Handwritten Books by Elsie Eusebia Spicer x1902

History

This collection of class notebooks are legible, but some are in poor condition. Her handwriting seems to vary quite a bit. I don't think someone else used notebooks that she had inscribed with her name, but I do think that if she used pen, she was much more careful to write clearly than if she used pencil. I think at least one of these notebooks predated her college career, but since she was not in the habit of dating her materials, it is hard to tell.

The Images

The covers of the books are available here, plus a little bit of a description for each.

• Art Notebook (undated)
  
  • An essay on perspective, plus a series of pencil sketches illustrating perspective
    

• German Notebook (undated)
  
  • Her card is affixed to the front cover
    
  • Written in black ink or pencil, corrected in red ink
    
  • Many inserted assignments and notes
    
  • Notebook was flipped and also written from the back forward
    

• Notebook (undated)
  
  • Signed on the front cover.
    
  • Insert identified as a filing cover, patented 1898
    
  • Random assortment of notes. One mentions Williston Hall
    
  • Many inserts, some with Elsie's name on them
    
  • A note from CJA about a meeting place (perhaps Clare Jean Allen 1902)
    

• Physics Notebook (1892-94)
  
  • Signed on the front cover
    
  • Notes from a physics class in 1892, and a physics exercise dated 1894
    
  • Also contains other material, such as a biography of Pericles; Egyptian Rebellion; Geometry; Silas Marner
    
  • Similar material on many inserts to the notebook; also some exercises written by her sister, Bertha Brace Spicer, and an insert by Elsie dated 1889.
    

• Chemistry Notebook (1896-97)
  
  • Signed with her name on the front cover
    
  • One page of chemistry notes in pencil
    
  • The rest of the notebook was written in pencil from the back page forward, perhaps from an English class (sections on Collection of Material, Prose Writing, and Narration, among others).
    
  • Notebook is full; some extra pages with similar handwriting and topics have been inserted
    
  • Insert: University of the State of New York, 134th examination in Rhetoric, held Jan 28, 1896. The questions posed in this exam do not appear to be answered in this notebook.
    
  • Insert: two pamphlets by the Woman's Board of Missions, Boston. One is dated 1897.
    
  • Insert: one page of much smaller, dense handwriting; appears to be part of a short story
    

• German Notebook (undated)
  
  • Her card is affixed to the front cover
    
  • Exercises are numbered and neatly written; corrections are made in red pen
    
  • At some later point, someone flipped the notebook upside down and wrote in all the blank spaces Elsie left between exercises. The handwriting is not Elsie's. It is nearly indecipherable, but appears to be German. An insert at the end of the book also contains this handwriting.
    
  • Elsie's entries are in black pen; the other entries are in pencil.
    

• English Notebook (1899)
  
  • Her card was glued to the front cover, but is now missing
    
  • Contains a series of short stories, several dated October 1899
    
  • Several inserts with poems
    
  • Elsie's entries are in black pen; there are some pencil notations and corrections by a professor or teacher's assistant