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COLLECTION Identifier: MC 1131

Letters of Jane Lyman Jenkins, 1945

Overview

Letters of American Red Cross worker Jane Lyman Jenkins, 1945.

Dates

  • Creation: 1945

Language of Materials

Materials in English.

Access Restrictions:

Access. Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright. Copyright in the papers created by Jane Lyman Jenkins is held by the President and Fellows of Harvard College for the Schlesinger Library. Copyright in other papers in the collection may be held by their authors, or the authors' heirs or assigns.

Copying. Papers may be copied in accordance with the library's usual procedures.

Extent

.21 linear feet (1/2 file box)

Collection contains letters from Jane Lyman Jenkins to Carl Jenkins, dated June through December 1945. The letters were sent from Fort Dix, New Jersey, while Jane Lyman Jenkins was with the American Red Cross, as well as from her home in New Haven, Connecticut. Topics include working for the American Red Cross, including her preparation to leave for Fort Dix and frustrations with her work assignments; daily activities; social events; her living situation; life plans and their impending marriage; activities she participated in while at home; and visits with friends and family. Collection also contains a spiral bound book of transcriptions of these and additional letters from Jane Lyman Jenkins to Carl and other family members, dated April 6 through December 19, 1945. The book, "Letters from Jane Lyman, 1945" was compiled and edited by her daughter Virginia Jenkins.

BIOGRAPHY

Jane Lyman Jenkins was born in New Haven, Connecticut, on January 18, 1920, to Virginia Scott Cocke Lyman and Dr. David Russell Lyman. Her father was the first medical superintendent of the Gaylord Farm Tuberculosis Sanatorium in Wallingford, Connecticut. Jenkins attended Mrs. Day's School for Girls and graduated from Vassar College with a major in Spanish (1939). She received a Master's degree from the Yale School of Public Health (1942) after doing the field work for her thesis in Guatemala. After graduation Jenkins worked in medical intelligence with the Surgeon General's office in Washington, DC. Her job was to gather information for the military on public health issues in various countries, using her knowledge of French, Spanish, and Portuguese. In 1945 she volunteered for the American Red Cross and in March was sent overseas to the American 129th General Hospital in Overton-on-Dee near Wrexham, Wales. Born in Earling, West Virginia, in 1920, Staff Sargent Carl McAllister Jenkins had volunteered for the United States Army at the start of America's entry into World War II. He was sent to England where, in 1945, he was admitted to the 129th General Hospital with a staph infection. While there he met Jane Lyman Jenkins. They were married in New Haven, Connecticut, on June 1, 1946. Carl Jenkins died in 1955. Jane Lyman Jenkins died October 10, 1997.

Physical Location

Collection stored off site: researchers must request access 36 hours before use.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Accession number: 2021-M57

The letters of Jane Lyman Jenkins were given to the Schlesinger Library by Virginia S. Jenkins in April 2021.

Processing Information

Processed: June 2021

By: Laura Peimer

The Schlesinger Library attempts to provide a basic level of preservation and access for all collections, and does more extensive processing of higher priority collections as time and resources permit.  Finding aids may be updated periodically to account for new acquisitions to the collection and/or revisions in arrangement and description.

Author
Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
Language of description
eng
Sponsor
Processing of this collection was made possible by the Pforzheimer Fund for the Schlesinger Library, Sybil Shainwald Fund at the Schlesinger Library, Mary Mitchell Wood Manuscript Processing Fund, and Class of 1956 Schlesinger Library Fund.
EAD ID
sch02069

Repository Details

Part of the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute Repository

The preeminent research library on the history of women in the United States, the Schlesinger Library documents women's lives from the past and present for the future. In addition to its traditional strengths in the history of feminisms, women’s health, and women’s activism, the Schlesinger collections document the intersectional workings of race and ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class in American history.

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