Individual Presentation or Panel Title
Darlings in Love: A History of Romance Between Women at Hollins in the Early 20th Century
Abstract
This paper and accompanying sources hope to provide a detailed examination of the world of darlings at Hollins between the years 1900 and 1921, using primary sources gathered from The Spinster, the college’s yearbook. As a small, single-sex institution established in 1842, Hollins has a history of romantic relationships between students. Students who participated in these relationships between the years of 1900 and 1921 were called “darlings.” These same-sex relationships flourished at Hollins in the early 20th century and were a well-known and accepted part of life at Hollins. For this study, over a hundred primary sources were gathered from The Spinsters of this time period and used to create a picture of the culture and customs of darlings. These sources are entirely student-composed and include poems, short stories, play scripts, jokes, cartoons, senior pages, club pages, and portraits. This paper has drawn from the sources found in The Spinster to compose a comprehensive history of the darlings and their world at Hollins.
Location
Goodwin Private Dining Room
Start Date
11-4-2015 2:30 PM
End Date
11-4-2015 3:20 PM
Full Text of Presentation
wf_yes
Included in
Higher Education Commons, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Commons, Women's Studies Commons
Darlings in Love: A History of Romance Between Women at Hollins in the Early 20th Century
Goodwin Private Dining Room
This paper and accompanying sources hope to provide a detailed examination of the world of darlings at Hollins between the years 1900 and 1921, using primary sources gathered from The Spinster, the college’s yearbook. As a small, single-sex institution established in 1842, Hollins has a history of romantic relationships between students. Students who participated in these relationships between the years of 1900 and 1921 were called “darlings.” These same-sex relationships flourished at Hollins in the early 20th century and were a well-known and accepted part of life at Hollins. For this study, over a hundred primary sources were gathered from The Spinsters of this time period and used to create a picture of the culture and customs of darlings. These sources are entirely student-composed and include poems, short stories, play scripts, jokes, cartoons, senior pages, club pages, and portraits. This paper has drawn from the sources found in The Spinster to compose a comprehensive history of the darlings and their world at Hollins.