Document HS II-3: We Need Your Help! Excerpt from Circular Asking for Donations for Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, 1837.
Mount Holyoke Female Seminary
It has been expected, that this institution would be ready for the reception of scholars the ensuing autumn, & nearly 30 pupils are already engaged most of whom are to be teachers, & some of them are to be missionaries, who must be deprived of the anticipated privileges of this Seminary, if the commencement should be delayed. But late failures on subscriptions not yet collected, & other disappointments , arising from the peculiar state of commercial affairs, will render it exceedingly difficult to accomplish the object at the specified time. There are those, however, who regard this enterprise as one of the most important, & one destined to aid every other branch of benevolence, to assist in giving to the community that moral principle & that moral feeling, which are so much needed in the great work of renovating the world. There are those, who would deeply regret the extensive disappointment, which would be occasioned by delaying the commencement of the school till another year, when the walls of the building are already erected. They would regard it as a loss to the whole cause of benevolence, too great to be sustained without vigorous exertions to prevent it….
The circular goes on to ask for donations of money or any of the necessities for the Seminary: bedding, towels, pillows, “any kind of blanket, a little worn, if more convenient, as in that case, some lady may give a pair of blankets or two ladies, each a blanket.”
The complete transcription of the circular can be found online.