UVA History of Childhood, Parenting, and Family Building-addition 72 Velma Sandlin teacher training diary

Content Description

This material contains references involving racism. The purpose of this note is to give users the opportunity to decide whether they need or want to view these materials or, at least, to mentally or emotionally prepare themselves to view the materials. This addition to MSS 16758, The University of Virginia Collection on the History of Childhood, Parenting, and Family Building, contains a teacher training diary of Velma Sandlin. The diary has sixty-one written pages with various clippings, theater reviews, photographs, and other ephemera like candy wrappers and seeds pasted in. The diary's cover reads, "Summer 1921 at SHNI." Sam Houston Normal Institute (SHNI), now Sam Houston State University, located in Huntsville, Texas, was founded in 1879 to train teachers for the public schools of Texas. The diary documents Velma and her girlfriends' college life over the summer session. The women lived in a dorm called Clark House and attended classes on campus. The contents of Velma's diary reflect her daily life: her work at school, her relationship with a group of six classmates with whom she had become close, the clothes and cosmetics she buys, correspondence with a boyfriend in Reagan, Texas, and other flirtations with local boys. She discusses church meetings, plays, musicals, plays, and lectures with her friends. She mentions attending a "Passing Show" featuring actors in blackface and an "Apache Dance" performed by white actors. Various letters to family members and friends are pasted and tipped in throughout. The diary entries are dated from June 6 to August 21, 1921. A photograph of Velma Sandlin and Rosa Dodson, a classmate, is pasted opposite the first diary entry.

Acquisition Type

Purchase

Provenance

Purchased from Marginalia Rare Books, 30 August 2024.

Language of Description

English

Script of Description

Latin

Restrictions Apply

No