Philips papers

The Frances Hurrey Philips papers consist of correspondence, a photograph album and loose photographs. The correspondence dates from 1927-1931, her undergraduate years at Mount Holyoke College, and is addressed to her parents and younger sister "Jiggs" (Marguerite Hurrey Wolf, Mount Holyoke College Class of 1936). In the correspondence she discusses a wide range of activities on campus from classes and faculty to outings with her friends. She frequently mentions food, clothes, gym, sports, chapel, movies, table waiting, concerts, faculty, and travel by train and car. She includes comments on lectures and sermons, and often mentions Robert Wicks, Mount Holyoke Chaplain from 1926-1928, and his family in Holyoke, Massachusetts. She provides detailed descriptions of many events on campus, including room choosing, the May Day pageant, and Junior Show. Specific letters describe Faculty Show (March 4, 1928), hazing (October 24, 1927), and Junior Prom which she attended as a freshman usher (April 28, 1928). She also describes her sister's visit to campus (October 12, 1930) and a special assembly during which President Mary Emma Woolley discussed the expulsion of four students for drinking and smoking (February 24, 1928). In her letters she makes frequent reference to Frances Dorman Menning, Class of 1931, as well as Ruth Tenny Hall, Class of 1929, and her future husband Frederick R. Hall, who was from Hurrey's hometown of Montclair, New Jersey. The correspondence includes letters from Hurrey's junior year in France describing her coursework, the families she lived with and travels in Europe as well as mentioning food and the French fashions she could not resist. The photograph album dates from 1927-1933 and contains photographs from her year in France as well as from the time she spent in Geneva as a tutor and student from 1932-1933. It also includes photographs from her years at Mount Holyoke and features fellow members of the Class of 1931 including Virginia F. Babcock, Louise K. Wilde, Sara Holmes Boutelle, Elizabeth Lauckhardt Jantzen, M. Vimala Appasamy, and Ruth Sanderson Brackenridge. The biographical information consists of press clippings about Hurrey from 1929-1947. The loose photographs include formal and informal photographs of Hurrey during her undergraduate years, a picture of students at the Universite de Nancy in 1929 and two photos of her from a weekend at Colgate College in 1931.