Letters home, September-October 1918

The nineteenth folder in the Natalie Gookin papers contains letters written every day in correspondence between Bryn Mawr College junior Natalie Gookin and her family in Chicago during September and October 1918. These letters have been arranged chronologically according to the date that they were written. From her letters, the intimate relationship between Natalie and her parents is evident from the amount of detail that she writes about. Much of her letters are spent focusing on her classes and work load in addition to the events and traditions of the Bryn Mawr community, as she transitions from sophomore year to junior year of college. While she does miss her family, there is a noticeable shift towards independence and embracing Bryn Mawr as a second home. In her writing Natalie also mentions the widespread Influenza epidemic on campus that puts students in a quarantine and confines them to the college. These letters would be of interest to anyone studying women’s colleges, student life, World War I, public health, and home relationships.