Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

This collection was purchased from Type Punch Matrix by the Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia on January 24, 2023.

Biographical / Historical

Hazel D. Christopher (c.1921-1964) was born to G. C. Christopher, cashier of the New York office of Aetna Life Insurance Company, and Martha Neilsen Christopher and had two sibblings Robert and Harry W. Christopher. She appears to have gone to college and worked as a secretary in the publishing industry in New York.

Content Description

This collection contains one handmade and illustrated memoir of Hazel Dorothea Christopher, a child from Brooklyn, New York, from the late 1930s. The book is told in the third person and has four chapters: "A Look Backward", "Childhood", "School Days", and "The Future." "A Look backward" explores her parents and grandparents, particularly the youthful seafaring exploits of her Norwegian grandfather. "Childhood" starts with Hazel's birth and her very early life to the age of six. "School Days" reflects on her experience at grammar and public school. The final chapter, "The Future," looks to high school and after, considering possible careers for the author as a nurse or teacher.

The reminiscences are in a hand-bound book with cardboard covers and a black cloth spine, hand-sewn and decorated. The text is typed with handwritten captions; the book includes title page, "publisher" imprint, contents page, eleven black and white photographs mounted or laid in, two sketches, and some tipped-in clippings.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Autobiography (genre)
• Girls
• school children