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Vigo County Public Library
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Terre Haute, IN 47807
812-232-1113
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Jane Dabney Shackelford Collection
Dates: 1914-1979
Accession Number: 800627
Donor: Edith Bigham
Description: Five document cases

Biography

Jane Dabney Shackelford, Terre Haute author of children's books about African-Americans, was born in Clarksville, Tennessee in 1895. She later moved with her family to Logansport, Indiana. After graduating from high school there, she entered Indiana State Normal School in Terre Haute, and received her A.B. degree in 1919.

Jane Dabney Shackelford taught in the Terre Haute public school system for 43 years. She completed the M.A. degree at Columbia University in 1927.

Shackelford's first book, The Child's Story of the Negro, was published in 1938. In 1944, Associated Publishers brought out her second book for children, My Happy Days. The revised edition of The Child's Story of the Negro was published in 1956.

During her teaching years, Jane Dabney Shackelford was active in such community organizations as Girl Scouts, YWCA, American Association of University Women, and the League of Women Voters. She was a founding member of Alpha Eta Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha, a black sorority. She was the recipient of many awards and honors.

Jane Dabney Shackelford died on December 22, 1979.
 

Content and Scope of Collection

Upon her death in December, 1979, all of Jane Dabney Shackelford's scrapbooks, note cards and loose articles and clippings were placed in a storage room in the Sycamore Building in downtown Terre Haute.

On the morning of June 10, 1980 accompanied by Jane Dabney Shackelford's long-time friend and teaching associate, Edith Bigham, the VCPL archivist removed the contents of eight large boxes from the storeroom and brought them to the archives of the library.

The twenty-one scrapbooks and quantities of loose materials were not in any order. The scrapbooks are numbered arbitrarily. These arbitrary numbers that are referred to in the inventory, merely indicate what materials were held between the same covers. Often, the various segments within a scrapbook had no relationship to each other.

Without disturbing the internal arrangement of the scrapbooks, even when there was no coherence to be preserved, the materials are divided into three parts, progressing from (1) the mainly personal and autobiographical through (2) the teaching, writing and other career-related activities to (3) issues and events, in both Indiana and in the world that Jane Dabney Shackelford followed with avid interest.

In the third division of materials - issues and events - the contents have been preserved primarily to show the scope of Jane Dabney Shackelford's interests. Of value to a researcher trying to understand her thoughts and attitudes are her habits of underlining passages which she found significant and of making marginal notes.

Only on the fifth box has the order described above been violated. It seemed less disruptive, because of their size and weight, to store three yearbooks from Jane Dabney Shackelford's school and college days in the back of Document Case 5 rather than keep them with the other biographical materials in Document Case 1.

Document Case 1

 

 

 

 

Folder 1

Autobiographical:
(Birth and early childhood in Logansport, Indiana;
impression she made on her high school class)

n.d.

 

 

 

 

YMCA: Letter from William L. Carmichael (copy)

1945

 

 

 

 

YMCA: Letter to Soror Clayton (copy)

1979

 

 

 

 

Fragment of an account of an incident at Roots Store
during autograph session for My Happy Days

n.d.

 

 

 

 

Paper: "My Books and Why I Wrote Them"

n.d.

 

 

 

Folder 2

Anonymous letter (Evangeline Harris)

ca. 1940s

 

 

 

 

Contents of a small envelope from Scrapbook 14

n.d.

 

 

 

Folders 3-5

The Family - Parts I and III (by Evangeline E. Harris)

1938

 

 

 

 

Sorority Notes (about the anonymous letter)

ca. 1930s

 

 

 

 

Sorority reports (from Scrapbook 14)

1940

 

 

 

Folder 6

Sketch of Mrs. Patricia (Joseph) Young

ca. 1970s

 

 

 

 

Autobiographical fragments

n.d.

 

 

 

 

List of memberships and achievements

n.d.

 

 

 
 

Reviews and comments (from Scrapbook 14)

 

 

 

 

Folder 7

Photographs - Clippings (from loose papers)

1978

 

 

 

Folder 8

Programs

 

 

 

Holiday Musicale

1953

 

 

 

 

 

 

History Tea (fifth annual)

1940

 

 

 

 

 

Poster: "Guide Right"
(Inspirational display for Negro Youth)

(from loose papers)

n.d.

 

 

 

Folders 9-13

"MY FRIENDS, Those Who Have Helped Me Along
  Life's Way"-- (Headings, notes, pictures, memorabilia,
  names, letter to Wendy ?; from Scrapbook 15)

1978

 

 

 

Folder 14

Girl Scout Activities (loose papers)

1936-197?

