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MILDRED LEMERT : 1920s ORIGINAL GROUP OF SEVEN [7] MANUSCRIPT DIARIES HAND WRITTEN BY A RURAL KANSAS TEENAGER AND SOON TO BE COLLEGE GIRL

32mo - over 4" - 5" tall. On offer is a fascinating group of small notebooks written by a school girl in the mid-west just prior to the Great Depression. There are 7 notebooks in all. They range in size from 4 inches by 2 1/2 inches to 6 1/2 by 4 1/4. Three books have 72 pages each, one has 120 and a fifth has 96. Two part books have 44 and 56. Four are 100% complete while the remaining three are about 40% complete. Some entries are dated while others are not. All entries are in pencil and the handwriting is legible. Several are in fair condition, 1 is missing a front cover and 2 are in quite good condition. The books are ordered with numbers written on the covers. Also included with the notebooks are a number of postcards with dates ranging from 1915 to 1957. Mildred Lemert was born in Cedar Vale, KS in 1907. She graduated from high school in 1925 and entered Kansas State University, graduating with a degree in Education in 1929. She taught her entire career in Cedar Vale and Clay Centre, Kansas. Mildred Lemert passed away in 2001 at the age of 94. She never married. The notebooks describe a road trip her family took in 1923 when she was just 16. She and her family took a road trip to visit and stay with other family members in other parts of Kansas and Missouri. They contain descriptions of activities, interactions with extended family and observations of life around her. Some entries are dated (month/day). In the first book, she describes a trip they took beginning in July. She describes rough roads and the toll they took on the tires: "... We had a flat tire just a short distance from F.S. (Fort Scott, KS) ... We had two more flat tires after we left F.S." "We left Sedalia at 7:50 AM and went through Smithton and California and several other small towns and got to Jefferson City for lunch. We went through the State House at J.C. A Negro took us to the very top of the dome" [July 20]. I saw roads made of rails as they used to be many years ago. Some of the natives said that the State road we travelled was made in the Civil War. In Book Two continues that trip, visiting with family. She describes trying to learn to ride a bicycle. She visits the Americana Lace Factory presumably with her cousins. Book Three is a continuation of her holiday trip with her family. She notes that for her birthday: "... Mamma bought Aunt Elma's camera for my birthday present. ... I can take some pictures now." [Aug 10]. Her birthday in fact was several days later on Aug 15th. The postcards include one to her brother Merl in 1915, and several from a friend who moved to Germany in the 1950's. Included is a valentine card she received as a young girl that she kept for many many years and a Butterfly Souvenir Card from Yellowstone Park that contains a fully working wind-up model butterfly. There are also two faded photographs of a team of horses. These notebooks provide a wonderful snap-shot into the life of a young woman growing up in the American mid-west. They capture a summer spent with immediate and extended family members at a time just before the crisis of the Great Depression overwhelmed so much of rural America. A historian would find this of great interest as she very carefully notes towns and villages they saw or visited and describes incidents that relate to those areas such a terrible road or Civil War construction.. Illustr.: /. Manuscript. Book Condition: Fair

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