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Dorothy Foster correspondence, 1914-1923.Finding AidEncoding funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.© 2003
Biographical NoteDorothy Foster was born on July 1, 1883, in Salem, Massachusetts. She received an A.B. from Bryn Mawr College in 1904 and an A.M. from Radcliffe College in 1908. Shortly thereafter, she became an instructor at Mount Holyoke College in the English Department. She retired in 1948, after publishing many articles. Dorothy Foster died on January 27, 1968, in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Return to the Table of Contents Scope and Contents of the CollectionThe Dorothy Foster papers are made up of correspondence, writings, biographical material and photographs. Correspondence includes letters to her father, James M. Foster, written during research trips to England in 1914-1915, Scotland in 1921 and Germany in 1922. They are handwritten and provide detailed descriptions during and after WWI and reflect her particular interest in the theater. Writings consist of Foster's book, "The Earliest Precursor of Our Present-Day Monthly Miscellanies"; articles written for newspapers, some pertaining to Sir George Etherege; and notes about the Mount Holyoke Dramatic Club's affairs. The biographical material includes copies of newspaper articles, magazine clippings, and a retirement fundraiser bulletin chronicling Foster's life. Also, copies of articles pertaining to a cousin, Richard Cooley's China Shop and a notice of offering of the Dorothy Foster property by Mount Holyoke College. Return to the Table of Contents Search TermsReturn to the Table of Contents Summary of CorrespondenceDorothy Foster came to Mount Holyoke as a Reader in the Department of English Literature immediately after receiving her undergraduate degree at Bryn Mawr. She spent some years as Instructor and then while on leave worked on her research in England during 1914-1915. During the second semester of 1920-21, when she was Associate Professor in the Department, she returned to work this time on Sir George Etherege, a Seventeenth Century dramatist. She was in London again for the Summers of 1922 and 1923. During these visits she wrote regularly to her father in Boston. The dates for these letters are: Dorothy's field of interest was drama, especially Shakespeare. The 1914 trip was her first visit to England and was made possible, evidently, by a legacy from her mother who had died the previous January. All the letters reflect her excitement at seeing so many places about which she had read and studied. She reported in detail on all the literary sites and all the museums she visited; every Sunday she attended a different church, each one carefully described. England was at war and almost every letter comments on wartime London and the news in the British newspapers. She was a frequent theatre goer and sent back long explanations of plot along with critical comments on the performances. She attended poetry readings and lectures, including one by George Bernard Shaw in 1922 (letter of June 22). She found a residential hotel in Russell Square, the Whitehall, near the British Museum where she worked. Charges were 30 shillings a week for room and board. She thought the "table better than Peterson Lodge" at Mount Holyoke (October 26, 1914). Lunch was out at some restaurant where she might get a vegetable dish, roll, tart and cocoa for $0.14. London houses and buildings were cold and she never could understand why in all kinds of weather "everyone lives with windows open" (March 8, 1921). In the spring from May to July she worked at the Bodleian at Oxford, after spending a week in Stratford where she marched in the Shakespeare birthday procession and attended Shakespeare performances. At Romeo and Juliet she was the only one seated in the first gallery who was not in evening dress (May 2, 1915). While at Oxford she gloried in the boating and swimming on the river and long walks through English lanes and meadows full of wildflowers. When she returned in 1921 she again stayed at the Whitehall although she found London a far grimmer place than in wartime. Unemployment was acute, the coal strike serious. Toast was not available in restaurants because of the fuel shortage (May 16, 1921). Her first letter after arriving in England dated February 25, 1921 mentions Genevieve Schmich, Mount Holyoke 1920, a rising star in the Benson Theatre Company and all the letters after this time make frequent references to her. Dorothy accompanied the Benson group to Scotland when they went on tour in April. She was even invited to join in a Julius Caesar mob scene but decided it was "too much nuisance" to get made up. In June she and Genevieve rented a Rover roadster and drove through southern England. She sent a description of their trip to the Boston Transcript where it was published on September 28, 1921 (copy in Folio of Genevieve Schmich LD 7096.6 V.I). During the Summer of 1922 she visited Germany seeking material on Etherege and wrote of conditions there and the bitterness toward foreigners. These letters which are long and well written are of special interest because of the descriptions of sites associated with English literary history and the descriptions of wartime and post-war London. Of note: CR Ludwig July 1994 Return to the Table of Contents |
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