These letters of Cornelia Coulter to her cousins Shirley and Florence Chamberlain were written between April 8, 1908 and February 26, 1960. They are primarily letters of family news and plans. The earliest (1908) was written while she was a graduate student at Bryn Mawr. She was in Germany and Italy in 1908-09 and then was back at Bryn Mawr in February of 1910 at the time of Bryn Mawr's 25th anniversary. In the fall semester of 1911 she was teaching eight hours a week, enjoying it, but finding it required much preparation (December 3, 1911). There is a jump, then, in her letters until 1932 when she was in ltaly. The first letter written from Mount Holyoke was April 15, 1933 although she had been teaching at the College beginning in 1926. There are a few letters written in the thirties and early forties. She retired in 1952.

On January 24, 1957 Cornelia wrote from Ferguson, Missouri, her home town, to Elizabeth Green, Head of the News Bureau, about her college reunion at Washington University where 7 of the original class of 34 in the college and school of engineering returned. In the Elizabeth responded with news of the college (August 11, 1958. On September 6, 1959 Cornelia sent out a mineo-ed letter to friends telling them she had been called back to Mount Holyoke in September 1957 to substitute in the Classics Department for someone who was ill. "It was sheer joy," she wrote. She also said she was to go to Chapel Hill in North Carolina as Visiting Professor in January. However, she wrote that her teaching was interrupted in October because of "circulatory difficulties." Her last letter is dated February 26, 1960 and is followed by two letters from her nephew, J. Richard Coulter reporting finally on her death on April 27, 1960. There is also correspondence of Shirley and Florence, her cousins, and letters written from Shirley to Cornelia.

By: CR Ludwig

May 1998