Helen Hopkins Wampler papers, 1911-1996, bulk 1915-1918

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Summary

Creator:
Wampler, Helen Hopkins, 1897-1996
Abstract:
Born in 1897, Helen Dale Hopkins entered Indiana University as a freshman in the fall of 1915. She was an active member of the Classical Club, Browning Society, Pi Beta Phi, and was elected to the student honorary Phi Beta Kappa. She graduated with an A.B. in Latin with Distinction in 1918. Following graduation, she married Donald Wampler in 1928 and retired as a Latin teacher from Ben Davis High School in 1963. This collection consists primarily of correspondence between Helen and her mother during her time as a student at Indiana University.
Extent:
1 cubic foot (3 boxes)
Language:
Materials are in English
Preferred citation:

[Item], Helen Hopkins Wampler papers, Collection C657, Indiana University Archives, Bloomington.

Background

Biographical Note:

Born on September 27, 1897 in Indianapolis to Clara Louise (Schnabel) and Homer Dale Hopkins, Helen Dale Hopkins attended Shortridge High School and entered Indiana University as a freshman in the fall of 1915. She was an active member of the Classical Club, Browning Society, Pi Beta Phi, and was elected to the student honorary Phi Beta Kappa. She graduated with an A.B. in Latin with Distinction in 1918.

Following graduation, she married Donald Wampler in 1928. She retired as a Latin teacher at Ben Davis High School in 1963. Helen Hopkins Wampler died at the age of 99 in Indianapolis on September 28, 1996.

Scope and Content Note:

The bulk of the collection consists of two bound volumes of letters from Helen D. Hopkins to her family, beginning shortly before her entrance as a freshman to Indiana University and end at the time of her commencement in 1918. During this period, Helen wrote home multiple times a week predominately to her mother Clara, but occasionally also her brother Bob (Robert O. Hopkins). Note that sections of the correspondence were bound out of order.

Early letters report on joining to the Pi Beta Phi (the Pi Phi's as she calls the sorority) and being in the library during freshman-sophomore scraps when the men were called outside and their hair forcibly cut. What we would describe as a modern-day foodie, in nearly every letter Helen reports on her meals (she seemed to have a particular fondness for potatoes and desserts), and vehemently thanks her mother for her weekly care packages of candies, cookies, bread, and wieners from home. In others she describes the contents of her friend's packages from home, including one which included "a whole fried chicken and a fruit cake." Other letters mention campus serenades, attending athletics events and dances, joining the Women's League and YWCA, late night visits to the Book Nook for wieners and burgers to hear Hoagie Carmichael play, hiking to Arbutus hill, going to the Gentry Brothers Circus, student pranks such as the night she came home to a bed filled with salt, as well as campus issues such as coal shortages, and the bad taste of the drinking water. In April 1917, she also shares the details of an incident involving a student of Russian descent (Mr. Edler) who "when he was four years old, the Russian government killed his father and mother, and ever since them he has been against the government. The authorities here found his room which he had always kept locked; and found there all sorts of different mechanisms that they think he was trying to make infernal machines of. He says he was only experimenting on watches….I don't know where they've sent him, but he's left here."

An exceptional student, Helen writes extensively about her studies in Latin and Greek as well as her relationships with members of the faculty such as Lillian Gay Berry (Latin), Will Hale (English), and Cora Hennel (Mathematics). She also acknowledges her election to the honorary society Phi Beta Kappa as one of two female students along with Lorena Degner.

On a national level she discusses the 1916 presidential election and in the lead up to World War I she discusses military training on campus. On March 7, 1917, she describes a campus-wide meeting of all the students and faculty where "it was voted to send a telegram to [President] Wilson expressing the faith of the Indiana students in him and the promise of loyalty to the country…. President Bryan gave most wonderful talk, and several others of the faculty spoke." Following the official declaration of war, she reports on her volunteer work with the Red Cross knitting sweaters for soldiers overseas, female students hastily marrying before their boyfriends enlisted, the dwindling numbers of male students on campus, and the back to the farm movement, which allowed students from farming families to return home to help with the crops while still earning course credit. She also alludes to the fact that Theodore Roosevelt would be their wartime commencement speaker.

The remainder of the collection consists of the few items that were tucked into the pages of the bound volumes of correspondence, biographical clippings, a photograph of Helen at the age of 90, her commencement program, and a few cards from her grandchildren from the 1990s.

Acquisition information:
Accession: 2016/137
Provenance:

This collection was discovered curbside in Lafayette, Indiana by Marvin Hanson and his wife. The couple contacted the IU Archives and transferred the collection in early 2016.

Processing Information:

Processed by Carrie Schwier.

Completed in December 2016

Arrangement:

The collection is organized into a single series of Papers.

Access and use

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research. Advance notice required.

Terms of access:

The donor(s) of this collection have not transferred their copyrights for the materials to the Trustees of Indiana University. For more information, please contact the Indiana University Archives staff.

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Preferred citation:

[Item], Helen Hopkins Wampler papers, Collection C657, Indiana University Archives, Bloomington.

Location of this collection:
Herman B Wells Library E460
1320 East Tenth Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405-7000, United States
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