Addie Genevieve Stockwell was born on November 7, 1889 in West Simsbury, Connecticut to Addie G. Dennison and Samuel F. Stockwell. She attended Simsbury and Hartford schools. She graduated from Smith College in 1912 and went on to hold positions teaching math and science in New York and Connecticut. Some letters in the collection are from former pupils. In 1918, Stockwell attended a nurses training program at Vassar College, and worked in Bellevue Hospital in New York City during the flu epidemic. After her work as a nurse, she returned to teaching in Collinsville, Connecticut. In 1922, she married Harold W. Humphrey, a widow with one son. The couple had four children, two sons and two daughters, and they lived on a dairy farm. Stockwell was active in the Daughters of the American Revolution and remained in touch with former students. She died after a series of strokes in 1944.