Ransom papers

The Annette Mowatt Ransom Papers consist of correspondence, a scrapbook, biographical information and photographs. The bulk of the collection describes her undergraduate years at Mount Holyoke College, 1932-1936, and reflects campus events and traditions. Her letters to her family, 1923-1936, discuss her daily life and social activities. They include descriptions of traditions including the hazing of freshmen, Mountain Day, Junior Prom, Junior Show and Faculty Show. The letters also describe examinations, food, clothes, cooperative work by students, zoology courses, rules and regulations of dating, faculty, sports, and her involvement with the Outing Club. She mentions an attempt to abolish the required chapel attendance (February 17, 1933) and notes the approval of smoking in the dorms (May 20, 1934). She also describes Mary E. Woolley (November 6, 1934) and Gertrude Stein's visit to campus (January 20, 1935). Her letters reflect her opinion that she would "much rather be mediocre and do things than stay home and study every minute." Other correspondents include Pauline C. Gates, Mount Holyoke College Class of 1933, and Ruth Sawyer Durand, mother of Margaret Durand McCloskey, Class of 1936. The scrapbook also concerns her years as an undergraduate and contains her explanatory notes. Included in the scrapbook are photographs, press clippings, programs from campus events, a Mountain Day announcement, a copy of senior rules for freshman hazing, Christmas cards and Valentines. The photographs in the scrapbook document her dorm rooms, a winter sports class, the Sycamores and field hockey. The biographical information consists of a page from the 1964 program during which she received her Masters of Education from the University of New Hampshire. The photographs consist of a formal portrait taken during her senior year. Additional correspondence in the collection also describes the six months she spent working on the island of Inagua in the Bahamas. She was employed as a secretary-companion and zoologist, but her letters reflect her experiences of cooking, training kitchen staff, whitewashing, darning, and dreaming up entertainment for the staff of young men, which included her brother Allan.