Education & Teaching: Resources in Special Collections

This collection consists of letters from supervisors or sponsors to Minnie A. Hill, a northern female teacher, who was in Norfolk and then Petersburg, Virginia teaching at freedmen’s schools in the late 1860s.

This collection contains letters to Obelia "Bee" Graves, from her family and friends, while she attended Winston-Salem Teachers College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The institution is presently known as Winston-Salem State University. Winston-Salem Teachers College was the first historically black college to grant bachelors degrees in elementary school education. The collection also includes college documents from her time at college such as report cards and her admission acceptance. The collection also contains letters from two soldiers to Bee Graves' sister, Cleonis. The soldiers served during World War II in the Philippines.

Typescript of essay entitled "Babes in the Wood at Jamestown District School, 1891" by Minnie Braithwaite Jenkins. She describes her family life and her life as a teacher at the Jamestown District School. She tells it in a short story, narrative type form. Copies of publicity material for Minnie Braithewaite Jenkins autobiograhy, "Girl from Williamsburg." Includes a brief essay on "An Historic Spring" in Williamsburg.

Diary of a schoolteacher and farmer who lived in James City County, Virginia as well as in Williamsburg and in Warwick County, Virginia. He rented the President's House at the College of William and Mary. Includes comments on church meetings, schools, local people and weather. Also includes lists of students attending his schools in Williamsburg and Warwick County.

Collection includes letters, citations, scripts of plays, photographs, slides and videos concerning Rosa Marie Fuller's teaching career and James A. Fuller's employment with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and his service with the Boy Scouts.

Papers of Elizabeth Nunn, an elementary school teacher in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Glenna Shiflett's papers concerning the Twentieth-Century Gallery (This Century Gallery) of Williamsburg, her teaching career in public schools and tax and other documents for property on Richmond Road in Williamsburg, Virginia owned by her and her husband, Thomas Shiflett.

This collection contains fliers for information sessions about Teach for America at the College of William & Mary.

This collection contains news clippings, correspondence, and photographs collected by Robert Paul Carlson, William & Mary class of 1966, from 1953-2007. The bulk of the material is made up of news clippings about Carlson's involvement with preserving the history of Maine Township in Park Ridge, Illinois, where he taught Social Studies for 50 years. Also included in the papers are two DVDs, including one from a 2007 message by New York Senator Hillary Clinton about Carlson, her former high school teacher, being inducted into the Maine Township's Wall of Honor. The other DVD features two 2005 news clips from ABC 7 and WTTW in Chicago, Illinois about Carlson teaching for almost 50 years at Maine East High School.

Diary of a 23 year old piano teacher and player from the Alleghany, Maryland area. Bertie Woodyard mentions playing piano in a movie theater and working in a store, her fiance, and every day chores and occurrences.

This collection comprises letters sent primarily to and from Annie and Nellie Pease. They are from local friends and schoolmates as well as members of the Pease family who are situated for the most part in Bangor and Cornish, Maine. The letters deal with the personal lives of a close social network of young girls and their families who stay in touch after their graduation from school. The subjects of the letters range from classes, teachers and vacation plans to what is going on in the local community concerning deaths, weddings, and travel. A detailed examination of these letters reveals information concerning the school life and education of young, nineteenth-century women as well as their own experiences of teaching. Moreover, there are details as to what books were popular, from Caesar to Cicero and Dickens to Emerson, as well as to what subjects were being taught and how the girls responded to them; botany, natural history, and flower collecting are frequently mentioned.

Diary, 1869-1871, of Mattie J. West, a teacher, at Gravel Hill, Buckingham County, Va. The volume discusses her work, religion, and includes poetry and recipes.

The writer appears to be a female teacher at the Hamilton Avenue School in Warwick, New York. She is associated with the Reform Church.

Diary, 127 pp.,1927,1928, 1934 of Helen Drumm, a teacher of Tacoma and Republic, Washington (State). Helen Drumm records her 1927 and 1934 trips to California describing some places and structures in great detail. Her entries also cover the year 1928 when she moved to Republic, WA to take on a new teaching position.

