Wilson College
Chambersburg, Pa.
September 26, 1943Dear Table-companions,
If I try to write to Gertrude and Florence in South Hadley, to Alma in Woods Hole, and to Hilde in Sweet Briar I shall get mere scraps of notes done, so I shall try to think we are all at table and that Hilde has told us about Sweet Briar - which she will do soon I am sure - and that you would like to know a little about Wilson. I am in one of those spells that have come to me several times in my life when it would be most desirable to swallow a whole environment at a gulp instead of having to delve into it bit by bit for quite too long a period for practical use! That was true when once long ago I visited the hospitals to see how the sciences were taught to the nurses, it was true again in Copenhagen, it was true on little Herdla on the Norwegian coast, it was true at Bryn Mawr, and it sure is all but pathetically true here when I can not find out half fast enough what ought to be ordered and that instanter!
But at least I know more than I did a week ago today. I know that the house where I live has fine possibilities. It has been a grand house set in a large plot of beautifully sloping ground, it is stone with big rooms and generous halls and stairways. I feel like Queen Louise floating down the stairs every day, they are so wide. My two rooms would make the Faculty House dining room and another all but as big. The windows let in lots of light and in this fall weather it is nice to have the sun all day, for I have the whole front of the house from east to west, only it is not squarely set. I have now a little table for the typewriter and as I sit in the study I can see my bed in the bedroom though remotely and small by distance. The bedroom has blue rugs and the study a brownish rose one, all plain. The bedroom is so big there are two rugs, both squarish. The ghosts in these rooms are those of the old family library int eh study, a rich Chambersburg family, though I don't know what Mr. Sharpe did for a living. He died long ago, but his wife lingered on many years, a feeble aged invalid living in my bedroom almost entirely. She had lots of space at that. She had a companion for many years, a town character. The college got the property only two years ago and last year it was used for the first time. Downstairs is a faculty club with two big rooms and the hall. The rooms are spacious and nicely furnished. The only thing that has yet happened in them is one breakfast party. There is a big butler's pantry with all sorts of useful things for cooking, including an icechest [sic], not electric but having big pieces of ice all the time. I can keep my milk and butter there, for I have begun to get my breakfasts. Why get up at 6:30 for a 7:30 breakfast 6minutes [sic] away when I don't have a single morning class and find the students a bit boring at table? I have a table in the bathroom with my electric plate on it and there is a whole row of drawers reaching far above my head just outside the door of that room in a little hall belonging to me. I can keep my eatables in one, dishes in another, paper and string in another, and so on up! They aren't half full yet. There are two huge drawers at the bottom all empty as yet. Now just think of that as a mental environment for me. The bedroom has a chest-on-chest with six big drawers and a dresser with five small ones, as well as two very good-sized closets. For the rest of my life I can say that once I had room enough!
The study has quite a lot of furniture, bookcase, desk, four tables with tables [sic] lights on them, one low for coffee, six largish chairs, comfortable, too, and all it needs is those suitable ornamental things which mean that someone has thought what would be nice to look at. There are fireplaces in both rooms but not tried out yet. The bats came down badly last year and so they were shut with netting. If it gets really cold I'll be strongly tempted to find out what can be done. The heat is from a hot air furnace, the old-fashioned kind, and the bathroom was perhaps fixed for the aged lady - it can get fierce in there.
Wilson opened between Vassar and Smith and Wellesley, a college from the start, distinctly Presbyterian and it still has the majority of the board of that denomination, though of course the group as a whole is mixed. It is evident as you look at the girls, however, that they are more homogeneous than our lot. Of course, no negroes, all but no Jews, and in general from homes of comfort and perhaps many of more than that. They somehow seem to me younger than ours in their way of living. They take many more orders about little things, they are prompt at table, the faculty also take more orders, one must get class-cards back to the Registrar within twenty-four hours after they are first handed in, and "You are told at this time only the dates when mid-semester grades must be in" - but of course the present Registrar spent some years under C.B.Greene! She is Margaret Vanderzee. The whole place seems competent and dependable. But yet it is feeling the war just like all of us. The girls are cleaning their rooms for the first time, the faculty are making their beds and having only one weekly cleaning, the laboratory has no janitor service or cleaning up except a weekly sweeping. I do not see how it can get on with that without killing the one assistant who helps in all course[s] and has four lab. sections to teach.
The introductory functions are over I hope. We had opening exercises with a faculty parade and I needed my black stockings which I had put in. Only inconspicuous pins and necklaces are countenanced. The line formed across campus from the chapel (a good auditorium in a Music and Office Building). First we went between two ranks of the seniors in cap and gown for the first time, then between all the other classes in white, and we entered an empty room, which seemed queer. The students came in all in order, and the choir last singing. There was a long prayer by a local minister, and an excellent speech by the president who is a very pleasant and direct youngish man. [in margin: "name, Paul S. Havens"] He seems to be much liked - can tell funny stories but also speak sense. You don't need to worry for fear he will do quite the wrong thing. There is an organ of resources in the auditorium, and the choir and all students sing with spirit. The group is almost 400 students, with perhaps 60 - 70 faculty and staff.
