Handmade Book, "With Byrd at the Bottom of the World: A Chronicle of Conquest," Based on the Paramount Picture With Byrd at the South Pole, ca. 1930

The Maylon Harold Hepp Papers consist almost exclusively of correspondence written by Maylon, under the name Harold, to his family. The letters were written between 1930 and 1933, while Hepp was a student at Oberlin. This collection is small, but provides a rich, and often humorous view of college life in the early 1930s. Hepp included drawings, dance cards, hand drawn maps of his dorm rooms and of Chance Creek, report cards, graded papers, and exam schedules in his letters, which provide additional evidentiary value to the materials.

The collection also contains a handmade book that Hepp created during his last year of high school in 1929-1930, titled “With Byrd at the Bottom of the World: A Chronicle of Conquest based on the Paramount Picture, With Byrd at the South Pole.” Admiral Richard E. Byrd came to visit Oberlin in December 1930, and Hepp obtained his signature on the handmade book. He references this visit in a letter dated December 11, 1930.