The Woodson recently received a wonderful and unexpected gift from the family of H.A. Wilson. I’ve written before about his daughter Joan and my discovery of her high school scrapbook in her father’s papers. Much to my delight her daughter has now sent us Joan’s scrapbook from her years as a Rice student. Here it is, still in the box:
And inside the front cover, this:
I’ve been reading it slowly and carefully. Joan was a meticulous record keeper, saving clippings, letters, report cards, drama programs, and noting month by month in the margins all her social activities. It provides an extraordinarily rich portrait of a young woman’s life on campus in the middle of the 1930s and I look forward to writing more about her soon.
Here’s a little snippet from the first page, Joan getting registered:
