Jennie's Calendar, 1917

Jennie's full didn't appeared in the calendar until April, but her 7-year-old nephew Bernard Mericle (on the page for March 29) was the clue that helped identify her to me until I got to transcribing April and found it verified. A genealogical search on Bernard Mericle revealed he was born in 1910 to Charles Mericle and Edna H (DeForest) Mericle of Schenectady, NY. There were no Mericles in the biographical directory, but there was a Jennie DeForest class of 1919, and a search of the 1918-1919 Mount Holyoke College directory revealed Jennie DeForest also lived in Schenectady, NY.

It appears that Jennie gave a page of her daily calendar to each of her friends in December 1916, asking them to decorate it and return to her so that she could have a message each day of 1917. Some used photographs, some used poetry, some sketched. Some of her friends were unclear on the concept and scissored off the date portion; these undated pages are displayed at the end.