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Letter from Harriet Maria Van Rensselaer to Catherine Bogart Putman Rankin, August 23, 1890

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Date

August 23, 1890

Description

A letter written by Harriet Maria Elmendorf to Catherine Rankin. Harriet Maria wrote about Clara Patterson, a ward and domestic worker at Cherry Hill. During the Victorian Era, people communicated by writing letters to one another. People thought that a person who wrote well probably had good manners. For example, a person might feel disrespected if someone wrote a letter to them using slang instead of formal English. They might feel disrespected if someone replied late, or not at all. Harriet Maria Elmendorf was the granddaughter of Philip and Maria Van Rennselaer of Cherry Hill. Catherine was the great- granddaughter of Philip and Maria Van Rensselaer of Cherry Hill. Catherine lived at Cherry Hill longer than anyone else. She lived at Cherry Hill from 1860 to 1948. She married Edward Rankin in 1884. Today, Cherry Hill looks the way it did when Catherine and her family lived there in the 1940s. Clara was a ward and domestic worker at Cherry Hill from 1884 until 1894. Clara was brought to Cherry Hill when she was 6 years old, after her mother died from tuberculosis. Clara took care of the Rankin children, and did chores like sweeping the porch. When she was 12, Clara asked to learn how to live on her own, without being a lifelong worker in someone else’s house. She was sent to work for a friend of the family, Mrs. Ward, in 1894. Shortly after, Clara left to make her own life, and found a new home with a different family. This item was added as part of the Diversity and Collaborative Knowledge Program funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

Type

Written Document

Region

Capital District

Era

Industrialization

Topic

Communication

Repository

Historic Cherry Hill

Identifier

4_1_August_23_1890_HMVRE_to_CBPR

Source

Historic Cherry Hill

Rights

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