Emma Marie Cutter Diary

Collection

Identifier: MSS-4230

Scope and Contents

Emma Marie Cutter kept this diary during her time as a teacher at the Peabody Normal School in Nashville, Tennessee. The entries within discuss her life at the school, including the classes, teachers, and curriculum. She also records her interactions with former slaves, where these individuals invited her into their homes and community; and her opinions on the politics of the time. Cutter also recorded entries while traveling by train from Tennessee to her family home in New Hampshire during a couple of summer vacations, making stops in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Haddonfield, New Jersey; and Boston, Massachusetts. There are detailed notes on the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, which she visited in 1877 on one of her returning trips to Tennessee. At one point, she also took a trip to Quebec, Canada.

Dates

1876 - 1878

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research. Researchers must register and agree to copyright and privacy laws before using this collection. Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations. Due to the nature of certain archival formats, including digital and audio-visual materials, access to certain materials may require additional advance notice.

Conditions Governing Use

Researchers are responsible for using the materials in conformance with United States copyright law as well as any donor restrictions accompanying the materials. The user assumes all responsibility for identifying and satisfying any copyright claimants in collection materials. Copyright for official University records is held by The University of Alabama. The library claims only physical ownership of many manuscript collections. Anyone wishing to broadcast or publish this material must assume all responsibility for identifying and satisfying any claimants of literary property rights or copyrights. Please contact Special Collections (archives@ua.edu) with questions regarding specific manuscript collections. For more information about copyright policy, please visit: https://www.ua.edu/copyright/. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source.

Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals without the consent of those individuals may have legal implications, for which the University of Alabama assumes no responsibility.

Content Description

Emma Cutter (1853-1937) was born in Jaffrey, New Hampshire, on 7 June 1853, the daughter of farmer Julius Cutter and his wife Caroline Huldah Felt. She and her sister Alice Ermina Cutter both attended the State Normal School at Bridgewater, Massachusetts, an institution known for training teachers during that time. She graduated in 1875, having attended the school for four years (1871-1875). When Eben Stearns took the office of president at the Peabody Normal School (later Peabody College) in Nashville, Tennessee, he brought both Emma Cutter and Julia Sears with him to work as instructors. Miss Cutter remained as a teacher for only six years (1875-1881) until she married John Mitchell in 1882, and the couple moved to Mansfield, Massachusetts. Emma Marie Cutter Mitchell died on 2 Oct 1937. She is buried at the Cutters Cemetery in Jaffrey Center, New Hampshire.

Extent

.6 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Overview

Emma Marie Cutter (1853-1937) was born in Jaffrey, New Hampshire, and attended the State Normal School at Bridgewater, Massachesetts, from 1871-1875. Cutter began teaching at the Peabody (also known as State) Normal School in Nashville, Tennessee, immediately after her graduation until 1881. This diary, which she kept from 1876-1878, discusses her life as a teacher, her travels to the Northeast to visit her family in the summer, and the people she encountered in the post-Civil War South.