Annie Laurie Smith, Papers

This collection features correspondence, diaries and journals, photographs, newspaper clippings, personal papers, and mementos created by and about Annie Laurie Smith and her family.  The majority of the collection is correspondence to and from Annie Laurie Smith and her immediate family.  The collection contains letters, postcards, telegrams, greeting cards, and many of the letters included newspaper clippings.  This collection of correspondence is interesting not only because of the broad time frame (1825-1994), but also because of the frequency in which the family members wrote to each other, particularly between 1935 – 1945.  This ten-year period while Annie Laurie and Eugene were at school and while Eugene was in the military contains an almost daily record of the events of the Smith family.  There is a sizable collection of greeting cards that were sent to and from the Smith family that mark many significant events, including graduations, birthdays, trips, and the deaths of Maymie, Eugene, Everett, and Maymie.  Another significant portion of the correspondence collection is letters and postcards to and from Annie Laurie while she was traveling.   

The collection contains diaries and journals owned by Annie Laurie, Eugene, Mabel, and Maymie Smith.  The majority of the diaries and journals are from Annie Laurie who kept a diary or journal sporadically throughout her life.  Most of the entries aren’t more than a few lines about her daily activities.  The journals of Mabel and Maymie are similar, with typical entries of not more than a few lines.  The most insightful journal entries can be found in the few diaries and journals of Eugene while he was attending school at the University of Nebraska, in Lincoln, Nebraska.