A catalogue for Ellie’s alma mater

Dear Ellie Stoneroad, packrat that she seems to have been, saved three catalogues from her alma mater, the short-lived Harrisburg Female Seminary. The seminary, which lasted from 1849 to 1867, was located at the junction of Locust Street and present-day Court Street in Harrisburg–coincidentally at the very spot of the parking garage serving the office building where I interned one summer in college. (I did not realize this at the time, however.)  Despite its short life, the seminary seems to have attracted substantial backing during its time. Its catalogue lists recommendations from many, including William F. Johnson, the former governor of Pennsylvania. Names of its backers read like a who’s who of Harrisburg’s formative years, with the names of such individuals as D.D. Boas, S. Cameron, G.W. Harris, and A. Curtin continuing to grace the streets and other public places in the city of Harrisburg. Anna Le Conte, the school’s founder and first principal (before being replaced by S.E. Dixon, mother of Ellie’s friend Lizzie and Ellie’s frequent letter-writing partner) did quite the job of lining up Harrisburg society in her venture, even if it would ultimately last less than twenty years.

These catalogues are fascinating pieces of history, filled with the names and locations of the seminary’s students–one even came from India!–and noting classes taught and books used. And they’re an excellent Rosetta Stone for Ellie’s other letters, as they shed light on the identity of the letter writer M.A. Slocum (Miss Marion A. Slocum, teacher of Latin), and the identity of the somewhat obscured name of Helen Jane McCune (of Shippensburg), written in a copy of Ellie’s Pinnock’s
Goldsmith’s Greece, in a scribble imploring Ellie to remember her schoolmate.