Travel correspondence

Author

Hyde, Helen, 1868-1919

Date

• 1889-1906

Summary

• Bound compilations of letters by Helen Hyde (Nellie) and Mabel Hyde Gillette (Daisy) to their Aunt Gussie (Augusta Bixler), sister Hallie, and each other. Most of the letters are by Helen Hyde describing her time in Japan between 1899 and 1906. She described Japanese people, places, culture, and personal experiences living and working there. She also writes of her life in Japan traveling, household, finances, clothes, social and cultural events both American and Japanese, etc. She writes of the Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905 and her efforts to help local people. She sends lively reports back to the San Francisco Argonaut for publication. Hyde is in Honolulu on her way to Japan when she hears of the San Francisco earthquake of April 1906 and worries for her relatives until she learns all are safe. Hyde writes lively, engaging letters of an interesting life. Some series of letters are by Helen and her sister Mabel in the United States, including letters from a summer residence in Beulah Lake, Wisconsin.
• Volumes 1 and 3 contain letters mainly from Nellie to various family members; volume 4 contains letters mainly from Daisy to various family members; volume 5 contains mainly letters from Nellie along with some of her articles published in the San Francisco Argonaut; volume 6 contains letters from both Nellie and Daisy to each other and various others.
• Helen Hyde was a visual artist who spent her girlhood in San Francisco, then lived in France, Germany, and Japan as a student and professional artist. She died in Pasadena, California.