Susan Long Quainton Papers, 1953-1957: Scope & Contents of the Collection

Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Papers of Susan Long Quainton (b. 1936) span the years 1953-1957 and consist of correspondence, course records, biographical information, and photographs that primarily document her experiences as a Mount Holyoke College student from 1953-1957.

The Correspondence series, spanning August 1953-June 1957, is chiefly made up of letters sent by Susan to her family detailing her life at Mount Holyoke College. In order to remain in close contact with her family in California, she regularly wrote letters to her mother Theresia, her father Joseph, her brother Donald, her sister Theresia, her Aunt Marion, and her grandmother Lela throughout her four years as a student at Mount Holyoke College. Her correspondence covers a wide range of topics that discuss her feelings about the school, certain faculty members, classmates, roommates, coursework, student activities, local fashion, dating, social events, dances, freshman hazing, and Mountain Day, and include mentions of Mount Holyoke College regulations and restrictions regarding travel permission. In these letters she often mentions her English Professor Joseph Bottkol, her Philosophy Professor George Tovey, and many of her friends, including Mary Jean Mahler, Joyce Mitchell, Carol Kroeger, Franny Ward, and Alice Stone. The correspondence also includes postcards and Valentines.

The Course Records series spans the years 1953-1957 and are comprised of notebooks, syllabi, class handouts, as well as graded assignments including Art projects; Physiology laboratory reports; a Physiology Special Report entitled "Comparison of Various Methods of Artificial Respiration;" examination bluebooks and questions; and various class papers and essays. The Course Records document her undergraduate studies, including her classes in Art, English, French, Greek, Geography and Geology, History, Philosophy, and Physiology. The bulk of the papers and essays relate to her major, English.

The Biographical Information series consists of two newspaper clippings. The first clipping is from the April 26, 1953 edition of The Los Angeles Times and relates that at the age of seventeen Susan D. Long was chosen as a principal speaker at the National Convention of the Red Cross in June 1953. The other clipping is simply a photograph of Susan sitting with her two siblings, Theresia Jane and Donald, from an unknown publication circa 1954-1956.

The Photographs series consists of five black and white photographs of Susan, circa 1953-1957. Three undated photographs are formal head shots of Quainton, measuring approximately 2.5 by 3.5, or 3 by 3.5 inches and are most likely from her student days at Mount Holyoke. A 3.5 by 3.5 inch black and white snapshot of Susan with Carla Wilson from Smith College, sitting and reading on a couch, is dated Feb. 12, 1955 and was originally attached to a letter sent to family by Susan on March 11, 1955. The final black and white photograph in the series, of Quainton working at a desk, measures 8 by 10 inches and is dated April 3, 1955.