Series I. Correspondence, 1880, 1890-1973.

Containers:

Box 1-19

Extent:

Extent: 19 boxes.

Scope and content:

The earliest letters in the collection are written to Elizabeth "Bess" McLean Crowder (1884-1964) from relatives in Pennsylvania, as well as from Bouldin Crowder (1879-1067) prior to their marriage, and afterwards while he was employed by the Internal Revenue Service and living in Alexandria, Virginia. There are also letters from her sister Annie Belle McLean (b. 1889) while she was a student at the State Normal School in Farmville, Virginia. The correspondence from 1925-1935 consists of letters between Bess and Bouldin Crowder and their daughters Elizabeth Bouldin Crowder (1908-1998), while she was attending the North Carolina College for Women in Greensboro, and Eleanor Marian Crowder (1911-1995), while was a student at The College of William and Mary. There are numerous letters written to Elizabeth and Eleanor from friends who were attending other schools, including Duke University, Hampden-Sydney College, Wake Forest University, Queens Chicora College, Danville Military Institute, and Randolph-Macon College. The majority of the post-1935 correspondence is to and from Elizabeth (Crowder) Vaill Harlow while she was living in Winsted, Connecticut and Framingham Centre, Massachusetts.

Subjects covered in the letters include family news, health, births, marriages, and deaths, courtship, student life, including grades, classes, vacations, roomates and other classmates, and social life, including attending movies, concerts, dances, plays, and other events. There is a good deal of correspondence relating to Elizabeth (Crowder) Vaille Harlow's work as a radiological technician and microbiologist in various hospitals and laboratories in Connecticut, New York and Virginia, and later as a real estate broker in Framingham Centre, Massachussetts.

Arrangement:

Chronological.

Access and use

Contents