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Postcard from Catherine Bogart Putman Rankin to Edward W. Rankin, November 20, 1884

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Date

November 20, 1884

Description

A letter from Catherine Rankin to her husband Edward Rankin. Catherine wrote the letter when she was out of town and Edward was home at Cherry Hill. Catherine asked about Clara Patterson, a domestic worker who she was responsible for. During the Victorian Era, people communicated by writing letters and postcards 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. 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

Identifer

8_3_November_20_1884_CBPR_to_EWR

Source

Historic Cherry Hill

Rights

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