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     MANUSCRIPTS and ARCHIVAL MATERIAL

Harriet Newell Haskell papers

 Collection
Identifier: MSS 16377

Scope and Contents

Printed journals belonging to Harriet Newell Haskell, principal of Monticello Female Seminary from 1867 to 1907 in Godfrey, Illinoise. Journals include "The Fairfax Review" 1882-1884; "Monticello Ladies Seminary" 1879-1882, 1886-1887, 1899-1900; "The Echo" 1904-1906, 1911; "Town Topics Financial Bureau" 1919, "Town Topics Journal of Society" 1921.

Dates

  • Creation: 1879-1919

Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open for research use.

Biographical / Historical

Harriet Newell Haskell (1835-1907) was an educator and administrator who in 1867, became the principal of the Monticello Seminary, an American Seminary Junior College and academy in Godfrey Illinois, the oldest female seminary in the West.

Miss Haskell was born in Waldborough, Maine on January 14, 1835. Her father was Bela B. Haskell, a banker and ship-builder and a citizen of Lincoln County. He served two terms in the Maine legislature and was collector of customs of his district under President Taylor.

She was educated in Castleton Collegiate Seminary, Vermont, and Mount Holyoke Seminary, Massachusetts, from which school she was graduated with honor in 1855. An unlimited capacity for fun was one of Miss Haskell's prominent traits, and was one of the points in which her nature touched that of a school-girl, making her relation to them one of unbounded sympathy. She never lost this characteristic in all the serious responsibilities of her life, and therefore she held the very key to the school girl's heart. She was a fine scholar, an able critic and also preeminently a Christian woman.

Her first experience in teaching was in Boston, in the Franklin school. Afterwards she was principal of the high school in her own town, and later in Castleton Collegiate School. It was while in that school the Reverend Truman Post, D. D., president of the board of trustees of Monticello Seminary wrote to a friend in Maine, asking him if he could recommend to him a woman to take the then vacant place of principal of Monticello. The friend replied that there was only one such woman in the world, and that was Miss Haskell, of Castleton College, but that she could not be removed from the State of Vermont. After three years of solicitation, Miss Haskell became principal of Monticello, in 1868.

The Monticello Seminary was destroyed by fire in November 1888, just as the institution was beginning its second half-century. Through Miss Haskell's energetic efforts a temporary building was put up, and the school was re-opened with eighty-nine of the one-hundred-thirty young women who were in the institution when the fire came. In less than two years, new buildings were erected. The corner-stone of the new building was laid on June 10, 1889. The new seminary was opened in 1890 with one-hundred-fifty students, managed by Miss Haskell, whose ideas dominated the institution in every detail.

While attending Mount Holyoke, Haskell made the acquaintance of Emily G. Alden, and the two became constant companions and had a common home for 55 years. Alden was a teacher of physiology, zoology and United States history at Monticello. Haskell's death in 1907 in St. Louis, Missouri was due to heart disease. She had been ill for some time

Based on this sources: https://books.google.com/books?id=zXEEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA361#v=onepage&q&f=false https://www.revolvy.com/page/Harriet-Newell-Haskell

http://www.haskellfamilyhistory.com/haskell/4/106631.html

Extent

0.5 Cubic Feet (One document box. Box 1.)

Language of Materials

English

Immediate Source of Acquisition

This collection was purchased from Franklin Gilliam Rare Books by the Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia on October 31, and November 11, 2008

Title
Harriet Newell Haskell papers
Status
In Progress
Author
Ellen Welch
Date
12/11/18
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
Undetermined
Script of description
Code for undetermined script
Language of description note
English

Repository Details

Part of the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library Repository

Contact:
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
P.O. Box 400110
University of Virginia
Charlottesville Virginia 22904-4110 United States