![\"The](\"https:\/\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\/ls\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2023\/11\/Edna-Walker-Letter-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a>The letters varied in length, with some of them bullet pointing their experience over a page or two and others reaching over 10 pages of anecdotes, misadventures, and memories. Below are some notable letter excerpts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cConsternation when a governess \u2018Dolly\u2019 found that when she gave \u201cextension\u201d on Saturday night for students to go to the \u201cPictures\u201d they had meant the Cinema not the Art Gallery.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2014Anonymous (student 1913-15)<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI was on the corridor officially known as (I think) \u2018Lower\u2019 corridor, but known to students as \u2018Hades\u2019, because of the temperature caused in the close proximity to the laundry.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2014Ruth Cannon (student 1932-34)<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCommon Room one of the few attractive rooms in College \u2013 upholstered chairs and settees \u2013 used for Saturday night dances \u2013 no men!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2014Anonymous (student 1913-15)<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe bed cover (white) was known as an Elephant. The striped army blanket a \u2018Tiger\u2019.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2014Anonymous (student 1913-15)<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWar broke out the very week I reported for duty at my first school.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2014Isabel Williams (student 1912-1914)<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI was given extra-special permission to attend lectures by Dr. Pollitt [?] at Liverpool University one evening a week.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2014Kathleen Beswick (student 1923-25)<\/p>\n\n\n\n And, my personal favourite excerpt:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnother item which may be of interest happened at Christmas 1924. I was a College Prefect and I plucked up enough courage to ask Miss E. M. Smith, Principal, if we could invite men to our Christmas Dance and if we could wear coloured evening dresses. Hitherto, our evening dresses were all white, and we had had no men for partners. We just danced with each other. The result was a bus-load of students from Chester Training College for men, Came to our Dance. At least two of those men married two Edge Hill students.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/em>\u2014Kathleen Beswick (student 1923-25)<\/p>\n\n\n\n But one question kept returning: who is Mr. Eason? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Most of the writers begin in similar ways, usually referring to their letters being in response to a Magazine article. We assumed the \u2018magazine\u2019 to be one of the Edge Hill College Magazines, and promptly found the 1965 edition. And, to our excitement, there was an article by T. W. Eason called \u2018An Appeal to all Guild Members\u2019. The first sentence in the article read \u2018Members of the Guild will be interested to know that the College is proposing to establish a History of Edge Hill College unit.\u2019 An early Edge Hill archive! <\/p>\n\n\n\n The purpose of the unit was threefold: Firstly, \u2018to make permanent arrangements for the present and future keeping of records, materials, and objects likely to be of interest to future generations of students or others concerned with the college\u2019, secondly, to establish \u2018a collection of objects, books, and manuscripts [connected] with Edge Hill College since its foundation in Liverpool in 1885\u2019, and thirdly, \u2018to publish, as soon as it can be conveniently arranged, a history of the College.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n We theorised that Mr. Eason may have published a book about Edge Hill\u2019s history that included some stories from the letters, but no such book has been found. We have, however, discovered an article by Mr. Eason in an issue of the \u2018Edge\u2019 magazine that, according to him, \u2018is not <\/em>a history of the college, which remains to be written and is in preparation; it is no more than a few reflections inspired by that history.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of my first roles in the archive was to research the first 25 years of early Edge Hill students (1885-1909). It was \u2013 and, with the project being unfinished, is<\/em> \u2013 a joy to uncover the lives and stories of the hundreds of students I was researching. So, this section of Mr. Eason\u2019s article resonated with me and my research in the archive:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHave you ever looked at a nephew, friend, your husband or wife, and thought, \u2018How little I really know about you\u2019? All historical research is an exploration of a dark continent, of which the bare outline may be known, a few settlements and river courses, and no more; and this is none the less true when the object of enquiry is so familiar a figure in our lives, so strong a centre of our affections as is the college in which we have worked and lived.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Not to pick favourites, but a letter signed off by \u2018K. W. Wild\u2019 soon stood out from the rest. Katherine Winifred Wild, student at Edge Hill Teacher Training college (1907-10), wrote many insightful anecdotes about her time at College, as well as some about her time after.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Miss. Sarah Hale, head mistress during Katherine\u2019s time at the college, must have had a positive impression of her, as Katherine says \u2018[included is] a snap of Miss Hale, very like her, but failing to show, as no snap could, her wonderful eyes.