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The collection consists of completed application forms dated from 1885 to 1887 for the Eastern Educational Bureau of Boston, Massachusetts, which placed teachers in open positions at various schools for a fee. The forms include the teacher's name, address, educational background, professional history and teaching specialty, religion, age, marital and health status, preferences for location and salary, and references. Applicants included both men and women, the bulk were unmarried and residing in Massachusetts, but several applicants were from other New England states as well as New York. Later forms required a photograph and the section where teachers could underline "branches which you can teach" or "can teach especially well" was expanded to include additional areas in math, sciences, English, languages, music and art, and miscellaneous. In addition to more common subject areas, the forms also note topics like surveying, astronomy, political economy, Sanskrit, harp and banjo, telegraphy, and military tactics, among others. Many include annotations, likely of the names or locations of school placements, as well as indications whether fees were paid.

The collection consists of completed application forms dated from 1885 to 1887 for the Eastern Educational Bureau of Boston, Massachusetts, which placed teachers in open positions at various schools for a fee. The bureau was managed by M. T. Rogers, who claimed that his "extensive acquaintance in New England, together with the fact that I am constantly travelling in the interest of my publishing business, greatly increase my ability to help all grades of teachers, to secure good schools."

The forms include the teacher's name, address, educational background, professional history and teaching specialty, religion, age, marital and health status, preferences for location and salary, and references. Applicants included both men and women, the bulk were unmarried and residing in Massachusetts, but several applicants were from other New England states as well as New York. At least three applicants appear to have been immigrants, as their prior education or experience was from Denmark, Belgium, and Germany. Later forms required a photograph and the section where teachers could underline "branches which you can teach" or "can teach especially well" was expanded to include additional areas in math, sciences, English, languages, music and art, and miscellaneous. In addition to more common subject areas, the forms also note topics like surveying, astronomy, political economy, Sanskrit, harp and banjo, telegraphy, and military tactics, among others. Many include annotations, likely of the names or locations of school placements, as well as indications whether fees were paid.

The materials are pasted into a "Patent Back Scrap Book," and several pages appear to have been removed. In addition to the application forms, several pieces of accompanying correspondence or related notes are also present.

The collection consists of completed application forms dated from 1885 to 1887 for the Eastern Educational Bureau of Boston, Massachusetts, which placed teachers in open positions at various schools for a fee. The forms include the teacher's name, address, educational background, professional history and teaching specialty, religion, age, marital and health status, preferences for location and salary, and references. Applicants included both men and women, the bulk were unmarried and residing in Massachusetts, but several applicants were from other New England states as well as New York. Later forms required a photograph and the section where teachers could underline "branches which you can teach" or "can teach especially well" was expanded to include additional areas in math, sciences, English, languages, music and art, and miscellaneous. In addition to more common subject areas, the forms also note topics like surveying, astronomy, political economy, Sanskrit, harp and banjo, telegraphy, and military tactics, among others. Many include annotations, likely of the names or locations of school placements, as well as indications whether fees were paid.

The collection consists of completed application forms dated from 1885 to 1887 for the Eastern Educational Bureau of Boston, Massachusetts, which placed teachers in open positions at various schools for a fee. The bureau was managed by M. T. Rogers, who claimed that his "extensive acquaintance in New England, together with the fact that I am constantly travelling in the interest of my publishing business, greatly increase my ability to help all grades of teachers, to secure good schools."

The forms include the teacher's name, address, educational background, professional history and teaching specialty, religion, age, marital and health status, preferences for location and salary, and references. Applicants included both men and women, the bulk were unmarried and residing in Massachusetts, but several applicants were from other New England states as well as New York. At least three applicants appear to have been immigrants, as their prior education or experience was from Denmark, Belgium, and Germany. Later forms required a photograph and the section where teachers could underline "branches which you can teach" or "can teach especially well" was expanded to include additional areas in math, sciences, English, languages, music and art, and miscellaneous. In addition to more common subject areas, the forms also note topics like surveying, astronomy, political economy, Sanskrit, harp and banjo, telegraphy, and military tactics, among others. Many include annotations, likely of the names or locations of school placements, as well as indications whether fees were paid.

The materials are pasted into a "Patent Back Scrap Book," and several pages appear to have been removed. In addition to the application forms, several pieces of accompanying correspondence or related notes are also present.

The Letters, Documents, and Other Manuscripts of the Duane Norman Diedrich Collection is a selection of individual items compiled by manuscript collector Duane Norman Diedrich (1935-2018) and the William L. Clements Library. The content of these materials reflect the life and interests of D. N. Diedrich, most prominently subjects pertinent to intellectual, artistic, and social history, education, speech and elocution, the securing of speakers for events, advice from elders to younger persons, and many others.

The Letters, Documents, and Other Manuscripts of the Duane Norman Diedrich Collection is a selection of individual items compiled by manuscript collector Duane Norman Diedrich (1935-2018) and the William L. Clements Library. The content of these materials reflect the life and interests of D. N. Diedrich, most prominently subjects pertinent to intellectual, artistic, and social history, education, speech and elocution, the securing of speakers for events, advice from elders to younger persons, and many others.

