Correspondence, 1902 - 1929

The papers of Kate Bowne Leonard offer insight into the life of a female college graduate who served her family rather than pursuing a career. The papers include childhood compositions (ca. 1880s), lecture notes (1923-24), diaries and journals (1889-1931), an autograph book (1886-1892), and photographs (1878-1903). There exists a small body of correspondence received from her family, and postcards and Christmas cards from classmate Katherine Wright Haskell (1874-1929, A.B. 1898), who was an Oberlin College Trustee from 1924 until her death in 1929. Katherine Wright Haskell was the sister of Orville and Wilbur Wright.

The childhood compositions include essays and reports done while in elementary school. Typical of the essays are a report on Kingfishers, a story about Santa Claus and a report on the Great Salt Lake. A booklet from Salt Lake Kindergarten in 1884 contains examples of origami, paper weaving and sewing.

There is scant information on her days as a student in the Oberlin Academy and Oberlin College. Her diary entries for this period of her life are sparse. Lecture notes and quotations appear to have been taken from Henry Churchill King's senior bible course. The notes are dated 1923-24 suggesting that Leonard continued to educate herself beyond graduation.

The collection's sixteen diaries were sporadically kept, and there are frequently large gaps between entries. Two diaries are devoted almost exclusively to gardening and bird watching. Entries in these two diaries describe in detail what was planted in her garden. Notes on flowers and birds observed in the area complete the entries. Other diaries contain personal observations interspersed with family history. The richest entries chronicle her friendship with Katherine Wright Haskell, and contain notes from a visit to Dayton in 1914, and comments on rival airplane manufacturers.

Miscellaneous materials include autographed poems from poet Mary Barrows Irwin, an autograph book signed by family and friends between 1886 and 1892, an engraved nameplate, and a miniature edition of Shakespeare's Othello from 1922. Photographs portray Leonard as a young girl in 1878, through 1903.