Diaries, 1941 and 1962, of Jennie Gore, a teacher from Wartrace, Tennessee. Includes brief entries about her daily life, including work matters, people with which she met, and her daily activities.

Papers of William Henry DeBell, teacher in Staunton, Va. and Fairfax County, Va.; and deputy superintendent of schools in San Francisco, Calif., 1914-1931. Includes congratulatory letters and testimonials upon his retirement in 1931.

Diaries, 1890-1899, of Nelson and Daniel Gordon, brothers from Thorndike, Maine. Nelson Gordon was the town clerk of Thorndike, Maine, and Daniel Gordon was a school teacher who also made caskets. Daniel Gordon's diaries, 1894 and 1899, include his views on teaching school, his students, inventions that he makes, and his work making caskets with the Coffin family. He also discusses his declining health and the various methods he uses to try and improve it, including making electric warmers for his feet and buying zinc plates "for electrical purposes."

The papers of Miss Lena Parker, personal and professional, who was a graduate of State Teachers College in Farmville, Virginia and a teacher in Cumberland County, Virginia. She lived in Cartersville, Virginia. Correspondence from friends, family, the State Teachers College, schools where she was employed and children she had taught. The bulk of the letters are from Harry Leach and Edward Embly, both living in Washington, D.C., who give descriptions of daily life.

Correspondence, business, tax and legal records, primarily 1848-1890, of various members of the Cook and Luttrell Families of Culpeper and Rappahannock Counties, Virginia. The Luttrell correspondence, 1874-1890, contains letters to Mollie Luttrell from girl friends, discussing social events and friends. The Cook family business and tax records, (1936-1859)-1875, are primarily receipts for accounts with Culpeper County merchants, with those of Thomas Jimson Cook including advertisements and attendance records for a grammar school he taught in his home.

Diaries and legal documents, 1810-1896, written by Benjamin Thompson (1810-1870) and Otis Thompson (1879-1896) of Topsham, Maine. Diaries include description of his life as a teenager working on a farm, people with which he interacted, towns which he visited, and the sermons at his church. There are also diaries of his life as a teacher, which include daily notes on what he taught.

Diary, 1866-1891, of Kate M. Walsh, a teacher from Cambridge, New York. Walsh primarily teaches at the Caldwell Institute in Danville, Kentucky and in a suburb of Chicago. Entries include information about her job as a teacher, her interaction with other teachers and school officials, and with her students. There is also information about her Methodist faith, teaching Bible classes, her attendance at religious services, and her relationship with her sisters and other family members.

Diary of an unidentified teacher and miller who lived near Millwood, Frederick Co., Va. and worked for the Thruston family. The volume discusses weather, his work, neighborhood events, and cockfighting. 260 p. : bound volume ; 16 cm.

Materials relating to Margaret P. Marks' teaching of English at Maury High School, Norfolk, Va. and Thomas Jefferson High Schools, Richmond, Va. in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Also includes information regarding the John Marshall High School Summer School, Richmond, Va.

Papers from the household of Dora Travis Armistead (1890-1979) and Rowland Cara Armistead, sisters of Williamsburg, Virginia. Includes letters, personal, financial and business papers of Cary Peyton Armistead (1856-1901), father of Dora and Cara, Steward of Eastern Lunatic Asylum (now Eastern State Hospital), and prominent local Episcopal Church and school leader; Eudora Ester Armistead (d. 1940), mother; Cary Champion Armistead (d. 1944), brother, and lawyer for a time in Detroit, Michigan; Meriwether Irving Armistead (d. 1945), brother, and lawyer in Williamsburg; and Dora and Cara Armistead, elementary school teachers.

Diary, 1865-1867, of Warren Bates Osgood (1844-1880), a Methodist preacher based in the Chicago, Illinois area. During the period in which this diary was writting, Osgood was working as a teacher to support himself through his studies. The diary contains detailed, daily entries by Osgood related to religion, Methodism, looking for a teaching position, the treatment of individuals who have fallen ill, the differences between the North and South after the Civil War, and various sermons he has preached.

This collection contains a pamphlet and a report describing the Summer Institute by Melvin A. Pittman, Director. The Summer Institute might have been sponsored by the College of William & Mary.