Contents

Administrative Information

Biographical Note

Scope and Contents of the Collection

Organization of the Collection

Caroline A. Henderson Papers, 1908-1967. MS 0547

Finding Aid

Finding aid prepared by Finding aid prepared by Lori Satter.

Encoding funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

2011

Administrative Information

Processing Information note

Original arrangement and finding aid by Patricia Albright, 2003. Updated arrangement and finding aid by Lori Satter, 2011.

Preferred Citation note

Please use the following format when citing materials from this collection:

Caroline A. Henderson Papers, Mount Holyoke College, Archives and Special Collections, South Hadley, Massachusetts

Conditions Governing Access note

Unrestricted

Conditions Governing Use note

Unrestricted

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Biographical Note

Caroline Agnes Boa was born on April 7, 1877, in Wisconsin. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1901 and taught high school English and Latin in Red Oak, Iowa until 1903. She then taught in Des Moines, Iowa until 1907. Henderson took up a "claim" to land in the panhandle of western Oklahoma, not far from the New Mexico border. On May 7, 1908 she married Wilhelmine Eugene Henderson, a farmer. They lived on a farm in Eva, Oklahoma and had one daughter, Eleanor in 1909. Eleanor enrolled at the University of Kansas and completed a BA and MD at the university. In order to help finance her education, Caroline went to Lawrence and shared an apartment with Eleanor, while teaching school part-time. Caroline also enrolled in graduate courses in English and in 1935 received a Masters of Arts degree. Caroline and her husband lived in Oklahoma through the worst years of the Great Depression and their farm was located in the heart of the "Dust Bowl" region. Caroline's work on the farm included housekeeping, canning, cooking, tending the vegetable and flower gardens, ironing, as well as caring for chickens. In the final years of her life, Henderson suffered from an injured wrist and deteriorating eyesight. As a result of health issues, she and her husband relocated in the winter of 1965 to live with Eleanor in Arizona. Caroline A. Henderson died on August 4, 1966, in Phoenix, Arizona.

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Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Caroline Agnes Boa Henderson Papers consist of Correspondence, Writings, an Herbarium, Biographical Information and a Photograph. The Correspondence series chiefly contains letters written to friends, especially Rose Alden, Mount Holyoke College class of 1901, describing not only the yearly struggles with crop production and natural disasters on the family farm in Eva, Oklahoma, but also family matters, including the development of Henderson's daughter, Eleanor. Of particular note are Henderson's letters regarding the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. The second body of correspondence includes letters Caroline and Eleanor exchanged between 1948 and 1961. The content of these letters details news about Eleanor's son David, who was born in 1947 and her family's life in Phoenix, as well as her medical work, Caroline's travels to the West, domestic issues, the weather and books. Writings include published articles in the April 13, 1913 edition of the "Practical Farmer" and "The Ladies' World", in which Henderson had a regular column entitled "Our Homestead Lady". The articles principally discuss crop harvesting and seasonal changes related to farm life. Caroline Henderson's herbarium makes up the third series and contains approximately 30 samples of local flora and fauna native to Iowa and South Hadley, Massachusetts. Biographical Information includes an account of Rose Alden's visit to Henderson's farm in 1940 as well as the sub-series: Eleanor Henderson Materials that document Eleanor's time at the University of Kansas including handwritten notes and typescript drafts of an essay Eleanor wrote on March 20, 1930 while at the University as well as materials from her medical career. The fifth series: a Photograph includes an image of Caroline's nine-year-old grandson David Eugene Grandstaff dressed as a frontier doctor for a Sunday school pageant.

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Organization of the Collection

This collection is organized into five series:

• Correspondence 1898-1965
• Writings 1912-1955
• Herbarium
• Biographical Information ca. 1930-1960
• Photograph

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Correspondence 1898-1966, n.d. (5.0 boxes)

This series consists of letters written to and from Carolina Boa Henderson between 1898 and 1965. The majority of the letters were written between Henderson and her daughter Eleanor between 1930 and 1960. The contents of the letters include the weather, farming conditions, travel, Eleanor's education and medical practice, as well as comments about Caroline's deteriorating health.

Correspondence 1898-1919

Correspondence ca. 1930-1939

Correspondence 1928-1932

Correspondence 1933

Correspondence 1934-1936

Correspondence 1937

Correspondence 1938-1939, 1942-1949

Correspondence ca. 1950-1959

Correspondence ca. 1950-1959

Correspondence 1950

Correspondence 1951 January-April

Correspondence 1951 May-June

Correspondence 1951 July-September

Correspondence 1951 October-December

Correspondence 1952 January-March

Correspondence 1952 April

Correspondence 1952 May-August

Correspondence 1952 September-December

Correspondence 1953 January-April

Correspondence 1953 May-August

Correspondence 1953 September-December

Correspondence 1954 January-August

Correspondence 1954 September-December

Correspondence 1955

Correspondence 1956 January-April

Correspondence 1956 May-December

Correspondence 1957 January-March

Correspondence 1957 April-June

Correspondence 1957 July-September

Correspondence 1957 October-December

Correspondence 1958 January-March

Correspondence 1958 April-May

Correspondence 1958 June-September

Correspondence 1958 October-December

Correspondence 1959 January-May

Correspondence 1959 June-September

Correspondence 1959 October-December

Correspondence 1960 January-March

Correspondence 1960 April-July

Correspondence 1961-1963

Correspondence 1964

Correspondence 1965 January-April

Correspondence 1965-1966

Undated

Writings 1912 - 1955 (4 folders)

This series includes articles Caroline Henderson wrote that were published between 1912 and 1914, in the Practical Farmer, as well as an advice column published monthly between 1915 and 1917 in the Ladies World magazine. Henderson's essays The Woman who Raised her hand: a true story from life, in a letter to the Editor, propounding a problem in ethics which readers will please help to solve, Bringing in the Sheaves, Loneliness, and Raising Turkeys are also included in this series.

Writings 1912-1915

Writings 1916-1918

Writings 1927, 1931, 1955, undated

Publications based on Caroline Boa Henderson's Writings 1980-1981

Herbarium 1898 (1.0 Box)

Biographical Information circa 1940 September 15 (2.0 Folders)

This series contains a typescript account fellow Mount Holyoke College classmate, Ruth Alden wrote after visiting Caroline Boa Henderson on her farm in Oklahoma in September 1940.

A visit to the home of Caroline Boa Henderson ca. 1940

Eleanor Henderson Materials 1929-1960

Photographs 1956 (1.0 Folder)

This series contains a single photograph of Caroline Boa Henderson's grandson David Eugene Grandstaff aged nine years old dressed as a frontier doctor for a Sunday school pageant.