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Letters from Wadawannuck Seminary, Stonington, Massachusetts, 1854

Kendall-Brown Family Papers

The Kendall-Brown Family Papers includes letters from Mary, Sarah, and perhaps Nellie, who were students at the Wadawannuck Female Seminary in Stonington, Massachusets. Only one letter is dated, but comparing dates with letters from Ingham Collegiate Institute, it appears that Mrs. Sackett, the principal, taught at the Ingham Collegiate Institute in LeRoy, New York in May and October 1854 and near the ocean in Massachusetts in June.

The Kendall-Brown letters reveal a family of female students from Rome, New York, who enjoy learning piano, painting, and drawing at female seminaries. The candor and informality of their letters sheds light on the art curriculum of the time.

The letters are transcribed literally to duplicate punctuation and spelling except when to do so would obscure the meaning.

Letter to Sarah from Mary and Ellen, Undated

Wadawannuck Letter

[Kendall-Brown: Wadawannuck Seminary, undated, page 1]

[Top margin]
and then to LeRoy through to Charlotteville. I must stop for it is late &tc. Please receive this with much love to all from Ellen


[body of letter]
You may do as you choose about History & grammer but you know how anxious I am that you should spend a great deal of time on the two arithmetics. I want you to go very thorough for you know that arithmetic is the foundation of all other mathical studies. I want you to go ahead in music as fast as you can; practice all that you can. [Letter continues with other issues.
[Signed] Mary C. Kendall

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Mary (?) to Nellie, June 28, 1854

Wadawannuck Letter, pg. 1

[Kendall-Brown: Wadawannuck Seminary, June 28, 1854, page 1]

[Letter concerns Fourth of July festivities. She will not attend.] They have put a carpet on to the dining room and the drawing classes meet down in the basement. Mrs. Sackett stays and sits in No. 9 and the piano is moved in to her old sitting room. [news about other students]
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Wadawannuck Letter, page 2

[Kendall-Brown: Wadawannuck Seminary, June 28, 1854, page 2]

I have my examination composition all done but copying, and there is not one word of it truth. Mrs. Sackett had palpitations last night and I practiced in the basement. [news about end of school and the upcoming visit home.] I suppose the Albany stage runs as usual or is the RailRoad finished [More about family acquaintances.]

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Letter from Wadawannack Seminary, Dated Saturday Evening

Letter From Wadawannuck Seminary

[Kendall-Brown: Nellie(?) to Family, Wadawannuck Seminary, undated, page 1]

Mary wanted to know about my studies - well, I have Algebra French and music, I have been
[End of page 1]

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Wadawannuck Seminary, Undated, page 2

[Kendall-Brown: Nellie(?) to Family, Wadawannuck Seminary, undated, page 2]

sitting in when the History class recited, leaving the getting of my lesson optional with me. but she had a long talk with S. the other day and she said I need not learn the dates but that if I could find time she wished me to read over my lesson before going to class and then recite what I could from memory. This is to improve my conversational powers and I assist me in forming my ideas into suitable words. My time is all divided up and I have only a few moments here and there, still I've managed to knit the Lafradora for mother to ware under her Cloak instead of that brown merino sack. I have not quite finished it - but used up all my purple yarn.
[End of page 2]
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Reading Between the Lines

The writer seems to have significant latitude in what she studies. Compare it to the experience of Amelia at Mt. Holyoke Seminary.

'Latitude' is what educators like Emma Willard hoped to reduce in women's higher education, fearing that students who chose subjects according to their own whim would fail to be educated in a disciplined way. After reading these letters, do you agree with Willard?
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