| Abstract |
The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence from Mamie Jenkins's relatives. Topics include family problems during the Depression of 1929; the presidential election of 1932; shortage of goods owing to rationing during World War II; and life in Harlan, Ky., and the coal strike that occurred there. 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, and the readjustment problems of Japanese returning to Japan after living in the United States; the life of a teacher at Fleming School in Pitt County, N.C.; and a Japanese relocation camp in Colorado during World War II. The correspondence also includes references to the possibility of East Carolina Teachers College joining the university system and to the trial of Dr. Leon Meadows. Other material related to East Carolina Teachers College includes memorials written on the death of Robert H. Wright and a booklet concerning his career, bulletins and programs, a description of English courses offered, a list of men graduates, and an essay. Jenkins's personal papers include letters of recommendation; 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, a periodical, school notebooks, a book of familiar quotes, a financial notebook, and a book of poetry. |
| Access restriction | Joyner- No access restrictions. |
| Cite as |
Mamie E. Jenkins Papers (#31), Special Collections Department, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA. |
| Terms of use | Joyner- Literary rights to specific documents are retained by the authors or their descendants in accordance with U.S. copyright law. |
| Acquisitions source |
Joyner- Gift of Mr. Wendell W. Smiley. |
| Acquisitions source |
Joyner- Gift of John Oden. |
| Biographical note | 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), Jenkins subsequently was awarded a master's degree by Columbia University and did graduate work at the University of Wisconsin and other 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," served as a faculty advisor for the school newspaper "Teco Echo" for fourteen years, and directed the college news agency for eighteen years. 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. |
