Letters, Dorothy Foster (September -December 1902)

Folder 2 of the Dorothy Foster Collection contains letters from September 30th 1902 to December 19th 1902, covering the first semester of Dorothy Foster’s junior year at Bryn Mawr. Against the backdrop of rigorous schoolwork and an active social life, Foster remarks in these letters on how much she misses being at home. In her active interest in the goings-on of her family and their wellbeing, she provides the reader with a clear contrast in the paces of everyday life and life at Bryn Mawr; her evenings are busy with visiting students and faculty alongside exploring Philadelphia, and her days are weighed down with worries of oral examinations and lab assessments. Also detailed in these letters is the viewpoint of a student struggling financially at Bryn Mawr, as seen in her hesitance to ask M. Carey Thomas about scholarship opportunities and her insistence that she provide her friends with ample holiday gifts, so long as her finances may permit it. While seemingly mundane, Foster’s letters explore the divide between wealthy students and those who come from lower classes. From this perspective, these letters exemplify the tensions of the early days of women’s collegiate education as Foster attempts to hide her family’s financial status in her day to day activities.