Documents - Voices From The Past
One of my favorite things about researching Where Girls Come First was finding documents that were like voices from the past – 19th century girls’ letters home from boarding school, advice columns from old and yellowing student newspapers, journal entries by the brave women who founded these early schools. Some but not all of these historical documents found their way into the book. Here are a few of the documents that I found particularly fun or compelling. –Ilana DeBare
- A “dame school” in the early 1800s
- In great want of something to eat (1823, 1860)
- The most dangerous kind of reading (1829)
- I Have Brought My Daughter to You to Be Taught Everything (1853)
- God Give Us Girls (early 1900s)
- A 1915 guide to girls’ schools
