Biography

Jesse Virginia Antrim Perkins was born February 2, 1893 to Lola Hay Antrim and John Harvey Antrim. She was the youngest of three sisters and one brother. After graduating from high school, Perkins attended the University of Colorado at Boulder and then the University of Nebraska. Her father died while she was in college, and after graduation she moved back to Iowa to teach at a rural grade school and be near her mother. She married a farmer, Albert Leonard Perkins, and had four daughters, Dorothy Esther, Virginia Alice, and twins Patricia Susan and Elizabeth Lulu.

Scope and Content Note

The Jesse Virginia Antrim Perkins papers date from 1905 to 1938 and 1999 and measure 0.5 linear inches. There are three partial journals included in this collection. Her first journal was given to her by her father in 1905 at the age of twelve. She writes of the weather, visitors, and personal and family illnesses. The second journal begins in 1914 after she has graduated from college and returned to Iowa to teach in rural grade schools. In this journal she often writes about student behavior and local events. One entry records the birth of her youngest daughter and the death of her mother in 1927. In the midst of her journals is a livestock breeding record from the farm she shared with her husband. A letter to the archives written by her daughter in 1999 provides a short biography of her education and family life. There is also a copy of a photograph of people gathered around the first car Perkins ever owned in 1915.

SCVF

Folder 1

Jesse Virginia Antrim Perkins