For an item-level description of the collection, with information about each manuscript, please see the box and folder listing below.

The Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of Public Schools record book contains printed circulars, a copy of the society's constitution, and copies of letters that George M. Stroud, a corresponding secretary, wrote about education in Pennsylvania from 1827-1831.

The Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of Public Schools record book (around 30 pages) contains printed circulars, a copy of the society's constitution, and letters about education in Pennsylvania dated between 1827 and 1831. Manuscript lists and letters were written directly into the volume, and printed items were pasted in.

The volume's first 2 pages contain a manuscript list of teachers with notes on their locations or addresses. A printed copy of the society's constitution is accompanied by the text of an 1809 Pennsylvania legislative act promising financial assistance for students unable to pay tuition fees, as well as a letter about the society's formation with a list of its officers (November 15, 1827, 3 pages total). George M. Stroud, a corresponding secretary, wrote letters from November 10, 1828-November 25, 1829 (12 pages); from December 17, 1829-December 18, 1829 (1 page); and on March 22, 1831 (1 page). Stroud, who promoted the Lancaster system of education, discussed issues related to public education in the state of Pennsylvania and responded to inquiries about school buildings, hiring teachers, and teachers' salaries. An item laid into the volume among the first group of letters contains manuscript copies of 2 resolutions that the society adopted about corresponding members.

The remaining items are pasted-in copies of printed circular letters and memorials. The society's corresponding secretaries sent a letter to supporters with a list of questions about local schools (November 24, 1829, 1 page), as well as 2 memorials to members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly (December 15, 1830, and undated); Stroud copied lists of the circulars' recipients (7 pages total). The book also contains 2 copies of the undated memorial. Addressing the State Legislature, the society encouraged senators and representatives to uphold the spirit of the educational legislation of 1809, and argued that, despite the legislation's provisions, poor children often did not attend school. The front endpaper contains the name of Mrs. W. Herbert Burk of Valley Forge.

The Hastings papers offer an insight into the mind of Ruth Newcomb Hastings, a young woman experiencing southern society for the first time. The letters reveal a young teacher's insecurities about her social and professional status, her reactions to slavery and plantation life, her adjustments to teaching, and her responses to life in a new family and new culture.

The Hastings collection offers an unusually rich insight into the mind of Ruth Newcomb Hastings, a young teacher from the Troy Female Seminary experiencing southern society for the first time. Written during a twelve month span in 1852-1853, these letters reveal the young teacher's insecurities about her social and professional status, her reactions to slavery and plantation life, her adjustments to teaching, and her responses to life in a new family and new culture. Typical "women's" topics, such as dress, food, and family, dominate many of the letters.

As well educated and articulate as she was insecure, Ruth's letters delineate her fragile emotional and mental state as she embarked on a new career in a new culture. Particularly in the first six months on the job, Ruth wrote long, descriptive letters, discussing her new responsibilities and unfamiliar surroundings in admirable detail. Addressed to her sister, Mary, and parents -- who were struggling with their own finances and careers -- Ruth's letters are intensely personal, consumed with concerns over her reception in the Williams' family, and her expectations, frustrations, and failings. The complex interplay of personal, professional, and psychological factors, and of education, plantation life, religion, and family, creates a well rounded portrait of the teacher and her pupils and their respective cultures.

Among the highlights of the collection are an extraordinary account of a hunt for fugitive slaves in June 1852, discussions of southern reactions to Uncle Tom's Cabin, and of the effect of slavery upon the attitudes and behavior of white southerners. Ruth was simultaneously aware of the desensitization that overtook slave holders and prone to it herself. For obvious reasons, her opportunities for opposing slavery were greatly limited, but her sympathies upon reading and discussing Uncle Tom's Cabin seem almost evenly divided between the mistreated slave and the misrepresented southerner.

Although Ruth divulges few specifics about her choice of curriculum, the broad outlines of her course of instruction can be discerned, and the more general philosophical commitments to teaching and women's education are readily evident. The collection is especially useful for analyzing the peculiar position of a resident tutor on a southern plantation, and its value is enhanced by the fact that the tutor is both a disciple of Emma Willard, the most important antebellum women's educator, and an instructor in the home of one of South Carolina's largest slave holders and most flamboyant politicians. The personal negotiations between Ruth and the Williams girls, and the seething conflict she waged with their mother, Sarah Witherspoon Williams, are also worthy of note for depicting a rather unusual, intercultural world of women's relationships, mapped onto the uneven power dynamics of sectional differences, class differences, home and classroom.

At another level, the varying expectations of women -- as women -- in southern and northern society weave throughout the collection. As mother, daughter, sister, friend, teacher, and pupil, the issues surrounding gender expectations produced an endless series of conflicts within Ruth's mind and heart, and as much as gender formed a connection with other women, conflict over gender roles produced barriers as well. An impression also emerges through Ruth's varying experiences with the Williams' daughters and their near relatives, of women's social and intellectual life in South Carolina. Drawn into parties and balls during the holiday season, and enjoying more standard rounds of visits and church-going throughout the year, Ruth found herself alternately in the position of participant and observer, insider and outsider. Ultimately, this instability in position is what makes the collection such a valuable resource.