[This original draft appears to have been edited in pencil by Abby, to prepare a letter that will go out to the other institutions.]Turist Hotel,
Copenhagen,
Denmark.Jan. 22, 1927
Dear Miss Turner,
This is a cry for help from a distant land. And here's the story. Through Mrs. Krogh, I have been asked to give a lecture to the Danish Association of University Women on college and university life among American women. The lecture is apparently to be a public one, advertised in the newspapers, etc., and will be attended, we fancy, by students, graduates, and various interested women.
Because of the fact that Americans and American life and education are so inadequately understood in this part of the world - Europe, I mean, not just Denmark - and because we are anxious to do our little part in furthering understanding and cordial foreign relations, (Cecil and) I would like to make my talk as vivid and illuminating as possible.
But of course I have no material here, either photographic or statistical. (omit As we were discussing how to obtain what I need, Cecil and I were simultaneously inspired by the thought of you and so, at his suggestion, I am writing to ask you to help me out.)
What I propose to do is to carry a young American girl through college and then through some professional school, indicating in general terms the amount of work covered in the various stages and the opportunities when she is through, and picturing the sort of life she lives as she goes along. To illustrate this, I want pictures of various college buildings, dormitories, libraries, science halls, campuses, etc., pictures of basketball, hockey, tennis, or lacrosse games in progress, and close-up pictures of teams so that the Danish women can see what the American woman student looks like. I ought to have also a picture or two of graduation exercises, daisy chain making, hoop rolling - anything typically American. I will have lantern slides made over here, but if you can help me in getting the pictures and some statistical data, I shall be eternally grateful.
The lecture is to be in March, probably about the 10th, which will give us very scant time since two weeks is the least we can count on for a letter one way. I am, in consequence, afraid to write direct to the various colleges because I have no chance from here for a follow-up if a prompt reply does not come to the first letter. (omit We will, therefore, appreciate it enormously if you will send me pictures of the sort I suggest of Mt. Holyoke and of Smith - material surroundings and activities - and if you will pick out one of the Western coeducational universities, Michigan by choice, and a university in a big city, such as Columbia, - preferably, where you know some one and so can count on a prompt reply to a request for photographs - and get the same sort of thing from them - possibly Wellesley also, if you know someone there.) You see we want representative American educational institutions and the big Western mixed colleges are a very distinct type. I will write myself to Bryn Mawr. My personal connections there will secure a prompt reply.
(omit I won't be able to show more than 25 lantern slides at the most but I would like an assorted choice of pictures from which to make my final selection.) Begin here Of course the pictures need not be mounted and even post card size is not too small, though somewhat large, would be better. All photographs ought to be labeled as I am personally familiar with only one or two places.
(omit There are a few statistical facts that I ought also to have if you can manage to obtain them. Accurate answers are not at all necessary, only rough approximations. I have made a separate list, which I enclose, of questions that seem to us pertinent.) Begin here It is quite possible that the American Association of University Women publishes a booklet with data of these sort. If so, I would like immensely to have it, but I do not know how to get quickly in touch with them. Cecil suggests also that if, by any chance, you know of a book on life among American college women, it would be well to have it, even if some of it may seems somewhat trivial.
(omit If, in addition to these various items, any matters of interest occur to you, I shall appreciate only too cordially suggestions, ideas, or graphic details. Please send Miss Ordway a note as to the cost of the various things involved in this or have any bills sent direct to her and she will pay for every thing for me.)
It will be safer, I think, for you to send at once as it comes along any thing you may get, without waiting to send everything together. I am afraid to put all my eggs in one basket.
Mere thanks are obviously a quite inadequate expression of my gratitute [sic] to you for doing all this for me. You can judge what a high place you have in one regard by the fact that I have the courage so to impose upon you.
Things have been very satisfactory for us this winter. Cecil's work has gone well, he has enjoyed his relations at the laboratory enormously, and we have been very comfortable here at the Turist Hotel. The weather is detestible [sic], however, and we have almost forgotten what the sun looks like.
I enclose a photograph, which am sure you will like to have, of Professor Krogh in the laboratory, and one of Cecil, both taken the other day for a Danish newspaper. [no longer with the letter]
With best regards from us both, I am
insert signature
Very cordially yours
Katherine R. Drinker(omit P.S. Please send photographs and everything to me here at the Turist Hotel and by first-class mail. Second-class mail is forever in coming, if it comes at all. K.R.D.)
[Added in Abby's handwriting]
All mail should be addressed
Mrs. Katherine R. Drinker,
Turist Hotel,
Copenhagen,
Denmark.
Questions 1. Approximately how many women are there today in the United States enrolled as students, of college grade or higher?
2. Approximately how many of these are in coeducational institutions?
3. Approximately how many of them are of college-grade only?
4. It would be enormously interesting to know, if much data are obtainable, approximately how many women graduate each year full fledged into the professions i.e., law, engineering, architecture, theology, medicine (omit (I think 700-800 is about right for medicine but this is a figure I can verify myself).)
5. How many Ph.D.s are granted each year to women in the U.S.A.?