Mary Helen Clark to Family, January - June 1931

This .42 linear feet collection, 33 file folders, contains correspondence from Mary Helen Clark to her family from 1928-1946, when she lived in Brazil. It also contains correspondence from Blanche Henry Clark to her family during her visit to Brazil in 1932 to visit her sister. The letters are arranged chronologically, and give detailed accounts of Mary Helen’s days in Brazil. The letters provide first-hand accounts of Latin-American foods, behaviors, language and customs of the people and the politics of the times.

The letters, for the most part, are addressed to family members and are plentifully detailed accounts of Mary Helen's days in Brazil, particularly in Belo Horizonte, Minas; Porto Alegre; and in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Moore of the Instituto Granberry. As a kind of diary--suggested through the details, lengths, and frequency of these epistles--the letters provide first-hand accounts of an American's Latin-American experience, everything from foods, behaviors, language and customs of the people to the political surgings of the times. The letters are arranged chronologically and are generally all first-draft compositions. In addition to Helen Clark's own letters, there is one folder of Blanche Henry Clark's correspondence during her stay in Brazil in 1932.