My mom, Joan Wehlen Morrison, was a writer. After her death, I edited her diaries and journals into Home Front Girl. Last year I wrote about how my mother’s papers were being sent to the University of Chicago to be archived. I was so excited that the archivist in Chicago accepted Joan’s papers–after all, much of the setting for Home Front Girl is at the University of Chicago which Joan entered at age 17 in 1940. I didn’t know how long it would take for the papers to be archived. I know from my daughter, Sarah, who has a Master’s in Information Studies from UT-Austin–a degree combining Library Science and Computer Science skills–that it can take a long time for collections to become available for researchers to access.
Imagine my delight to discover that the papers are open!
This means anyone could come to the library and start accessing my mom’s papers. Perhaps you!
Here’s what the library page looks like at this link.
I am especially chuffed that Box 2 has her “Doodles and Drawings List.” She was a great doodler. Here is one her “masterpieces,” listening to the coronation on the radio.
Joan’s doodle of her listening to the coronation on the radio under blankets
If you go to the The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, you could see even more of her delightful drawings.
