Jerome papers, 1907-1979 (bulk 1907-1911): Scope & Contents of the Collection

Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Jennie Gilbert Jerome Papers consist of correspondence, a scrapbook, writings, artwork, memorabilia, an oral history transcript, biographical information, a mah jong game, and photographs. Much of this material relates to her years as a student at Mount Holyoke College, 1907-1911. In letters written to her mother, Elizabeth Maude Jerome, grandmother Elizabeth Gilbert Jerome, and brother Gilbert Nelson Jerome, she describes traditions such as Freshman Frolic, Mountain Day, and Junior Show, mentions her "crushes" on classmates, and talks about many faculty members and administrators, particularly President Mary Emma Woolley and botany professor Henrietta Edgecomb Hooker. In addition, she describes a basketball tournament, trying out for choir, the grading system, and a mock political convention and parade of suffragists that students held in November of 1908. She also discusses her health, expenses, food, clothing, and the religious life at the school. A scrapbook primarily dates from her years at Mount Holyoke and contains programs, invitations, and other memorabilia, notes from friends and teachers, a "Table of Measurements" giving her physical dimensions and lung capacity in 1907 and 1910, examinations, "Basket-Ball Songs," material relating to Senior Mountain Day in 1911, newspaper clippings, postcards, drawings and poetry by Jerome, and photographs of teachers, friends, and the campus. Other correspondence includes a letter to her mother discussing her brother and a visit to Boston in 1914, and postcards and notes, 1940-1979, from Mount Holyoke friends and classmates concerning their activities. Her writings include short stories published in her high school newspaper from 1904-1907, a poem written in 1912, a description of a visit to "the ancient home of the Gilberts" in England in 1924, and a published recollection of her high school years, 1947. Her artwork consists of a drawing and a silhouette that probably date from about 1907-1939. The memorabilia consists of a songbook for the Mount Holyoke Class of 1911 Junior Show, a catalogue for a 1936 art exhibit in New Haven, an invitation from 1952, and a note that accompanied the gift of a book in 1958. The oral history transcript is of taped interviews of Jerome conducted by Roberta Yerkes Blanshard of the New Haven Quota Club in 1975. Biographical information from circa 1918, 1922, and 1941-1979 includes newspaper articles about her professional career and personal interests, her obituary, and tributes written after her death. Jerome's mah jong game probably dates from the 1920s. The photographs date from circa 1907-1952 and primarily consist of formal portraits and snapshots of her.