A Day in the Life of a UK Student: Aug. 6, 1911
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Aug. 6, 2015) — In celebration of the University of Kentucky sesquicentennial, UK Special Collections Research Center is releasing the diary entries of former student Virginia Clay McClure. The diary chronicles the day-to-day activities of McClure's junior and senior years at the State University of Kentucky (now UK) from 1910-1912. McClure's 78th diary entry, dated Aug. 6, 1911, is a letter from friend and former member of the university's YWCA, Louise C. (likely Louise Colyer), announcing her engagement and upcoming marriage.
Inserted in McClure's diary in August 1911 is a letter and envelope addressed to Miss Virginia McClure. It reads:
Torrington, Wyoming
August 6, 1911
My own Dearest Virginia:
How I did enjoy your last letter. Every word of it was so good. I have read it over and over. The little picture was a perfect dear and I am going to keep it good and tight where I can remember my Virginia by it.
Virginia, I feel so badly because I have not gotten to write you before this, but the summer has been far too busy for me. I have not gotten to write to anyone scarce, by, not even my aunts and uncles and tell them of my intentions. I am to be married August the sixteenth to the young doctor I wrote you about. Virginia, it all seems strange doesn’t it? It has all been so sudden it seems. I always imagined I would be engaged two years. But one can never tell what they will do when once they see the man. He may not ever look like you thought he would.
Well Dear, I have sewed every spare minute this summer. I had really run out of necessary clothes of every description to say nothing of extras. Did you ever get in such a box? I have planned the simplest wedding possible for a real ranch home, for such is mine here. How I wish you could be here. Its sweetness will come largely from its simplicity. My clothes will be simple too. My dress is of white wash chiffon trimmed in cream lace and white satin. Some of my underclothes I have embroidered. But most of my time has been spent on our pretty little house, dresses, aprons, etc. I will not send out invitations (written ones) but will send announcements if they come in time. My dearest friends I feel like I want to write to as I am you. I will not have anybody present except the family and very nearest neighbors. All my friends live in other states.
Just think, Virginia, I have lived in three different states and changed my home four times within the last fourteen months. But I have to be settled for a long time after a few more years. Harry (Dr. Mantor) will change towns sometime in the next two years I know almost for sure. He wants to go to a larger place even though he is doing excellently in Lodge Pole.
Virginia, I will have the dearest little home in Lodge Pole. I do want you to see it so bad. It is a five room stone bungalow, with an immense porch on the east and north (this is all one). It is such a grand place for flowers, swings, etc. It is all nicely furnished, too. I want to send you some pictures of it and write you more about it when I am in it. Everything about it is new or almost so. He is going to order right away a beautiful set of Hamblin china for me. But I must save this to tell you later. Virginia, please plan to make me a long visit next summer.
I have just had given me a beautiful Kodak and I am going to send you a lot of pictures soon. I will have some dandy of this ranch and my cowboy style, I hope. I want to send you some of Harry’s too. Virginia, I want you to know him so bad. He is so bright and sweet, and so awfully pure minded (of course). But I think you would like him.
We are planning to do a lot of study this winter in German, French, and Literature. He is so good in Literature. I think we will enjoy spending our evenings together this way very much. He loves to read so, and does a great deal of it. I have hopes of owning a library someday as I have always wanted.
Virginia, keep me posted about Y.W.C.A. I will always be so interested. You have a fine cabinet and I know will make a success. I wish I could be there to help. I will land my thoughts and prayers anyways. How is Babe? Give her my love when you see her and tell her to write. I am so glad she has a position and hope she will enjoy her work as much as I. No one could have had lovelier work than I had. The pupils were so sweet. I never had to scold. My! But I do love them. Virginia, when you begin teaching you had better come out.
Do you ever hear from Annie Louise Dear? Poor girl! She has an unfortunate disposition to some extent hasn’t she? I think it is a pity for one to be spoiled. I know it broke her heart to fail in her exam. You certainly did do well in yours. I would love to see Josh as well as my other professors. I have just glanced over this letter and found all kinds of mistakes, words put in, left out, letters put in, left out, besides bad composition. Please take the will for the deed. I am rather nervous today anyway. Write me all about your dear self, about your flaws, and just everything. I want to come to Kentucky someday within — well, I say the next year. I have been so disappointed in my flaws for it before this, I am now afraid to say.
Oceans of love from,
Louise C-
More on Virginia Clay McClure
Virginia Clay McClure, a native of Mt. Sterling, Kentucky, graduated in 1912 with an AB degree and received her master’s degree in 1928 from UK. After receiving her AB, she taught for a year at Middlesboro, Kentucky, another year at Paducah, Kentucky, and seven years in Cynthiana, Kentucky. After this, she returned to Lexington, where she taught for nine and a half years in the Fayette County schools. At this point, she took two and a half years off of work to complete her doctorate.
The first woman to receive a Ph.D. from UK, McClure said that her department chairman did not “want a woman to get a doctor’s degree.” In spite of those words, McClure received her doctoral degree in American history in 1934.
Her dissertation was “The Settlement of the Kentucky Appalachian Region,” about which “nothing had been done before.” McClure did significant original research for the dissertation and made several trips to Eastern Kentucky with Katherine Pettit, who had taught in settlement schools, including Pine Mountain School, which she helped to establish.
McClure planned to teach at the college level but after finishing her dissertation in the midst of the depression, colleges were laying off faculty rather than hiring them. She then joined the Fayette County School system, then Lexington City Schools, and taught United States history and government at Henry Clay High School from 1934-1959. A position that she found quite rewarding.
The UK alumna and educator was very active in the community. McClure was a member of Central Christian Church and Kappa Delta Pi Honorary, Kentucky and National Retired Teachers associations, Salvation Army Auxiliary, Cardinal Hill Hospital Auxiliary and numerous historical societies. She was also a charter member of the Lexington Rose Society, twice serving as president, and was a member of the American Rose Society.
McClure passed away in 1980 at 91 years of age.
The Virginia Clay McClure papers are housed at the Special Collections Research Center and include a diary/scrapbook, a photograph album and other assorted photographs related to McClure's time as an undergraduate at State University, Lexington, Kentucky from 1910-1912. The scrapbook includes clippings, small artifacts, programs and invitations, but the bulk of the material is McClure's many personal writings. The photograph album and loose photographs also document this time period and include photographs of her UK classmates (many of whom are identified and also mentioned in her scrapbook); class trips and events (such as Arbor Day); and women playing basketball among other casual snapshots.
This story on UK's history is presented by UK Special Collections Research Center. UK Special Collections is home to UK Libraries' collection of rare books, Kentuckiana, the Archives, the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, the King Library Press, the Wendell H. Ford Public Policy Research Center, the Bert T. Combs Appalachian collection and the digital library, ExploreUK. The mission of the center is to locate and preserve materials documenting the social, cultural, economic and political history of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Diary transcriptions completed by senior Taylor Adams, Special Collections Learning Lab intern and history major from Ashland, Kentucky.
MEDIA CONTACT: Whitney Hale, 859-257-8716; whitney.hale@uky.edu