Ferguson papers, 1881-1952.
General International Standard for Archival Description
Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections South Hadley, MA
Finding aid generated in MARC format from database, then encoded using Perl scripts and XSL stylesheet. 2004-04-06
Encoded Archival Description
Encoded Archival Description (EAD) Version 2002
collection
Ferguson papers
Ferguson, Elizabeth Tuttle, 1861-1952.
Biographical History for: Ferguson papers
Biographical Note Elizabeth Eudora Tuttle was born in Vermont on September 8, 1861. She was living in Holyoke, Massachusetts by 1878 and attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in 1878/79, 1880/81, 1881/82, and 1883/84, graduating in 1884. She married Robert Muir Ferguson in 1885 and had three children. The Fergusons lived in Springfield, Massachusetts, Spokane, Washington, and Tulsa, Oklahoma. Her husband died in 1907 and she died in Tulsa during the summer of 1952 at the age of ninety.
Scope and Contents of the Collection The Elizabeth Eudora Tuttle Ferguson Papers consist of correspondence, compositions, photo and post card albums, memorabilia, newspaper clippings and photographs. The collection documents the academic work produced by Ferguson in a first-year English course and her travels in the Caribbean and to a lesser extent France, Austria and Russia. Of particular note are two photograph albums compiled by Edmund Otis Hovey and an album of postcards. The Hovey albums chiefly contain photographs taken on the islands of St. Vincent and Martinique after the eruption of Mount Pelee in 1902 and subsequent volcanic activity in 1903. They also contain four photographs of volcanic activity in Guadeloupe and St. Kitts, five photographs of people and scenery in France, a photograph labeled "Russian transportation" (horse-drawn wagon), and one labeled "King Edward visits Vienna," all dating from 1903. Also included in the collection are an album of post cards that reflect Ferguson's travels in Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington D.C., Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma, Michigan, Indiana, and visits to Niagara Falls and the International Exposition in Chicago in 1934. The correspondence consists primarily of letters and cards to and from staff members of the Mount Holyoke College Alumnae Association. The collection also includes some clippings about Ferguson, and several photographs of her taken between 1884 and 1934.
College students - Massachusetts.
lcsh
Women college students - Massachusetts.
Creative writing.
Voyages and travels.
Volcanoes - West Indies.
Women - Education - United States - History - Sources.
English language - Study and teaching (Higher) - Massachusetts - South Hadley.
aFrance - Description and travel - 1800-1918.
Mount Holyoke College - Student papers - 1881-1884
Hovey, Edmund O. (Edmund Otis), 1801-1877.
lcnaf
Mount Holyoke Female Seminary - Curricula.
Mount Holyoke Female Seminary - Students.
Alumnae Association of Mount Holyoke College.
Pelee, Mount (Martinique) - Eruption, 1902.
aat
series
Correspondence, 1920-1952
This series consists of brief letters and birthday cards. Correspondents include John Ferguson, the Clement sisters (Clara, Florence, and Louise), Mrs. M.W. Raymond, Mary A.E. Avery, and the Alumnae Association. Letters concern alumnae duties, family deaths, and Ferguson's health.
Unrestricted
Compositions, 1881-1884
This series consists of twelve compositions written as a student at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. The composition titles and dates are: "Our Third Room-mate," January 26, 1884; "Devil's Lake," April 19, 1884; "Dr. John," January 12, 1884; "Dr. John," December 15, 1883; "Our Foreign guests," May 6, 1882; "A Good Orator," Nov.3, 1883, "Fire," Mar. 25, 1882; "Shakespeare," October 13, 1883; "Henry W. Longfellow," April 22, 1882; "The Kind Uncle," December 10, 1881; "The Chinese Students," February 4, 1882; and "The Year Just Finished," January 21, 1882.
Compositions, 1881-1882
Compositions, 1883-1884
Albums, 1902-1934
This series contains two photograph albums compiled by Edmund Otis Hovey and an album of postcards. The Hovey albums chiefly contain photographs taken on the islands of St. Vincent and Martinique after the eruption of Mount Pele in 1902 and subsequent volcanic activity in 1903. They also contain four photographs of volcanic activity in Guadeloupe and St. Kitts, five photographs of people and scenery in France, a photograph labeled "Russian Transportation" (horse-drawn wagon), and one labeled "King Edward Visits Vienna," all dating from 1903. Most of the postcards reflect Ferguson's travels in Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington D.C., Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma, Michigan, Indiana, and visits to Niagra Falls and the International Exposition in Chicago in 1934.
Albums, 1902
Albums, 1902-1903
Memorabilia, 1884, circa 1934
This series consists of Ferguson's Mount Holyoke diploma, a graduation pin for the class of 1884 at Mount Holyoke, and a silver painted woven palm fan probably used for the Class Reunion in 1934.
Diploma, 1884
Graduation Pin, 1884
Fan, circa 1934
Biographical Information, 1902-1952
This series chiefly consists of biographical forms that Ferguson returned to the Mount Holyoke College Alumnae Association between 1914-1946. This series also includes a form pledging financial support to the Association, 1902, copies of notes about Ferguson from issues of the "Mount Hoyoke Alumnae Quarterly," 1918-1952, and an article about her from a Tulsa, Oklahoma newspaper, 1941.
Photographs, circa 1884, 1890, 1934
This series consists of two formal portraits of Ferguson, probably taken just before her graduation from Mount holyoke Female Seminary in 1884. Two snapshots are also included one labelled "Massachusetts 1890" showing Ferguson and other women in a horse-drawn buggy, and the other a snapshot of Ferguson with classmates and their husbands at the fifteenth reunion of the Class of 1884 at Mount Holyoke College, 1934.
Photographs, 1884, 1890, 1934