Joyner Library
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Guide to the Mamie E. Jenkins Papers, 1898-1947
(Manuscript Collection #31)



East Carolina Manuscript Collection
Special Collections
Joyner Library
East Carolina University
East Fifth Street
Greenville, NC 27858-4353 USA
Phone: 252.328.6671
Fax: 252.328.0268
Email: http://www.ecu.edu/cs-lib/Reference/email.cfm



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Online access to this finding aid is supported with funds created through the federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA). These funds come through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services which is administered by the State Library of North Carolina, a division of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources. This grant is part of the North Carolina ECHO, Exploring Cultural Heritage Online, Digitization Grant Program.



Descriptive Summary
Title: Mamie E. Jenkins Papers
Creator: Mamie E. Jenkins
Repository: J.Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University
Language: English
Abstract: Papers (1898-19476, undated) including correspondence, newspapers, notes, programs, etc. compiled by a teacher in the English Department of East Carolina Teachers Training School.
Extent: 1.300 cubic feet, 1,000 items, consisting of correspondence, letters of recommendation, notes, programs, receipts, newspapers, East Carolina University materials, publications, manuscript drafts, and miscellaneous.

Administrative Information
Accessions Information
November, 1, 1967, ca. 700 items; Papers (1898-1946, undated) of Miss Mamie E. Jenkins, consisting of correspondence, newspapers, notes, programs, and miscellaneous items. Given by Mr. Wendell W. Smiley, Greenville, N.C.

April 8, 1981, 380 items; Papers (1905-1947, undated), including correspondence, ECU materials, publications, manuscript drafts, and miscellaneous. Gift of John Oden, Bath, N.C.


Access Restrictions
No restrictions


Copyright Notice
Literary rights to specific documents are retained by the authors or their descendants in accordance with U.S. copyright law.


Preferred Citation
Mamie E. Jenkins Papers (#31), Special Collections Department, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA.


Acquisition Information
Gift of John Oden
Gift of Mr. Wendell W. Smiley
Processing Information
Processed by D. Lennon
Encoded by Apex Data Services


Biographical/Historical Note
Miss Mamie E. Jenkins (1875-1957) taught in the English Department at East Carolina Teachers College for thirty-six years. She was one of the first three faculty members to be selected for service at East Carolina Teachers Training School. Jenkins served from 1909, when the school opened, until 1946. One of the first four women to receive a baccalaureate degree from Trinity College (Duke University), Miss Jenkins subsequently was awarded a master's degree by Columbia University and did graduate work at the University of Wisconsin and other leading schools. Before coming to Greenville, she taught in the public schools of Durham and Wilmington, N.C., and at Martha Washington College in Virginia and Granada College in Mississippi. During her years of service at East Carolina, she was deeply involved in the development of the institution. She edited the Training School Quarterly (1914-1922), served as a faculty advisor for the school newspaper Teco Echo for fourteen years, and directed the college news agency for eighteen years. Miss Jenkins was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Delta Kappa Gamma, and the A.A.U.W. The faculty-alumni building on the East Carolina campus was named in her honor.


Description
Papers include letters of recommendation from such notable educators as William Ivey Cranford, Joseph Gregoire de Roulhac Hamilton, Charles Knapp, Edwin Mims, and William W. Flowers.

The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence from Miss Jenkins's relatives, specifically her brothers, George (Baltimore and New York) and John Wilbur (New York and Washington, D.C.)., and her sisters, Fredericka Peace Jenkins (Harlan, Kentucky, andNorth Carolina) and Fannie Burt Jenkins (Raleigh, North Carolina). The letters reflect the problems of various family members prior to, during, and following the Depression of 1929 and the effects that the coming of the Roosevelt administration had upon the nation. References are made also to the presidential election of 1932 and to the nature of political patronage in the Roosevelt administration (1930s and 1940s). Complaints of the shortage of goods owing to rationing during World War II also is described in the correspondence. The letters of Fredericka Peace Jenkins describe life in Harlan Kentucky, and discuss the great coal strike which occurred there when labor unions attempted to unionize the mines prior to World War II (1931).

