Author: Frances Densmore
Recipient: not specified
Date: “Probably 1884 or 1885”
Location: Frances Theresa Densmore Letters 1884-86, Letter No. 41, Record Group 30/156, Oberlin College Archives
Document Type: Autograph Document
Introduction:
In this letter Densmore wrote about her lack of interest in the Young Ladies’ Missionary Society. Missionary work was a common way for women to exercise independent authority. Interestingly, the Society sponsored trips to Native American reservations (as well as overseas), but Densmore did not take part. For more on the Society, see Women ‘Rule the World’: The Lives and Impact of Female Missionaries.
This is the one handwritten letter in this mini-edition, although it has been cut and pasted to copy paper. The original text was written by Densmore, but she did not transcribe this short excerpt.
Transcription:
<Too many Church meetings!>
Bertie1 has gone to Young Ladies’ Missionary Meeting but I did not care to-
I think that if a person goes to S.S.2 his Church services, and sometimes stays [illegible] a little “meeting” they always hold after Church in the evening that that is all they can attend with profit and appreciation don’t you?
<Probably 84-5>
Transcribed by Natalia Shevin
1 Bertha Hawthorne Miner was enrolled in the conservatory from 1884 to 1887. She also took courses in the literary and art departments. She was from Waverly, Illinois.
2 Sunday School.
