Olive Helms Mulholland correspondence, 1881-1911

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Summary

Creators:
Mulholland, Olive Helms
Abstract:
Letters of Olive Helms Mulholland, American teacher of Illinois and California.
Extent:
18 Linear Feet (12 boxes)
Language:
Materials are in English.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item]. Olive Helms Mulholland correspondence, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Background

Scope and content:

The correspondence of Olive Helms Mulholland chiefly contains letters by her to her husband and daughter, as well as letters to her from her parents, in-laws, sisters, college friends, and colleagues in YWCA and church groups. The correspondence describes various aspects of women's lives in the Midwest and Southern California including professional activities, charity and church work, etc. The letters from her father, R. E. Helms, contain accounts of his various business pursuits. The letters from her daughter Rachel Isabel Mulholland Cramer describe her studies at Knox College and Mills College.

Biographical / historical:

Olive Helms Mulholland was the oldest daughter of Belle and R.E. Helms, a Midwestern family who settled in San Diego in the early 1900s. Olive attended Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois in 1896 and 1897. In 1900, Olive Helms married Elgin McCormick Mulholland (1875-1904), a native of Pittsburgh. Their daughter Rachel Isabel Mulholland was born in 1902. The Mulhollands lived in Montana, Colorado, and Washington. When Elgin Mulholland died of tuberculosis, Olive taught at a school in Alabama and later worked as a housekeeper for a minister in Massachusetts, before moving to California to join her family shortly after 1910. Olive Helms Mulholland lived in San Diego, Riverside, and Los Angeles and worked as a teacher. She was a member of the YWCA and various church groups. Her daughter Rachel Isabel Mulholland followed in her mother's footsteps. She graduated from Knox College and then attended Mills College in California.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Elizabeth Sprague, 1982.
Processing information:

Processed by Huntington Library staff. In 2022, Brooke M. Black created a finding aid.

Arrangement:

Organized in the following series: 1. Correspondence, 2. Ephemera.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at the Huntington Library for more information.

Terms of access:

The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item]. Olive Helms Mulholland correspondence, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Location of this collection:
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108, US
Contact:
(626) 405-2191
reference@huntington.org
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