Mary Edwards Calhoun

As the correspondence relevant to Mary Edwards Calhoun covers only the period from April until December 1913, little in that correspondence is germane to her work at the college. However, many of the letters about Miss Calhoun and those to and from Miss Calhoun and Dr. Anna J. McKeag reveal Dr. McKeag’s high impression of her, respect for her, and her eagerness to have her on the faculty. When Miss Calhoun applied in April 1913 to become a member of the English department, she noted that in 1898 she had received a diploma from Teachers College, Columbia University, that in 1904 she had received her BA degree from Barnard College, that in 1905 she had received her MA degree from Columbia University and that she had taught at the Tome School and the Horace Mann School of Columbia University. Thirty-nine years old when she applied, she received strong and enthusiastic recommendations from her professors and principals.

After having received these outstanding recommendations from those who knew Miss Calhoun well, Dr. McKeag on a trip to New York interviewed Miss Calhoun, who lived in the city with her sister, a worker in a Settlement House. Dr. McKeag was impressed with Miss Calhoun who stated that she also had two other new opportunities for employment and, in addition, was somewhat reluctant to leave her sister. Dr. McKeag was so impressed with Miss Calhoun that she asked her to come to Chambersburg to meet the committee of the Board of Trustees, which would make the final determination based upon Dr. McKeag’s recommendation that Miss Calhoun become the Edgar Memorial Professor of English and chair of the English department. She stated that Miss Calhoun could take the “through sleeper” from New York at 8:30 in the evening and arrive in Chambersburg the next morning at 6:52 and that she could return to New York on a through night train.

The Board of Trustees accepted Dr. McKeag’s recommendation that Miss Calhoun be hired at a salary of $1400 and home to become the Edgar Memorial Professor English and chair of the department who would supervise two other members of the department, Miss Chandler and Miss Macmillan, and be responsible for the “distribution of courses.” Dr. McKeag in her confirmation of Miss Calhoun’s appointment stated that, since the appointment was now official, she could add to the title page of her forthcoming book about American literature the words” Edgar Memorial Professor of English in Wilson College.” In ensuing letters Dr. McKeag asserted her pleasure that Miss Calhoun would be coming to campus and would chair the English department.

In consequent letters Dr. McKeag and Miss Calhoun explored ideas and plans for the department. The latter thought that the other two instructors should teach the courses with which they were most familiar and that she should teach the freshmen. In exchanging ideas about possible textbooks, Dr. McKeag suggested that Miss Calhoun might want to use the book about American literature that she had written although Miss Calhoun because of copyright difficulties she was experiencing demurred. After some discussion they agreed that they would not choose textbooks until after the instructors had met their classes. The one exception was a monograph, “Self-Cultivation in English,” written by Dr. Palmer of Harvard University, that reflected Miss Calhoun’s attitude toward the study of English. Dr. McKeag was agreeable to ordering enough copies of this publication at five cents a copy for the incoming students.

In October Dr. McKeag appointed Miss Calhoun to be a member of the Executive Committee of the Faculty of Wilson College and to be chair of the committee on Publications and Literary Societies. The last two letters in the Wilson file refer to the work of these committees. In November Dr. McKeag in responding to a recent meeting of the latter committee reminded Miss Calhoun that, since the college “has charge of all public meetings,” it was “unsuitable that anything be read in the auditorium without first having had some kind of faculty review.” She said that during the preceding academic year a student had read a paper in which without knowledge of their meaning had used “phrases unsuited to a general meeting.” In a letter written in December Dr. McKeag mentioned without citing specifics a clipping she had read in a local newspaper and had, therefore, concluded that their own plan would not be feasible. After this cryptic first paragraph she stated that she did want to have some “good moving pictures” on campus,” a “solution to the problem,” a policy better than “sending students to town for moving pictures.”

These letters, written in a businesslike but conversational tone, reveal the thoughts of two women who could share ideas and who respected each other’s opinions.

Note: from The Pharetra of December 1913 “Reading from American Literature by Miss Mary Calhoun of Wilson College and Miss Emma MacAlarney of the Horace Mann School is to be published by Ginn & Company this spring. The book is a compact anthology adapted to high school students and college undergraduates and ranges in time from the colonial days to the present.”