\u2019 Unfortunately, any additional slips of photographs included in these letters weren\u2019t found with their respective letters during the stocktake; they may be in the archive or misplaced at some point, it\u2019s still a mystery to us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Regarding another member of staff, Miss. \u2018Dolly\u2019 Dewhurst, renowned for her strictness (though, according to Katherine, \u2018she did have a heart\u2019!), she discusses her escapades with spelling:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDolly\u2019s method of correction was to allot a mark out of 20 & take off me for every spelling mistake, & I left her in the awkward predicament of having to record a minus mark.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n However, despite her apparent spelling struggles, Katherine then goes on to say:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018[\u2026] later, I took a 1st Hons. in Philosophy at London and C. U. Press published a book of mine, I never could spell.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n And we have recently acquired Katherine\u2019s book for the archive, as shown here, a first edition from 1938!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Katherine\u2019s book is still being printed today and sold by major book retailers such as Waterstones and WH Smith. Certain online reviews about \u2018Intuition\u2019 comment on how relevant it still is, given it was written in the 1930s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Following some extensive research using various online and in-archive sources about Katherine, I have been able to build up a chronology of her life. Here is the current timeline of the major life events for Katherine:<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1888<\/strong> – Born between April to June (no fixed date has been found yet) in 1888, Lancashire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1907<\/strong> – In the Martriculation Results section of the Manchester Courier, she is listed as attending Clarence Street College, Liverpool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1907-10<\/strong> – Attends Edge Hill Teacher Training College on Durning Road, Liverpool. Her index card tells us she leaves with a teaching mark of C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1910<\/strong> – Attains B.A. (first-class honours) in Philosophy in London. In Katherine\u2019s letter, she says, \u2018Miss Hale had read Moral Philosophy at Cambridge & psychology was well on its way\u2019. We have theorised Miss Hale\u2019s impression on Katherine in philosophy. We can assume this degree was the foundation for her publication in 1938.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1910-12<\/strong> – Assistant Mistress at Liverpool Education Committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1912-15<\/strong> – Assistant Mistress at Rice Lane Council School, Liverpool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1914<\/strong> – Attains an M.A. in Liverpool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1917-19<\/strong> – English Mistress at County School, Aberaeron, Ceridigion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1919-?<\/strong> – Senior English Mistress at Secondary School for Girls, Stockton-on-Tees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1938 (Feb 16th)<\/strong> – Appears in Liverpool Daily post promoting her book, \u2018Intuition\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1938 (May 16th<\/strong>) – Mentioned in The Scotsman under \u2018INTUITION, Emotions and their Regions of Influence\u2019, a review of her book. The reviewer (unnamed) states: \u2018Miss Wild\u2019s is in every way a good book, a work of much distinction, particularly well written, dealing with an elusive subject prudently [and] tactfully [\u2026]\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1938<\/strong> – Publishes \u2018Intuition\u2019 with Cambridge University Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1939<\/strong> – Living with Florence Sweetinburgh, both of whom are unmarried and Secondary School Mistresses, in Egglescliffe, Durham.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1965<\/strong> – Writes letter to Mr. Eason regarding her college memories following his call out in the College Magazine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1970 (Apr 23rd)<\/strong> – Dies in lorry collision with three other women including Florence Sweetinburgh, Florence\u2019s sister Evelyn, and Muriel Whitehouse. The Hull Daily Mail on Friday 24 April 1970 had a column about the collision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Katherine is the student I chose to celebrate and spotlight in this blog because she\u2019s the only one (as of yet) we\u2019ve done extensive research on. One of the most exciting parts of the discovery of these letters (and the Archive in general!) is the research to do and the questions to answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All records included as images in this blog can be seen at the Edge Hill Archive in Catalyst.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you would like to book an appointment at the archive, donate anything, or share stories (I\u2019m sounding like Mr. Eason, aren\u2019t I?), don\u2019t hesitate to contact us!<\/p>\n\n\n\n By Jack Bennett, Archive Assistant<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n To find out more about our archive you can visit their webpage<\/a> or browse their collections online<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Part I: The Letters Recently in the archive, we undertook one of our stocktakes, which is the process of going through each individual item we have and making a note of any repackaging, digitisation, cataloguing needed etc. The stocktake is also a great way of finding some of the exciting (and sometimes mysterious) treasures we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2439,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[135231],"class_list":["post-21804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-archive"],"yoast_head":"\n<\/a><\/a>Part II: Mr Eason<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>
in the 1965 College Magazine – Page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a>
in the 1965 College Magazine – Page 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a>
in the 1965 College Magazine – Page 3<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a>Part III: K.W. Wild<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nDo you want to know more?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Learn more about the archive<\/h2>\n\n\n\n