Julia Brooks Spaulding correspondence
Scope and Contents
Most of the correspondence in this collection consists of copies of four long, detailed letters to her family that Spaulding wrote in June, July and October 1832. The letters concern her experiences and activities as a missionary in the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii). She describes a severe attack of "billious colic" that she suffered during and after the voyage to the Islands. She also discusses living arrangements, provisions, the meeting house at the missionary station, her efforts to learn the language, her husband's work as a teacher in a school for men, and punishments administered for the use of "ardent spirits." The letters are copied into a bound notebook, circa late 1890s or early 1900s.
A fifth letter, in its original form, is addressed to her nephew and briefly reflects on her fond memory of Mary Lyon as an instructor. The letter, written on November 23, 1897, references Mount Holyoke's Jubilee.
The collection also contains photocopies of the correspondence.
Dates
- Creation: 1832, 1897
Conditions Governing Access
Unrestricted.
Biographical Note
Julia Brooks was born in Buckland, Massachusetts. She attended Ipswich Female Seminary during Mary Lyon's tenure as a teacher and graduated in 1830. She married the Reverend Ephraim Spaulding, and in 1832 the two traveled to a mission in Lahaina in the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii). Her exact dates of birth and death are unknown, although a biographical note attached to her corespondence indicates that she died at the age of either 97 or 98 at her daughter's house in Evanston, Illinois.
Extent
0.21 Linear Feet (1 half Hollinger box)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Spaulding, Julia Brooks; missionary. Ipswich Female Seminary graduate, 1830. Papers consist of correspondence chiefly describing her activities as a missionary in the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii) in 1832. Also includes an 1897 letter containing a recollection of Mary Lyon.
Arrangement
Chronological.
Genre / Form
Geographic
Topical
- Title
- Spaulding correspondence, 1832, 1897.
- Subtitle
- Finding Aid
- Status
- Edited Full Draft
- Date
- © 2003
- 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
