Susan Hitchcock Kalma papers

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.