Mount Holyoke College. All rights reserved.
u 2004 Mount Holyoke College. All rights reserved.
Mary Julia Browning was born on September 19, 1928 in Baltimore, Maryland. Her parents were Robert M. Browning and Louise Gray Browning. She attended Holten Arms School in Wasington, D.C. then went to Mount Holyoke College from 1947- 1951, graduating with a degree in art history. She moved to Iowa City, Iowa where she worked as a radio station announcer in 1951-1952. She then moved to Boston, Massachusetts and worked in administrative positions in the Harvard University Employment Office 0and the Ritz Carlton Hotel. She also took a class at Boston University. She moved to Washington, D.C. and worked at the Chevy Chase Presbyterian Church as membership secretary. She married Edward Robert Nelson (Bob) 1958; they had two children and divorced in 1966. Between 1963-1976 she held elementary teaching jobs in independent schools in North Carolina, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. From 1979-1981 she worked as an employment counselor and worked with the elderly in Beverly, Massachusetts. She died in Beverly on September 22, 1994 at the age of sixty-six.
The Mary J. Browning Nelson Papers contain correspondence, course materials from her years in high school and at Mount Holyoke College and Boston University, newspaper clippings, memorabilia, including programs and a scrapbook from Mount Holyoke, legal documents, materials relating to her divorce and employment, family papers and photographs. The papers primarily document her time at Mount Holyoke College (1947-1951), her professional career and her divorce. In letters written to her parents while she was in college she discusses her studies in great detail and frequently mentions her teachers, particularly Rachel Bespaloff, Dorothy Cogswell, Catharine W. Pierce, Richard T. Sollenberger, Clarice Tatman, and Beatrice W. Woodward. She often describes her dates and other aspects of her social life and she also discusses her campus and summer jobs. Other Mount Holyoke-related material in the collection includes a scrapbook and syllabi, notes, papers, and examinations that she prepared for English, French, speech, zoology, and, in particular art history courses. The collection also includes notes for high school French classes and a syllabus, quiz, and notes for a religion course at Boston University.
This collection is organized into nine series:
Materials 1964 on are restricted.
Please use the following format when citing materials from this collection:
Mary B. Nelson Papers, Mount Holyoke College, Archives and Special Collections, South Hadley, Massachusetts