Correspondence , 1923-1927

Chronological
Forms part of MS 0619, Ruth Tenny Hall Papers
Restrictions: Unrestricted
Last Updated: 2002/08/30

Description:
The correspondence consists of letters written to and from Hall, 1923-1927. The bulk of Hall's correspondence dates from her years as a student at Mount Holyoke College, 1925-1929. There are over one hundred letters written to her maternal grandparents, Henry and Ella Webb, as well as letters addressed to her father and stepmother, Charles and Betty Tenny. Hall's letters to her family were written regularly, almost weekly, throughout her entire four years at Mount Holyoke. They describe her academic activities, noting her selection for a first-year tutorial, her high examination results, and her election to the Phi Beta Kappa society in her junior year. The letters also closely track the social activities of Hall and her "gang" of eleven friends, including her roommate for three years, Rhoda "Pat" Gilpatric. Details of her friends can be found in a letter of January 23, 1927. The correspondence also includes two letters written by Gilpatric to Ella Webb, thanking her for hospitality during her visits. Hall describes food, race relations, faculty, clothes, clubs, hazing, smoking, examinations, church and chapel, traveling by car, movies in nearby Holyoke, Junior Prom, Mountain Day, waiting tables, Junior Show, the yearbook Llamarada, and the May Day pageant. She includes sketches of dorm room floor plans and her semester schedules. Hall's letters provide a close documentation of an undergraduate experience in the 1920s. A few letters during these years were written to Hall by Helene Pope Whitman, Class of 1904, a classmate of Hall's mother. Hall's correspondence also includes letters to her future husband, Frederick Hall. These letters document their early relationship and courtship, as well as preparations for their wedding in 1932. Of note is the letter in which she describes the Northfield conference where she first met Frederick R. Hall, and notes, "I got to know one Freshman (Yale) quite well . . . I'm hoping I shall hear from him as he was both nice and interesting." The correspondence also includes several lettesr written by Frederick R. Hall: five written to his mother, 1928-1929,  which often describe activities he attended with Ruth, and two letters written to Ella Webb. The earliest letters in the collection are several letters written to Hall by her father, Charles Tenny, a Baptist missionary in Japan. These letters describe the 1923 earthquake, which damaged the Tenny's house in Ushigome, a suburb of Tokyo. Tenny did not provide detailed description of the damage done by the earthquake, but wrote that "the press is doing that for you ... you will read no description of the situation that gives it too bad ... If you want pictures, go to your copy of Dante's Inferno." The last letter in the collection dates from 1937, and describes the centenary celebration at Mount Holyoke.

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MS 0619.2

Diaries , 1925-1930

Chronological
Forms part of MS 0619, Ruth Tenny Hall Papers
Restrictions: Unrestricted
Last Updated: 2002/08/30

Description:
The first diary encompasses April 1925 through May 1929, and the second overlaps the first, covering January 1929-1930. Each diary has room to record 'a line a day' for five years. Although the entries are rarely extensive, they provide documentation of Hall's daily activities, both academic and social, throughout her undergraduate years at Mount Holyoke College. She frequently mentions homework, classes, quizzes and examinations, outings with friends includings shows and shopping, vacations at home and with Helene Pope Whitman, Mount Holyoke College Class of 1904, visits from family members and Frederick R. Hall, as well as events of the teams she was on, including debate, field hockey and basketball. While the entries are brief, and diminish in frequency during her final years, the diaries provide evidence of the daily routine of Hall's undergraduate years.

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MS 0619.3

Scrapbook , 1925-1929

1 box
Chronological
Forms part of MS 0619, Ruth Tenny Hall Papers
Restrictions: Unrestricted
Last Updated: 2002/08/30

Description:
The scrapbook compiled by Hall is entitled "Mt. Holyoke Days" and documents her undergraduate years at Mount Holyoke College, 1925-1929. Carefully assembled in chronological order, the scrapbook contains evidence of her academic and social activities on campus: programs for Field Day, Founder's Day, Junior Prom, Junior Show, Faculty Show and Commencement, dance cards, Christmas and Valentine's Day cards and newspaper clippings, as well as grade records, programs from debates she participated in and an occasional photograph. The scrapbook also contains newspaper clippings regarding her family, congratulatory telegrams sent to her, and a brochure from the summer camp in Maine at which she taught tennis. There are frequent notes in Hall's handwriting. Of note is the format of the scrapbook: for her first year, Hall set up the pages as though for a script for a play, with breaks and semesters composing the scenes and acts. The first tragic element was introduced in January 1926 in the form of exams.

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MS 0619.4

Writings , 1929, 1954


Chronological
Forms part of MS 0619, Ruth Tenny Hall Papers
Restrictions: Unrestricted
Last Updated: 2002/08/30

Description:
Hall's writings consist of a handwritten copy of the Ivy Oration she was elected to give at the Precommencement Excercises in 1929, and a copy of the speech on teaching she gave at the class's twenty-fifth reunion in 1954.

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MS 0619.5

Memorabilia , 1925-1929

Forms part of MS 0619, Ruth Tenny Hall Papers
Restrictions: Unrestricted
Last Updated: 2002/08/30

Description:
The memorabilia contains mementos of her undergraduate years at Mount Holyoke College, 1925-1929. Included are sketches of dorm room floor plans, dance cards, Valentines, poems, commencement invitations and programs, a brochure from the Mt. Holyoke Inn, concert programs, and a baccalaureate service program. The memorabilia material is very similiar to the items found in the scrapbook.

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MS 0619.6

Biographical Information , 1925-1991



Forms part of MS 0619, Ruth Tenny Hall Papers
Restrictions: Unrestricted
Last Updated: 2002/08/30

Description:
The biographical information contains press clippings about Hall and family members, including an obituary for Hall.

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MS 0619.7

Photographs , 1909-1929

Chronological
Forms part of MS 0619, Ruth Tenny Hall Papers
Restrictions: Unrestricted
Last Updated: 2002/08/30

Description:
There are seven photographs. They include a photographic postcard from the Fifth Year Reunion of Mount Holyoke College Class of 1904 in 1909 featuring Ruth Hana Tenny, the 1904 "class baby" and her mother, Grace Webb Tenny, Mount Holyoke College Class of 1904. The collection includes two photographs from Tenny's sophomore year at Mount Holyoke, 1926-1927, one featuring Hall and the other featuring two of her friends, Lorraine Keck and Sarah "Sally" Steckel Skinner. There is also a photograph of Hall and twelve of her friends in academic regalia, ca. 1929. There are also three copies of a formal portrait taken of Hall in 1929.

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