Jacqueline Pascal Morris Evans papers

This collection contains 27 of the letters that Morris wrote home, primarily addressed to her father, detailing her post-graduation trip to Europe. Her letters touch on travel plans, the weather, and the sites she visited. The collection also includes material from a trip taken to Nag’s Head, North Carolina in 1928.

Jacqueline Morris embarked on her European tour in early October, 1908, with her cousins Agnes and Alida. Over the course of three months in Europe, they travelled from Paris to various towns in Switzerland, down the Italian peninsula to Sicily, back up the peninsula and along the Italian and French Riviera, back to Paris, and finally spent time in London before sailing back to America from Liverpool in late January, 1909. Over the course of their trip, Morris and her cousins came in contact with many different people, including a classmate of Jacqueline’s at Bryn Mawr who was living in France after graduation.

As they travel, Jacqueline describes in great detail the people she sees, and is especially fascinated by the working classes. Descriptions of the Swiss and Italians are overwhelmingly positive; she is amazed by their kind natures and the quality of their characters. She takes a slightly cooler stance regarding the French, whom she finds slightly snobbish.

The girls began their trip with a few different couples, as well as Fräulein Natalie. As their trip progresses, the couples take their leave of the girls, off on their own vacations. Eventually Fräulein Natalie must leave too, and Jacqueline finds the idea of obtaining a new chaperone ridiculous, as the girls have been doing just fine. Several letters express her opinions on the wastefulness of the idea, and detail her difficulties in finding a chaperone that can travel with them. However, after a cable from her father, she consents to hiring a chaperone, the same one recommended in his cable.

Despite this one point of contention, Jacqueline’s letters to her father are overwhelmingly filled with love and thanks. She is grateful for the opportunities afforded her through the trip, and speaks of all she has learned while abroad. She often describes the dream-like nature of the trip, finally being able to explore areas and places she has learned about in her college textbooks.

Additional letters by Jacqueline Pascal Morris, and by her husband Edward Wyatt Evans, may be found in the Cope-Evans Collection in the Haverford College Special Collections