1863
- Description: The Marshes explore Piobesi Castle and its gardens in this diary. George Perkins Marsh commutes from the castle to Turin to attend to diplomatic business and meets for a second time with King Victor Emmanuel. Caroline Crane Marsh continues to receive updates on the latest battles in the American Civil War, as well as the rising tensions between England and the U.S., France’s interference in Mexican affairs, and the “doings” of Richard M. Blatchford and J.C. Hooker in Rome. Topics in this diary include funerary practices in Italy, Catholicism and religious celebrations in Italy, the everyday experiences of the Italian peasantry, Italian marital norms, the behavior and treatment of women in Italy versus the United States, Italian medical practices, Italian agriculture, relations between the elites of Naples and those of Savoy, Turin court life and etiquette, and life as an expatriate in Italy.
- Parent Collections: Caroline Crane Marsh Diaries, Vermont Diaries
Caroline Crane Marsh Diary, October 1 - December 31, 1861
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- Creator: Marsh, Caroline Crane, 1816-1901.
- Date Created: 1861
- Description: Political unrest across Europe, the Trent Affair, and accusations of French interference in Italian politics serve as the backdrop for the events in this diary. The Marshes continue to meet Italian elites and politicians, including the Duchess of Genoa, the Marchesa Doria, and Carlo Poerio, and befriend various diplomats and expatriates in Turin, including the Pulszkys, the Benedettis, and Mrs. Stanley. The Marshes travel to Florence to attend the National Exposition, and George Perkins Marsh takes part in two royal hunting excursions at Racconigi and Stupinigi. Topics in this diary include Rome, the Pope, and Catholicism; Victor Emmanuel, Giuseppe Garibaldi and Italian nationalism, the treatment of Garibaldian soldiers by the Italian government, rural industry and the everyday lives of Italian peasants, the behavior and manners of Italians, especially Italian women; relations between the Italian social classes, the American Civil War, especially slavery and foreign enlistment; the Suez Canal, and spiritualism.
- Parent Collections: Caroline Crane Marsh Diaries, Vermont Diaries
Mary Farnham Diary, 1862-1863
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- Creator: Farnham, Mary Elizabeth Johnson, 1828-1913.
- Date Created: 1862-1863
- Description: Mary Elizabeth (Johnson) Farnham, the daughter of Ezekiel and Nancy (Rodgers) Johnson, was born in Bath, NH, on January 19, 1828. She came to Bradford with her parents at a young age and was educated at Bradford Academy and the Newbury Seminary. On December 25, 1849, she married Roswell Farnham (1827-1903) in St. Albans, Vt. They returned to Bradford to teach in the Bradford Academy, Farnham as the teacher of painting and French, and her husband as principal of the academy. The couple joined the Bradford Congregational Church in 1854 and participated in a number of its activities: both Farnhams taught in the church’s Sunday school, and Mary Farnham held a chair on its music committee and was active in its missionary efforts. Farnham spent several months during the winter of 1862-63 in Union camps near Fairfax Court House and Wolf Run Shoals, VA, with her husband, who had been appointed Lieutenant Colonel and placed in command of the 12th Vermont Volunteer Regiment. Farnham returned to Vermont in April 1863 and her husband was discharged later that year, after which he entered into a career in politics. When Roswell Farnham was elected governor of Vermont in 1880, Mary Farnham became the state’s first lady and played an active role in gubernatorial social events. Farnham was involved in a number of civic organizations in her town, including Bradford’s Relief Corps. She helped found the Ladies’ Public Library and was its librarian for many years. Her interest in literature led her to enroll in the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Course, from which she graduated in 1884. She went on to earn one hundred and forty seals on her diploma and was recognized for this achievement at the 1906 Chautauqua Assembly in Chautauqua, NY. 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). Her first child, Roswell Phelps Farnham Jr., died in infancy in 1861. Mary Farnham died on June 13, 1913, having suffered a stroke two weeks prior. Topics in Farnham’s diary include living conditions in Union camps and towns near the front lines, the roles and expectations of women during the American Civil War, Washington D.C. in the 1860s, mid-century modes of travel, and health and medicine during the Civil War.
- Parent Collections: Diaries
Long Pond: A History and a Diary - Westmore, VT, 1886-1903
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- Date Created: 1886-1903
- Description: The Long Pond Westmore diary, which spans the years 1889 to 1903, contains a partial history of a summer camp on Long Pond in Westmore, Vt., as well as inventories of the camp’s supplies and accounts of property maintenance and recreational activities undertaken by its caretakers. Topics in this diary include local flora and fauna and outdoor recreational activities, such as hiking and fishing.
- Parent Collections: Diaries