[Texas]. [Women]. [Education]. Sandlin, Velma

[Diary and Scrapbook of a Young Woman at Sam Houston Normal School]

Huntsville, Tx. 1921. [96]pp., comprised of [61]pp. of manuscript diary entries (approximately 8,000 words) plus fifty-seven items of ephemera pasted in, one photograph pasted to the inside of the front wrapper, and thirty-three small trimmed portrait photographs pasted to the inside rear wrapper. Contemporary plain green wrappers. Considerable wear and soiling to wrappers, bottom of spine chipped, newspaper clippings on rear wrapper. Small chips to lower edge of first few leaves costing a few words, a few small stains and some dust-soiling to text. Good. Item #2877

A wonderful illustrated diary kept by Velma Sandlin, a student at the Sam Houston Normal Institute (SHNI) in Hunstville, Texas at the outset of the Roaring Twenties. Sandlin's writing style is quite evocative, reflecting the moods and whims of a creative young woman and providing insight into the day-to-day activities of students at the first state-funded public school to train teachers in Texas. Velma Sandlin and her sister Levy, from Kosse, Texas, both attended the 1921 summer session of the SHNI, and Velma went on to teach in Port Arthur. A charming photograph adorning the inside front cover features Velma and her friend Rosa Dodson, who is mentioned several times throughout the diary as part of a core group of six (later four) friends at school.

Sandlin's diary entries mention her classes and workload, but she mostly writes about her social and personal life over the summer, including her leisure activities: napping, shopping, dating, and pining for an admirer in Reagan, Texas whose letters she reads. Events and activities at SHNI are often listed, as well, with many mentions of plays, musical performances, and movies. She and her friends also often travel to town to visit the library, go to church, read and write letters, dancing, singing songs, and to dabble in photography. Though the diary frequently includes mundane details like the weather, sleeping and eating, Velma's humorous writing style makes her diary a warm and entertaining read, enhanced with poems, drawings, and pasted-in ephemera.

Among Velma's ephemera are stamps, bits of received letters, candy wrappers, newspaper clippings, portions of postcards, a poem written for Velma by a schoolmate, her sketches of boys, and programs of events attended while at school, such as one for "The Passing Show," which featured "Negro Impersonators" and an "Apache Dance." The diary concludes with a pasted-in copy of the "S.H.N.I. Song," and the inside rear cover is decorated with tiny trimmed and captioned photographs of the young women of "Clark House," including the Sandlin sisters, Mr. and Mrs. Clark, their daughter Jane, and almost thirty others. A charming and unique record of a Texas woman's foray into young adulthood and the "real world" of teacher training.

Price: $850.00