That first day, a week ago yesterday, there was a reception in the late afternoon at the President's house for the new and old members of the faculty. All in formal dess. The new stood in the line with President and wife and Dean. The regular Dean is now at Northampton in charge of the Waves and is apparently a star - Disert by name. The acting Dean is of my age, has taught Greek at Smith, McElwain by name. The President's wife and house are both pleasant and friendly in feeling. There are three children I think, including a boy of 3 - 4, but I haven't seen them. The famly was out at Claremont at Scripps for some years, came here from there I think.
There were some student festivities I did not go to, but yesterday there was a succession of orgies. Usually there is a mountain day at a place some 15 miles or so away, but transportation isn't working now, so they had a picnic under the trees at the side of Sharpe House. Large tables set out, with paper plates on them and plenty to eat. After the meal there were brief speeches by President H avens [sic] who presided and told funny stories pretty well, and all the student presidents. Then there was a base ball game between students and faculty won by the former but a nice girl in the classics department has been saving her gas all summer and took three of us to ride, about 12 - 10 miles to near the mountains. The tops of the range are so flat! There are quantities of fruit trees and we bought peaches and apples gladly. It is a Pennsylvania and Mennonite region and the barns of the latter are queer enough, as well as their clothes. The men with big black hats and sweeping red whiskers are the worst. The younger women are shortening their skirts noticeably. The country is lovely but so dry.
The next orgy was a general college reception given by Student Government with new faculty and all seniors receiving in a big circle under the trees in what they call Main Court, between the wings of Main Building which same is one of the big old style buildings. The seniors were in cap and gown, all the rest in evening dress, which looked pretty enough though it was so cool that most wore coats. But it sure was a bore. Now I have shaken the hand of every person connected with the place. Last Sunday evening they had a custom called "Pop calls", in which you pop in and out so they say. The older members of both faculty and students groups called on the respective new ones. I must have had some 20 callers. Now tonight it is up to us to return these calls. Miss McDowell of the Biology department and I are going together. Some live in town and we are not going to try to do them. There are some very interesting people in the lot, and I hope to stay longer at some places than others. There are faculty tables on Saturday and Sunday in the Commons so there is some chance to meet them.Otherwise I sit with seven students, assorted classes, nice enough, but not exciting. They are very polite!
Faculty meeting came last Tuesday evening,a bout an hour and a quarter. It opened with prayer, by the head of the Bible department who is Katherine Nevius' father. One report was interesting, about the opening of a new book stall, which gives the equivalent of our Hadley Bookshop though run in the building. There was a report by the committee on the "Resident Foreign Scholar", a method of helping the refugee group by giving college residence to a refugee not yet ready to take a job in this country but yet of distinction. They took pledges to continue this again. There are various students of that refugee group here on scholarships, but the special faculty giving is for one of their own kind. There are to be lectures and concerts.
I have two courses, on in Physiology not unlike the survey course I gave here so long. But of course it is hard to find things in a strange place. The lab. is by no means bad, but yet of course again I miss our own set-up. The members of the department are all new except Betty Peabody which is hard on her. We have heard from Miss White who is better I guess but still very weak. She is in Chicago for treatment, has sublet her house until Jan. 15. I am glad she is not to be in town because it would be hard for both of us. I have written to her what I plan to do in the courses so that she can suggest any changes she would like made. The librarian is a friend of Flora Belle's and she is fine about getting things for the course in History of Biology for me.
So often I think of you at table, whether you are in South Hadley now or just in the days we have been there together so long. This place is not homelike yet, but people are most friendy and the work really is not a proper full time job. So I ought to be able to make it. I have found time this week and to gather in just a few dishes and shall get my breakfasts hereafter, also any other meals I wish. Also I can have a cup of tea or coffee if there seems to be someone with whom to drink. Two or three of the more elderly seem to look on me with approval and two of them I like at first sight very much. One is not so ver elderly - class of 1912 at Goucher, subject history, but I seem to like her. Another is older, head of mathematics. But in any case the time will not be long. I'd like to see the flowers on all those peach trees in the spring, but so far I don't yearn to stay more than the half year. The girls are as usual, with 2 of the five in History of biology promising to be a comfort (that is the group of senior majors) and they and maybe two or three more of the 15 combined juniors and seniors in Physiology look hopeful.
Best wishes to all of you, wherever you may be.
Affectionately,