Gladys L. Gage collection
Scope and Contents
This small collection contains correspondence to Gladys L. Gage from her Japanese American students held in relocation centers and camps, and correspondence to her parents recalling the aspects of the relocations and teaching students spanning 1941-1942. The collection also contains roll books from 1941, autograph books, and compositions written by Gage's students at the Washington School in Seattle. Other materials in the collection include photographs and slides of Seattle, Washington, depicting the community during the period, informal publications on Japanese American relocation, school records, and several religious books. Of note is a corsage made by a student's parent from shells found in dirt banks of irrigation ditches at an internment camp in Twin Falls, Idaho.
Dates
- Creation: 1933 - 1982
Creator
- Gage, Gladys L. (Person)
Language of Materials
Collection is primarily in English with books and ephemera in English and Japanese and signature books with student autographs and messages in English, Japanese, Cantonese, and Hebrew.
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open to the public and must be used in the John M.K. Davis Reading Room of the Watkinson Library, Trinity College Library, Hartford, Connecticut. Researchers must register and agree to copyright and privacy laws when using this collection.
Conditions Governing Use
Digital surrogates may be provided to researchers, in accordance with the duplication policy of the Watkinson Library.
Copyright resides with the creators of the documents or their heirs unless otherwise specified. It is the researcher's responsibility to secure permission to publish materials from the appropriate copyright holder.
Archival materials may contain sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal and/or state right to privacy laws or other regulations. While we make a good faith effort to identify and remove such materials, some may be missed during processing. If a researcher finds sensitive personal information (e.g. social security numbers) in a collection, please bring it to the attention of the reading room staff.
Biographical / Historical
Gladys L. Gage was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1908, attended New Britain Normal School, and would go on to obtain teaching degrees from Boston University and Hillard College (Hartford, Conn.). Gage is best known for her work as a teacher in the Hartford Public School system, Noah Webster School in West Hartford (Conn.), and at Renbrook School in West Hartford until her retirement. At the beginning of the Japanese American relocation and evacuation in the midst of WWII, she signed-up to be a teacher in an exchange program in Seattle, Washington, where nearly one-third of her class was of Japanese origin. Gage arrived in August 1941, months before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and witnessed three evacuations from Puyallup, Washington during the war.
Gage then returned to Hartford and resumed her teaching there. In 1982, she donated her collection related to Japanese American relocation and internment to Trinity College's Watkinson Library.
Extent
1 Cubic Feet (1 legal size document box, 1 letter size clamshell box, and 1 oversize portfolio case) ; As defined by UNLV Calculator: 1 legal size Hollinger box (10.25"H x 5"W x 15.5"D) equals .46 cubic feet; 1 letter clamshell box (12.25"H x 3"W x 10.25"D) equals .22 cubic feet; oversize portfolio case (17.5"L x 22"H x .5"W) equals .11 cubic feet.
Arrangement
Collection is grouped by material type in five series:
Series 1. Correspondence
Series 2. Washington School student records and work
Series 3. Ephemera and Realia
Series 4. Photographs
Series 5. Print Publications
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated by Gladys Gage in 1982.
- Title
- Guide to the Gladys L. Gage collection
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Michelle C. Sigiel in 2018 and Craig Harman in 2025
- Date
- 2018-11
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Watkinson Library - Archival Collections Repository
Trinity College Library
300 Summit St.
Hartford Connecticut 06106