DePelchin letters

The collection includes a bound volume of twenty-eight letters and a boxed photocopy. The vast majority of the correspondence is from Ms. Kezia Payne DePelchin to her sister, Sallie Payne, describing her experience as a volunteer nurse from late August to mid-November during the 1878 yellow fever epidemic. The letters explain DePelchin’s motivations for traveling to Memphis and joining the Howard Association as a volunteer nurse, her experiences as a nurse, the reactions of Memphis society to the work of female nurses, and the difficulties of her occupation. The letters also recount the spread and effects of the epidemic, and chronicle her travels through Tennessee and into Mississippi and Alabama as she followed the illness and responded to need. Letters to her sister from 1879, after her return home, are present as well. Also included in the volume were letters to DePelchin from E. Kate Heckle. Heckle, who was also a Houston resident and a friend of DePelchin, had nursed in several epidemics and responded to the same call for assistance from the Howard Assocation, volunteering from September through October. DePelchin and Heckle proceeded separately to Memphis, and saw each other sporadically through their stays. Heckle wrote several letters to DePelchin describing her own experiences and difficulties.