Hello! So I have a question of family history: has anyone read the letters between Aunt Pedge and Mabel Sturgis?
I was just wandering around the internet kind of at random and found a list of the contents of the Curtis papers left to Radcliffe at http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/deepLink?_collection=oasis&uniqueId=sch00133. What I found especially interesting were the following comments:
"MC never married, but worked in Europe and traveled frequently with her lifelong companion, Mabel Sturgis."
And in the content list:
"Margaret, 1883-1965 (#397-525). Personal correspondence with family, colleagues, and friends. (Some correspondence with Mabel Russell Sturgis (#420, 429-432) is closed until 2001."
Hmmm... So, what do you figure prevailed: cultural homophobia or congenital packratism? Or am I making wild assumptions? Just looking for more reasons to be proud of my progressive family history : )
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7 comments:
I'm presently going to alert the entire family email list that there's breaking news available on the logweb of worldly wideness, courtesy of yourself. otherwise they will not find their way here.
Thought this got posted but I must have put it in the wrong place:
Bella may know most about the letters, but I think there's a rumor that at least some were destroyed, alas, in an unfortunate effort to protect MC's reputation.
I know which one carried the club.
So that's an unfair comment to make, but maybe true?
On the other hand, such a comment is "incorrect" nowadays.
Jim
I heard that they were definitely romantic in nature, but perhaps not explicit. Aunt Peg (I remember her from when I was very young) was a nice but very bulky woman...I remember her telling her golf stories about winning the US open over Sunday dinner. I had the impression that it was a not discussed understanding that indeed they had a liason. The interesting subtext is of the five "old maids" perhaps some died virgin and others (Aunt Fan>?) were rumored to have had early illicit heteroxexual affairs and then retired from the lists so to speak.
Bella and Elinor spent the most time with family documents I think.
Cheers from LA
Hi,
I heard that the letters were romantic but not explicit, but that the liason was common knowledge in North Shore circles. Also interesting is the sexual orientation of the other five aunts, I have speculated which died virgin and which (Aunt Fan?) had unhappy hetero affairs that turned them from men...in any event these women surely lead public acceptance for what woman were supposed to do in society by at least a generation. As a male it is difficult to find strong role models, but among the generations of strong willed long lived women there is rich ground for role models among the women.
If you have not read it I suggest Aunt Ibby's book "the Aunts" for great anecdotes etc.
Cheer from LA,
Michael
PS any family in LA area? MB
if the letters became available after 2001, and the archives at harvard are 'open to the public', cannot anyone such as yourself submit a request to view them?
I just found this post. There weren't a lot of letters, but the ones I read were quite tender and sweet. As I recall Aunt Ibby was very clear with me that this was just how friendships were then, between women and that I shouldn't read too much into it. (But at the time I remember thinking, Well I hope they were lovers.)
I had lots of other theories, as I recall, as well, for instance about Aunt Bog's migraines...
I wish I could remember more -- I read all the letters over 20 years ago when I was helping with the book. I don't know if they were destroyed. As Michael B. suggest, do read "The Aunts."
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