mshm200 Karen J. Williams Correspondence, 1964-1965. Finding Aid Encoding funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections

South Hadley, MA

Finding aid generated in MARC format from database, then encoded using Perl scripts and XSL stylesheet. 2003-05-20 Finding aid written in English. 2005-09-23 mshm200 converted from EAD 1.0 to 2002 by v1to02-5c.xsl (sy2003-10-15). Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections Karen J. Williams Correspondence, 1964-1965. Finding Aid MS 0601 Encoding funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Collection Overview Williams, Karen J. (Karen Jackson), 1940- Karen J. Williams Correspondence 1964-1965. MS 0601 LD 7096.6 1961 Jackson 1 box (0.2 linear ft.) Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections

South Hadley, MA

Williams, Karen Averill Jackson, 1940- ; student. Mount Holyoke College graduate, 1961. Papers consist of letters to her parents, primarily describing her living conditions and social activities while living in Moscow with her husband, who was a journalism student at the University of Moscow (Moskovskii universitet). Includes descriptions of her travels to Leningrad, Kiev and Central Asia. English. Biographical Note

Karen Averill Jackson was born on January 17, 1940 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Elmore Jackson, an executive of the American Friends Service Committee, and Elisabeth Averill Jackson, a 1931 graduate of Mount Holyoke College. She attended the Friends Seminary in New York City in 1953-1954 and the Oakwood School in Poughkeepsie, New York, from 1954-1957. From 1957-1961 she was a student at Mount Holyoke, where she majored in political science and received a B.A. degree. In the fall of 1961 she began working for the McGraw-Hill Publishing Company in New York City. She married David L. Williams on September 7, 1963, lived in Moscow in 1964-1965 while he studied journalism, and had a daughter in 1971. She also attended Columbia University where she received a M.A. degree in political science (1964) and a M.L.S. degree (1970). From June 1967 until her retirement in July 1999 she was a librarian at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.

Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Karen J. Williams Correspondence consists of typed transcripts of letters to her parents Elmore Jackson and Elisabeth Averill Jackson written from Moscow where her husband, David L. Williams, was enrolled in the school of journalism at the University of Moscow during the 1964-1965 academic year. Correspondence pertains primarily to daily life in Moscow and describes living conditions including food preparation, laundry, and the availability of household and personal items. Of note are descriptions of "block" housing accommodations and housing inspections. The letters also discuss theatre and ballet performances that the Williams attended, visits to museums, factories, schools, a hospital, and monuments and trips to Leningrad, Kiev, and Central Asia. Also of interest are descriptions of Russian lessons and academic facilities at the University of Moscow.

Organization of the Collection

Chronological.

Information on Use Terms of Access and Use

Unrestricted.

Preferred Citation

Please use the following format when citing materials from this collection:

Karen J. Williams Correspondence, Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections, South Hadley, Massachusetts

Search Terms Williams, Karen J. (Karen Jackson), 1940- Williams, David L. (David Louis), 1935- Moskovskii gosudarstvennyi universitet im. M.V. Lomonosova. Jackson, Elisabeth Averill, 1909-1991. Jackson, Elmore, 1910- Foreign study - Soviet Union. Moscow (Russia) - Description and travel. Soviet Union - Description and travel. Soviet Union - Social conditions - 1945-1991. Soviet Union - Social life and customs - 1917-1970. Letters.