Melissa Homestead, professor of English, made an interesting
discovery recently in the Archives & Special Collections that reunited
pages of two letters separated in two distinct collections.
While doing research for her book on the relationship
between Willa Cather and Edith Lewis, Homestead found a fragment of a letter in
the Mary Lou Karch Collection that belonged with another fragment (the first
page) located in the Charles Cather Collection. The letter was written by Earl
Brewster and sent to Edith Lewis in condolence of Willa Cather’s death.
Brewster was married to Achsah Barlow-Brewster, Lewis’s friend and college
roommate.
Homestead recognized Brewster’s handwriting in the fragment
and it was obvious from the content that it was part of a condolence letter.
Mary Lou Karch, of the Karch Collection, is the daughter of the nurse that took
care of Edith Lewis late in her life. Charles Cather was Willa Cather’s nephew,
and when Lewis died in 1972, she left manuscripts and letters in her possession
to Charles and to his sister, Helen Cather Southwick. Homestead also informed
Ducey about another letter split between two collections, one by Lewis to E.K.
Brown, whom she authorized to write a biography of Cather,
about Cather’s
religious life.
In both instances, University Archivist Mary Ellen Ducey
will bring the letter fragments together in one collection and leave
documentation in the both collections about the move.
This is a great example of how archivists and researchers
work together. Researchers working in a collection may have a deeper knowledge
of the contents of a collection through their focused work and can work with
the archivist to enhance information for future researchers.
(Photographs: Top: Edith Lewis' letter to E.K. Brown; Middle: Professor Homestead working in the Archives & Special Collections; Bottom: Earl Brewter's letter to Edith Lewis.)
