CORRESPONDENCE, 1869-1919 (19 folders)

Summary: Primarily correspondence received by Evelyn Gaston VanderVeer. Some letters addressed to Augustus VanderVeer (mostly from her) are also included.

The correspondence to Evelyn Gaston VanderVeer is mostly in four parts. There are letters she received as a girl and young woman, most of which were received from her sister Mary ("Mame"), while the latter was at school in Poughkeepsie, New York, including at Vassar in the mid-1870s. There are letters, 1881-1882, from Augustus VanderVeer (during the couple's engagement) while he was based at Corning, New York, and employed as an engineer in the construction of a railroad. Finally, there are letters from Elizabeth ("Bess") VanderVeer's years at Vassar, 1902-1906, and from her later stay in France with the American Expeditionary Forces Y.M.C.A., 1918-1919.

Most of Elizabeth VanderVeer's letters from France pertain to "welfare" work for soldiers, undertaken in and near Bordeaux, including at Camp Genicart (part of the Bordeaux embarkation camp).

Of possible interest in this series is a letter (February 28, 1875) from Mary Gaston describing a visit to Vassar by Louisa May Alcott. Also a letter (postmarked April 17, 1905, and including a diagram) from Hugh VanderVeer describing his first descent into a pneumatic caisson.