Mary Helen Clark Papers
Scope and Contents
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 a native 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.
Dates
- 1928 - 1946
Biographical Note - Mary Helen Clark
Miss Clark served at Bennett College, Rio de Janeiro, and at the Isabela Hendrix College in Belo Horizonte before being transferred to the Colegio Americano in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, where she was appointed principal. In addition to her educational work, she took the lead in community service at the time of the disastrous floods of 1964 when the school took in, fed, and clothed over 100 disaster victims. She received the highest honor from the City Council of Porto Alegre – the title of “Citizen of Porto Alegre.”
She returned to the United States in 1968, moving to Nashville, Tennessee, where her sister Blanche Henry Clark Weaver resided.
Extent
.42 Linear Feet
Language of Materials
English
Overview
Physical Location
Immediate Source of Acquisition
- Title
- Finding Aid for the Mary Helen Clark Papers
- Status
- Completed
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Vanderbilt University Special Collections Repository
Jean and Alexander Heard Library
419 21st Avenue South
Nashville TN 37203 United States
specialcollections@vanderbilt.edu