Letters from Brazil: 1929-1945

Mary Helen Clark's "Letters from Brazil: 1929-1945" were donated to Special Collections of Vanderbilt University Library by her sister, Blanche Henry Weaver, on 10 March 1982. The letters, for the most part, are addressed to family members and are plentifully detailed accounts of Mary Helen's days in Brazil, particularly in Belo Horizonte, Minas; PortoAlegre; and in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Moore of the Instituto Granberry. As a kind of diary--suggested through the details, lengths, and frequency of these epistles--the letters provide first-hand accounts of a Native American's Latin-American experience, everything from foods, behaviors, language and customs of the people to the political surgings of the times. The letters are arranged chronologicaly and are generally all first-draft compositions. In addition to Helen Clark's own letters, there is one folder of Blanche Henry Clark's correspondence during her stay in Brazil in 1932.

When the collection of letters was deposited, it included a personal statement from Blanche Henry concerning her sister's letters: "I see no reason to place any restiction on these letters. They were written to members of her family and I am the only survivor. I have no idea where the letters of her last twenty years are. If I find them, I shall add them to these. I do think perhaps the letters of the earlier are the more valuable."

Box Contents (1 Box):

Folder 1: Mary Helen Clark. Letters from Brazil: 1928-1929.
Folder 2: Mary Helen Clark. Letters from Brazil: 1930.
Folder 3: Mary Helen Clark. Letters from Brazil: 1931-1932.
Folder 4: Mary Helen Clark. Letters from Brazil: 1933-1935.
Folder 5: Mary Helen Clark. Letters from Brazil: 1936-1937.
Folder 6: Mary Helen Clark. Letters from Brazil: 1938-1939.
Folder 7: Mary Helen Clark. Letters from Brazil: 1940-1943.
Folder 8: Mary Helen Clark. Letters from Brazil: 1944-1945.
Folder 9: Blanche Henry Clark. Letters from Brazil: (1932)
Folder 10: Mary Helen Clark. Letters from Brazil: (Undated)