Emilie Palmer’s detailed diaries allow a glimpse into life in Oberlin during the Civil War, and the events leading up to it that earned Oberlin the name ‘hotbed of abolition,’ including the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue.
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Wives, Sisters, and Daughters: Henry Woodcock’s Correspondence with the Women in his Life (1853-1899)
Henry Woodcock was an Oberlin Theological Seminary graduate and a pastor in New England and Kansas. His correspondence address many important subjects, such as temperance and abolition, and show an evolution of Henry Woodcock’s ideas about gender, as he moves from essentialism to equality.
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The Phillips Sisters: Early Oberlin Feminists (1852-1853)
Within the letters of Edith Bennett, Philena, Hannah, and Sarah Grace, who all attended Oberlin in the 1850s, the Phillips sisters describe student life in Oberlin, including literary societies and abolitionism. They embodied a quiet and seemingly submissive participation in public issues, but demonstrated discontent and dissatisfaction with this limited role.
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K-I-S-S-E-D: Emily Pillsbury Burke & the Oberlin Ladies Board (1850)
Scandal rocked Emily Burke’s tenure at Oberlin as principal of the Oberlin Female Department, when she was dismissed for allegedly kissing a male student. Was she the victim of the sexual double standard, or did she assert her intellect and agency too aggressively?
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“Education is as needful to the lady as to the gentleman”: The Papers of Mary Sheldon (1842-1850)
Mary Sheldon studied and discussed racial and social inequality in the Ladies’ Literary Society, even hoping to join John Brown’s raid at Harper’s Ferry with her husband. Sheldon’s notebooks, full of social criticism, philosophy, and creative fiction detail her politicization as an abolitionist and women’s rights activist in antebellum Ohio.
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“You Will See With What Freedom I Have Written”: The Courtship Correspondence of James H. Fairchild and Mary F. Kellogg (1838-1941)
James Fairchild, who would become the third President of Oberlin College, and Mary Kellogg met as students at Oberlin in 1838. The letters included in this collection offer glimpses into early life at Oberlin, antebellum courtship practices, and the racial attitudes of anti-slavery Oberlinians.
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“As Free as Ever”: The Letters of Irene Ball (1836-1842)
One of the first women to attend Oberlin College, Irene Ball struggled with the demands and danger of abolitionism. Along with her husband, William T. Allan, one of the famed Lane Rebels and a shepherd of the Underground Railroad in Oberlin, she dedicated her life to abolitionism.
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“The Necessity Of A Pure Heart”: The Oberlin Female Reform Society (1835-1857)
Led by prominent Oberlin women, the Oberlin Female Reform Society addressed injustice within the bounds of what was considered respectable women’s work. They questioned the blame heaped upon women for their abuses at the hands of immoral men and promoted the idea that female virtues, like modesty and restraint, should act as moral benchmarks for men as well as women.
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