Series I. “Helen Taft Manning, Personal (Bulk, 1915-1960s), 1907 - 1943

The materials in this series are private correspondence between Helen Taft Manning and friends and family members, with a large variety of personal memorabilia: Photo Albums of her family, colleagues and friends, grade books, academic progress reports for her two daughters’ secondary education career and their baptism certificates and various medical records. There is also an invitation for the wedding of Helen Taft Manning and Frederick J. Manning. In particular, this series contains a good amount of almost daily letters from Frederick Manning to Helen from 1919 to 1920, right before their marriage. These letters can thus shed further light on the nature of their courtship. This series also contain correspondence with their two daughters while they were in school at Chatham Hall. There are also a few of their daughters’ personal items such as birth certificates and passports. Many of the personal letters are addressed from individuals using only their first names. Nonetheless because a large amount of these letters are addressed to Helen Taft Manning, they can provide a different perspective on her life, with an insight on how her peers, friends and colleagues viewed her. Some of the people in these letters, such as her husband Frederick Manning, friend “Hezzie,” already appear in the “Series I Personal” in the existing “Helen Taft Manning Collection.” This series can also thus function as an apt supplement for that collection. The Ramsden letters contain details on how the Manning Family sponsored the two Ramsden siblings from England so they could stay with the Manning family and attend school in the United States during the first years of the Second World War. There are also letters on this subject in the “Helen Taft Manning Papers Collection.”