A Guide to the McKendrie-Day Papers, 1920-1930

A Guide to the McKendrie-Day Papers, 1920-1930

The documents in the McKendrie Day Family Papers include family history documents and materials relating to Charles and Sarah McKendrie’s four daughters, Grace, Mabel, Jessie “Boots,” and Hilda “Irene.” The majority of the materials focus on Mabel, Grace, and Irene McKendrie. Mabel’s documents focus on her years spent as a teenager in Roanoke, VA (1926-1928). Her diary, travel journal and high school programs document the life of a budding teenager in 1920s Roanoke, VA. Her diary lists the names of friends and families living in Roanoke, VA. Her manuscripts, undated, show her skills as a young writer. In one of her manuscripts, “Ellen of the Westland,” there is a torn page from a magazine advertising a writing contest with a $25,000 cash prize for the best novel by a woman.
Grace’s scrapbook documents her graduation from Roanoke High School in 1925, and her early working life in Washington, DC, where she moved in 1926 and was employed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Ephemera from her travels to places including New York City and Boston are included in the scrapbook.
The documents relating to “Irene” McKendrie focus primarily on her tragic death in a car accident in Washington DC on her 17th birthday. Compiled in a scrapbook, there are photographs, letters, newsclippings, and sympathy cards, many of them from Roanoke residents.

Roanoke Public Libraries

Roanoke Public Libraries

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