Lebourveau papers

The Jennie L. Lebourveau Papers consist of a scrapbook, correspondence, and biographical information. The material chiefly relates to her time as a Mount Holyoke College student, 1912-1916. The letters that she wrote home twice each week primarily reflect her daily life, student traditions, and student jobs and finances. Traditions discussed in her letters include Senior-Freshman Reception, Junior Prom, Top Spinning, Mountain Day, Senior Mountain Day, and Vespers. She also describes the jobs she held to earn money for tuition, which included waiting tables, cleaning rooms, working in the post office, brushing a friend's hair, and hand-tinting cards for a firm in Chicago. She comments about the relations between students of different social classes and she indicates that students respected one another regardless of employment. Many of the letters outline the schedule she followed during the day including meals, classes, socializing, and studying. Academics are addressed at length and she refers to the books she was reading and the subjects that she studied (history, physiology, English, zoology, music and gymnastics). References to professors include Nellie Neilson (history), Margaret Lord (mathematics), Ann Haven Morgan and Christianna Smith (zoology), and Sarah Truair Hollands (chemistry). She frequently complains about the food and expressed excitement over sharing food packages sent from parents to her circle of friends. She discusses room choosing, clothing, the elimination of the domestic work system, and the addition of new buildings to campus, including Skinner Hall and Student-Alumnae Hall (later Mary Woolley Hall). She occasionally mentions World War I, women's suffrage, and Woodrow Wilson's election. For example, in a letter written shortly attending a lecture on woman's suffrage (April 20, 1913) she refers to some of the history faculty as "rank women suffragists." She was also an avid participant in campus activities ranging from debate to theater to athletics, and this is documented both in her letters and in her scrapbook. The scrapbook consists primarily of pieces of memorabilia related to events at Mount Holyoke College. Items include party invitations, theater and music programs, notes from friends, and letters from the college administration are accompanied by brief captions. Of note are a Mount Holyoke College secret ballot for the 1912 mock presidential election with a caption about her political affiliation and letters from the administration from the time she was applying to college through her graduation. The biographical information consists of a biographical note, a Massachusetts high school teacher's certificate from September 29, 1916, and a few newspaper clippings, 1917-1960.