St. Mary's School Collection Finding Aid

Title

St. Mary's School Collection Finding Aid

Creator

Emma Diduch

Identifier

FA000302

Date

1906-1908, 1953-1982

Description

Photocopies of letters from Eleanor Wilson McAdoo to Jessie Wilson Sayre and Ellen Axson Wilson, as well as later documents and other correspondence.

Source

Courtesy of St. Mary's School, Francis Sayre, and the University of California at Santa Barbara, 2006

Publisher

Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum

Subject

Cataloging of archival materials

Contributor

Brianna Eagle

Rights

Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum

Language

English

Arrangement

Arranged chronologically by year; later documents are grouped together in final folder.

Box 1

Folder 1: 1906-99-99; Eleanor Wilson McAdoo, photocopies of 7 letters
Folder 2: 1907-99-99; Eleanor Wilson McAdoo, photocopies of 22 letters
Folder 3: 1908-99-99; Elenor Wilson McAdoo, photocopies of 13 letters
Folder 4: [1953-99-99 to 9999-99-99]; Eleanor Wilson McAdoo, photocopies of collection description and later correspondence.

Biography or History

From 1906-1908, Eleanor Wilson, the youngest daughter of Woodrow Wilson and Ellen Axson Wilson, attended St. Mary's School in Raleigh, North Carolina, an Episcopal girls' boarding school. Her letters from school are addressed to her sister Jessie Wilson, or "Jetty", at Women's College, Baltimore (later Goucher College) and to her mother at "Prospect" in Princeton. Copies of the letters were made by Arthur Link, III from St. Mary's School's collection, which itself only has a few original letters; the other original letters are owned by Francis Sayre and by the University of California at Santa Barbara. The letters to Jessie Wilson, written almost once a week, recount Eleanor's homesickness and resentment of the restrictions placed on students at St. Mary's as well as her enjoyment of rare school outings and events and her involvement in a social sorority. That sorority, Alpha Kappa Psi, continued to be a large part of her life at St. Mary's through 1908, even providing special stationary for her letters. Eleanor's other activities included horseback riding, the literary and debate society – of which she was elected 'critic' – and writing for the school newspaper, The Muse. There are also several letters from Eleanor to her mother, Ellen Axson Wilson. The final folder contains some notes on the letters and biographical information about Eleanor and her latter career from various sources, including a visit to St. Mary's in 1954.

Level

Folder

Files

St Mary's Collection Finding Aid.pdf

Citation

Emma Diduch, “St. Mary's School Collection Finding Aid,” 1906-1908, 1953-1982, FA000302, St. Mary’s School Collection, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.

Archival Finding Aid