Overview of the Collection |
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| Creator: | Page, Charlotte Browning, 1868-1950. |
| Title: | Charlotte Browning Page Papers |
| Inclusive Dates: | 1878-1941 |
| Quantity: | 2.5 linear ft. |
| Abstract: | Papers of the American teacher. Collection includes correspondence (1878-1941), household records, genealogical material, photographs, and a postcard scrapbook. |
| Language: | English |
| Repository: | Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Library 222 Waverly Avenue Syracuse, NY 13244-2010 http://scrc.syr.edu |
Charlotte Browning Page (1868-1951) was a teacher in New York State. She was born November 20, 1868 in Earlville, New York, the only child of Katherine and Caleb S. Page. The Pages operated a farm produce and supply business on the Chenango Canal. After the canal closed in 1878 the family business declined and financial difficulties forced Caleb to leave town. He went to work for a circulating library company in various parts of the South and Midwest; he and Charlotte's mother remained separated for the rest of their lives. Charlotte's mother and maternal grandmother, Lucy A. Potter, took in sewing and occasional boarders for a living.
By January 1885 Charlotte, or Charlie as she was known to friends and relatives, was attending the Hamilton (N.Y.) Female Seminary conducted by Mr. and Mrs. Goodenough. After graduating in 1887 she taught school in Hamilton for a year or two, then moved to Des Moines, Iowa, where she taught third, fourth, and fifth grades at Bird Elementary School until 1895. At that time, Charlotte decided to further her own education by attending the State Normal School at Oneonta, New York. She obtained her certificate in 1898 and then taught in Passaic, New Jersey until 1903, when she settled in Tottenville, Staten Island, New York.
Charlotte remained in Tottenville until she retired from teaching in the late 1920s and moved back to central New York. She died in 1951.
The Charlotte Browning Page Collection consists of correspondence, research material, and miscellany.
Correspondence is primarily incoming; the only letters written by Charlotte herself are those to her mother and grandmother. The letters to Charlotte are from her mother, father, and various friends and relatives throughout the United States, including Los Angeles, Kansas City, Chicago, Providence, Louisville, Victoria (Texas), and Orlando. The personal correspondence reflects the social activities of the times, such as dancing, card parties, boarding schools, church functions, courtship, concerts, lectures, theater productions, and boarding house life. Included in this are accounts of the Columbian Exposition in Chicago (1926). Also recorded here are contemporary tastes in fashion, manners, and literature. The letters trace the advent of innovations like electric lighting, the telephone, public water works, the bicycle, the automobile, bobbed hair, and radio. Correspondence from 1930 to 1941 contain only business letters, most of which deal with Charlotte's retirement annuity and dividends from stock holdings.
Research material contains an index on file cards of the major names mentioned in the correspondence. It also includes notes on the correspondence, both chronological and topical, and notes taken from the cemetery records of the Earlville Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). Some of the relationships on the genealogy charts are guesses based on the letters and have not been verified by any official records.
Miscellaneous includes Charlotte's household records (bills, receipts, tax forms, and so on), and printed material (newspaper clippings, her grandmother's obituary, and the New York City flag song. Also contained here are the minutes and treasurer's reports of the Guild of Grade Church (Earlville, New York) from 1902 to 1904, a Book of Common Prayer belonging to Charlotte's grandmother, and a postcard scrapbook.
Correspondence is arranged chronologically. Miscellaneous material and research material are arranged roughly alphabetically by subject.
There are no access restrictions on this material.
Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.
Special Collections Research Center has a number of collections relating to 19th and early 20th centurry life in New York State. Please refer to the SCRC Subject Index for a complete listing. In addition, the Rare Books department has numerous boos, pamphlets, newspapers, and other printed material on the subject; for a complete list of these, please refer to SUMMIT, our main catalog .
Preferred citation for this material is as follows:
Charlotte Browning Page Papers,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Library
Created by: DB
Date: Nov 1979
Revision history: 1 Aug 2008 - converted to EAD (MRC)
| Correspondence | |||||||||||
| Box 1 | 1878-1897 (18 folders) | ||||||||||
| Box 2 | 1898-1904 (5 folders) | ||||||||||
| Box 2 | 1905, 1917-1918, 1920-1921 | ||||||||||
| Box 2 | 1922-1927 (4 folders) | ||||||||||
| Box 2 | 1930-1941 | ||||||||||
| Box 2 | Undated and fragments | ||||||||||
| Miscellaneous | |||||||||||
| Box 2 | Household records | ||||||||||
| Box 2 | Notes | ||||||||||
| Box 2 | Printed material | ||||||||||
| Box 2 | Book of Common Prayer | ||||||||||
| Box 2 | Postcard scrapbook | ||||||||||
| Research material | |||||||||||
| Box 3 | Name index on file cards | ||||||||||
| Box 3 | Genealogies | ||||||||||
| Box 3 | News clippings from Earlville Standard - photocopies | ||||||||||
| Box 3 | Notes on cemetery records relating to Page family | ||||||||||
| Notes on the correspondence | |||||||||||
| Box 3 | Chronological | ||||||||||
| Box 3 | By subject | ||||||||||
| Box 3 | Photographs | ||||||||||
