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Somethin' to Write Home About: Away at School: Rochester University

An exhibit featuring letters from the Regional History Center Collections

Away At School

Notice that when contrasted with this letter, written 80 years later, the two carry much the same tone.  The themes of school work, food, and friends would not be uncommon in a modern student’s correspondence home in an email.

Away At School: Rochester University

May 23, 1946

Sylvia Nielsen, a Rochester University student, writes a letter to her parents in Rockford. Like a typical college student, her letters update her family of the different exams she is concerned about, when and how she will next be coming home, and the new job she acquired, “at 76¢ per hour!!”  

Dr. Giles Paddock Ransom Family Collection, RC 275, Box 16, Folder 6