Helen Bigelow White Papers

Collection

Identifier: RG 30-459

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Helen Bigelow White Papers provides a glimpse into the life of an Oberlin student, graduate, wife and mother, both in writing and in photographs. It includes three of her diaries (Series 1): one from her high school years, another from her time enrolled at Oberlin College, and a third from the year of her first child’s birth in 1927, when she and her husband lived in Cleveland. Other materials include a few items of correspondence (Series 2), and a photograph album (8 x 10 in.) holding photographs depicting Bigelow (White)’s time at Oberlin College from 1916-19 (Series 3). The series also includes several loose photographs from the same period. The album makes up the bulk of this small collection.

Dates

Creation: 1914-1927, undated
Other: Date acquired: 2019 July 31

Creator

White, Helen Bigelow (White, Helen Gladys Bigelow) (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Unrestricted

Biographical or Historical Information

Helen Gladys Bigelow White (1897-1974) spent nearly a half-century working as a high school teacher in Erie County and Huron County, Ohio. White graduated from Oberlin College in 1919, and soon began working as a high school English teacher in LaGrange. She spent six years as an English and history teacher in the Wellington Public School District, and taught at Horace Mann Jr. High School in Lakewood near Cleveland from 1935-39. White spent the majority of her teaching career as an English and history teacher at Milan High School in Milan, Ohio, from 1943-68. She retired from teaching in 1968, but occasionally taught at St. Paul’s High School in Norwalk near Oberlin.

Helen White was loved by her students, and encouraged them to take up hobbies such as coin collecting. She instituted and taught an Ohio History course, and directed a number of plays and singing groups. She was at one time approached by a publisher asking her to write a book about teaching and school subjects, but turned down the offer, claiming that she was too preoccupied with teaching to write a book.

White was a member of a number of organizations throughout her life. She was a member of the Beta Epsilon Chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma for 18 years, serving as the Chairman of the Publicity and Research Committee as well as the Recruitment Committee. She played an instrumental role in founding the Erie County Teachers Association and served on the organization’s Executive Committee for many years. She was an active member of the Order of the Eastern Star Norwalk and Wellington branches. Additionally, White was an active member of the Norwalk Shakespeare Club, the Roundabout Reading Club, the Firelands Historical Society, and the First United Methodist Church.

Helen Bigelow married her high school sweetheart, Albert E. White, in 1920. Albert had also studied at Oberlin from 1917-18 in the Conservatory. The couple had two children, John Frederick (b. 1927) and Alfred Edwin (b. 1933). Helen died on February 19, 1974.

Sources

“Helen Bigelow White Memorial Obituary,” Sandusky Register, 2/19/1974

Graduates and Former Student Files, Oberlin College Archives (RG 28)

Note written by Julia Clark