Additional correspondence includes letters from East Carolina Teachers College President Robert H. Wright and Jenkins's students, former students, and friends. Letters of particular interest discuss Russian prisoners in Japan during the Russo-Japanese War, the patriotism of the Japanese, and the readjustment problems of Japanese returning to Japan after living in the United States (Feb. 5, 1905); the life of a teacher at Fleming School in Pitt County, N.C. (Nov. 12, 1922); and a Japanese relocation camp in Colorado during World War II (Feb. 10, 1943). The correspondence also includes references to the possibility of East Carolina Teachers College joining the university system (July 1, 1944) and to the trial of Dr. Leon Meadows, president of the college, on charges of misappropriation of funds (Aug. 26, 1944).

The East Carolina material includes memorials written on the death of Robert H. Wright, bulletins and programs concerning entertainment events at the college, a description of English courses offered, a list of men graduates of the college, and an essay on the teacher's responsibility of encouraging scholarship. Publications of the college consist of a booklet concerning the career of Robert H. Wright, a bulletin describing the school's music program, and the Alumni Association Bulletin (Dec. 1944).

Miss Jenkins's personal papers include essays and articles discussing women in the South, the suffragist movement, orphans in North Carolina, and reflections about a household slave.

Miscellaneous material includes receipts; post cards, including a view of St. Thomas Church at Bath, N.C.; and a periodical, The Clarion (British Honduras, June 10, 1909). Other miscellaneous material consists of school notebooks, a book of familiar quotes, a financial notebook, and a book of poetry.



Online Catalog Headings
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Library's online catalog.

Subject Entries
Jenkins, Mamie E.
Jenkins family—Correspondence
Meadows, Leon Renfroe, b. 1884
Wright, Robert Herring, 1870-1934
East Carolina Teachers College—Faculty
East Carolina Teachers College—History
Depressions—1929
Presidents—United States—Election—1932
Strikes and lockouts—Coal mining—Kentucky
Slaves—North Carolina
Orphans—North Carolina
Russo-Japanese War, 1904-1905
Japanese Americans—Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945
Women—Southern States—Social life and customs
Women—Suffrage—United States—History
World War, 1939-1945—Economic aspects—North Carolina
Rationing—United States—History—20th century
Public schools—North Carolina—Pitt County
Teachers—North Carolina—Pitt County
Japan—Social life and customs
Harlan (Ky.)—Social life and customs

Autograph Entries
Cranford, William Ivey 1898
Curtus, Claude D[avis] 1903
Flowers, W[illiam] W. 1905
Hamilton, J[oseph] G[regoire] de Roulhac 1906
Knapp, Charles [Merriam] (2) 1905
Meadows, Leon R[enfroe] 1937
Mims, Edwin 1909
Smith, Willis 1926
Wright, Robert H[erring] 1911

Date Entries
1920-1929
1930-1939
1940-1947

Photo/Logo Information
Images below are listed alphabetically by subject. This list reflects only those portions of the collection for which negatives have been prepared.


BUILDING AND ARCHITECTURE
Description: Four photos
Location: Edenton, Charlotte, and Wrightsville Beach, NC
Date: 1920's
Call Number: p-31


Container List
Box 1 Correspondence, 1898-1925
Box 2 Correspondence, 1926-1929
Box 3 Correspondence, 1930-1933
Box 4 Correspondence, 1934-1938
Box 5 Correspondence, 1939-1941
Box 6 Correspondence, 1942-1943
Box 7 Correspondence, 1944-1947, undated
Box 8 Miscellaneous
Folder c
Item 3 Edenton tea pot, Edenton, North Carolina
Item 4 St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Bath, N.C., near Washington, N.C.
Box 9 ECU material, personal papers