Desire Documented Through Letter Writing: Eleanor Larrison, Class of 1882
Eleanor Larrison, Class of 1882, writes to her friend Cora (not a Smith student) about her desires toward Helen, a younger student on campus.
While seemingly indecipherable in its original format, the letter, pictured below, has been transcribed by archivists and there is a typed copy included in Eleanor Larrison’s records in the College Archives.
The earnestness with which Eleanor writes about her feelings toward Helen is compelling and chock-full of longing and yearning that she doesn’t seem to fully understand.
While we do not get to see Cora’s responses to Eleanor, it is clear from the way that she expresses her desire that Eleanor is not shying away from telling her friend about her feelings toward Helen.
“I am led to think of this by the unrest which Helen causes me so often. I know but too well how much I love her…She is so very lovely when she is gracious! It nurses me in such an ecstasy of joy that I half wonder at myself…”
(Eleanor Larrison to Cora Potter, Sept. 25, 1882)2
“She is so very different than me that I find in her something of the same sort of charm that some women find in men. She is “manly, as a woman may be womanly” passionately strong. I never would choose to make advances to her, but am unspeakably happy when she smooths my cheek with her hand, or lays it on my head, looking down at me with the dewy light in her dark grey eyes…”
(Eleanor Larrison to Cora Potter, Sept. 25, 1881)2
A few pages of the letter above, transcribed by archivists.
References
- Photo of Eleanor Larrison, Late 19th Century, CA-MS-01023, Box 1397, Classes of 1879-1890 records, Smith College Archives, Northampton, Massachusetts.
- Correspondence from Eleanor Larrison to Cora Potter, 25 September 1881, CA-MS-01023, Box 1397, Classes of 1879-1890 records, Smith College Archives, Northampton, Massachusetts.