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Susan Hitchcock Kalma papers

 Collection
Identifier: MS 0815

Scope and Contents

The Susan Hitchcock Kalma Papers consist of a scrapbook, two journals, correspondence, financial records, course records, memorabilia, newspaper clippings, and photographs. The majority of the material relates to her years as a Mount Holyoke student, 1961-1965. The scrapbook contains copies of school songs, a letter describing the Big Sister tradition, and photographs of Kalma and other students. Her journals from her first and senior years chiefly describe her social life, including parties held at Mount Holyoke College and Amherst College. She writes about the Amherst students and other men whom she dated, the events they attended together, and her relationship with future husband, Dennis Kalma. The journal from her senior year includes a description of the Kathryn Irene Glascock Poetry contest of 1964, comments about some faculty members, a description of a visit to Harvard Medical School, and details about Kalma's interest in zoology. That journal also contains verses, poems, and reflections by Kalma as well as well as copies of poems by Robert Browning and Robert Francis. Her correspondence includes cards from the "elfing" tradition between the freshmen and sophomores at Mount Holyoke and two letters from playwright Wendy Wasserstein regarding a speaking engagement that Kalma arranged in 1982 at Bates College. Financial records are from 1961 and list her college tuition payments and summer income. Course records consist of essays written for introductory English and French class in 1961-1962; these papers include comments by instructors. Memorabilia includes annotated copies of College publications and Kalma's Mount Holyoke diploma. Newspaper articles that concern primarily Kalma's graduation from high school and college make up her biographical information. Also included in this category is Kalma's obituary. Photographs and slides include images of Everett House (used for student housing) and of students and the Richard Glenn Gettell Amphitheater at Commencement in 1965. Two other photographs show Kalma in the jungles of Sao Tome and Principe, where she was a Peace Corps Medical Officer in 1996.

Dates

  • Creation: 1959 - 2003
  • Creation: Majority of material found within 1959 - 1965

Conditions Governing Access

Unrestricted.

Biographical Note

Susan Martine Hitchcock was born in Middlebury, Vermont on September 13, 1943 to Harold Hitchcock, a Middlebury College professor, and Grace Cutter Hitchcock, a registered nurse. She attended Middlebury Union High School and then Mount Holyoke from 1961-1965, majoring in zoology. She married Dennis Leslie Kalma of Illinois in May 1966, studied anatomy at Yale University, and taught biology at a private high school in New Haven, Connecticut. She spent about a year traveling in Panama with her husband, returning to Connecticut in 1969. In 1970 she began volunteering at Planned Parenthood of New Haven and received her M.A.T. in biology from Quinnipiac University in 1971. Also in that year she started working at the Cedarhurst School (with Yale Psychiatric Institute) as a part-time teacher of Living Skills. She was Director of the George F. Paton Health Center at Middlebury College from 1982-1985. From 1986-1991 she was an assistant professor at the Memorial University of Newfoundland School of Nursing. During the remainder of the 1990s she served as a Nursing Education Consultant in Tanzania and a Peace Corps Medical Officer in Kryghistan. This return to health education took also took her to Central America, Canada, and Africa. At the time of her death in 2003, she was a nurse practicioner at the United States embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Extent

2 boxes (Class of 1965)

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

Kalma, Susan Martine Hitchcock, 1943-2003; student. Mount Holyoke College graduate, 1965. Papers consist of a scrapbook, journals, correspondence, financial records, course records, memorabilia, biographical information and photographs; concerning primarily her academic and social activities at Mount Holyoke.

Arrangement

Arranged in 8 series: Series 1. Scrapbook. Series 2. Journals. Series 3. Correspondence. Series 4. Financial Records. Series 5. Course Records. Series 6. Memorabilia. Series 7. Biographical Information. Series 8. Photographs.

Title
Hitchcock Papers, 1959-1965, 1982-2003 (bulk 1959-1965).
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

Contact:
50 College Street
8 Dwight Hall
South Hadley MA 01075-6425 USA
413-538-3079