Mary Ella Spooner Brown papers
Scope and Contents
The Mary Ella Brown papers consist of correspondence, writings, biographical material and photographs. The correspondence, dated 1889-1942, includes one letter from Mary Woolley as well as letters to friends and to the Secretary of the Mount Holyoke Alumnae Association; The writings consist of the manuscript of an autobiography written circa 1935-1940 and entitled "Fourscore Plus;" poems and songs written between circa 1874-1933; and essays and stories written circa 1908-1944. The biographical material is mostly made up of news clippings and includes an obituary. The photographs, circa 1872-1946, are of Brown and her family and also include two photographs of Chinatown in Honolulu.
Dates
- Creation: 1872-1946
Conditions Governing Access
Unrestricted
Biographical Note
Mary Ella Spooner was born in Oakham, Massachusetts on October 14, 1851 to Andrew Spooner, Jr. and Mary Brown. As a child she attended Oakham public schools. She graduated from Mount Holyoke Seminary in July of 1872 and from the University of California at Berkeley in 1893. She married Julius Waverly Brown in 1894. She taught Latin and German at Mount Holyoke from 1872 until 1884, and at Oahu College, in Honolulu, Hawaii from 1884 until 1891. She had three foster children from Kentucky. She wrote a book of poems as well as an autobiography and many educational pamphlets. She died on January 21, 1946 in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Extent
1 boxes (Faculty/Staff Spooner)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Brown, Mary Ella Spooner, 1851-1946; College teacher. Mount Holyoke Female Seminary graduate, 1872. Mount Holyoke Female Seminary teacher, 1872-1884. Papers consist of correspondence, writings, biographical information, and photographs. Primarily containing her autobiography and also containing letters from Mary E.Woolley and original songs and poems.
Geographic
- Hawaii -- Description and travel
- Kentucky -- Description and travel
- Massachusetts -- Social life and customs -- 19th century
- Oahu (Hawaii) -- Description and travel
- Oakham (Mass.) -- Description and travel
- South Hadley (Mass.)
- Southern States -- Description and travel
- United States -- Description and travel
- United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives
Topical
- College teachers -- Massachusetts -- Biography
- Death
- Diseases
- Family -- United States -- History
- Marriage -- United States -- History -- Sources
- Mount Holyoke College -- Curricula
- Mount Holyoke College -- Domestic work
- Mount Holyoke College -- Faculty
- Mount Holyoke College -- Regulations
- Mount Holyoke College -- Religious life
- Mount Holyoke College -- Student life -- 1868-1884
- Mount Holyoke College Manuscript Collections
- Mount Holyoke Female Seminary -- Faculty -- History
- Religion
- Teachers -- United States -- Biography
- Transportation and travel
- Women -- Education -- United States -- History -- Sources
- Women -- Health and hygiene -- United States -- History
- Women -- United States -- Economic conditions
- Women college teachers -- United States -- Biography
- Women teachers -- United States -- Biography
- Title
- Brown papers, the autobiography of a country girl: typescript, [ca. 1940] / by Mary Ella Brown. 1872-1946.
- Status
- Edited Full Draft
- Date
- © 2004
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
- Language of description note
- English
- Sponsor
- Encoding funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Repository Details
Part of the Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections Repository
50 College Street
8 Dwight Hall
South Hadley MA 01075-6425 USA
413-538-3079
archives@mtholyoke.edu