 

 

 

Folder 15

Engagement Calendars (loose papers)

1949; 1978

 

 

 

Folder 16

Cards and messages from friends (loose papers)

1979

 

 

 

Folder 17

Questions for an oral history interview for Vigo County
  Public Library (the interview was never done) (loose
  papers)

1973-1979

 

 

 

Folder 18

Correspondence with Phyllis Klotman; papers related to
  filmed or videotaped biographical history
  (from Scrapbook 13)

1979

 

 

 

 

Autobiographical notes (from Scrapbook 13)

1979

 

 

 

Folder 19

Newspaper clipping: "Scatman's 'Sins' Led Him
  to Show Business Life"

n.d.

 

 

 

 

Letter to Jane Dabney Shackelford from Aurelia McKnight

Feb. 28, 1974

 

 

 

 

"Get Well" Cards (2) from Aurelia McKnight

n.d.
     
 

"List of Framed Awards"
  (2 pages in Shackelford's handwriting)

n.d.

 

 

 

 

"Honors to be Photographed"
  (1 page in Shackelford's handwriting)

n.d.

 

 

 

 

"Honor Keys, Badges, Pins, etc."
  (2 pages in Shackelford's handwriting)

n.d.

 

 

 

 

"My Favorite Book Reviews"
  (2 pages in Shackelford's handwriting)

n.d.

 

 

 

 

"Pictures to Take"
  (4 pages in Shackelford's handwriting)

n.d.

 

 

 

 

"A School Day Prayer
  (2 pages in Shackelford's handwriting)

n.d.

 

 

 

 

"Mrs. Jane Dabney Shackelford Biography"
  (12 pages in Shackelford's handwriting)

n.d.

 

 

 

Folder 20

"How I Became a Writer"

1927

 

 

 

 

"Cornbread" and "The Charms of Music" - Early papers
  written as a student at Columbia University
  (from Scrapbook 13)

n.d.

 

 

 
     
     

Document Case 2

 

 

 

 

Folder 1

Official documents:

 

 

 

 

 

Last Vigo County School Corporation Contract

1961

 

 

 

 

Critic Teacher's Certificate

1930

 

 

 

 

License Information

1923

 

 

 

 

Training Record

1934

 

 

 

 

Transcripts - Indiana State Normal School

1919

 

 

 

 

Membership Certificate - Alpha Kappa Alpha

n.d.

 

 

 

 

AAUW Honor - Newspaper clipping with
  picture; citation (written from envelope)

1972

 

 

 

Folders 2-6

My Happy Days - Outline (from Scrapbook 11)

1943

 

 

 

Folder 7

The Child's Story of the Negro - Material on
  revision of (from envelope)

1950s

 

 

 

Folder 8

Article about Jane Dabney Shackelford by
  Carter G. Woodson in Indianapolis Recorder
  (from loose papers)

1938

 

 

 

Folder 9

Inspiration for the teacher (from Scrapbook 8)

n.d.

 

 

 

Folders 10-13

School Materials and ideas for teaching children

 

 

 

 

 

Names of individual pupils and analysis of their
  weaknesses (from Scrapbook 20)

 

 

 

 

Folder 14

Juvenile Fiction Clinic - Notes (from Scrapbook 20)

1946

 

 

 

Folder 15

School Materials (includes "Analysis of Slow Readers"
(from Scrapbook 19)

 

 

 

 

Folder 16

Notes (from Scrapbook 10)

n.d.

 

 

 

Folder 17-19

Materials collected on vacation; preparation of
  children; examples of successful people
  (from Scrapbook 12)

 

 

 

 
     
     

Document Case 3

 

 

 

 

Folders 1-3

Ideas for book; lists, notes, quotations;
What It Takes [to Succeed] - Chapter outline
(from Scrapbook 9)

 

 

 

 

Folder 4

Negro History Bulletin - Citations of works
by Jane Dabney Shackelford

1938-1942

 

 

 

 

Minority Groups in United States History, Vigo County
School Corporation: citation, Child's Story of the Negro

1969

 

 

 

 

"I Was So Glad I Was Here" - dialect, baptism
  (from loose papers)

n.d.

 

 

 

Folders 5-7

Magazine clippings; hand-copied passages of
poems and prose; hand copies of review excerpts
(from Scrapbook 21)

1945-1978

 

 

 

Folder 8

Autobiographical Materials
(race relations while working way through school; life
at Meadows Manor East nursing home)

ca. 1970s

 

 

 

 

Fragment (pp. 15-19) about religion holding Negroes back;
  about Blanche Fuqua's effort to purchase house for pupils
  to fix up
(from loose papers)

 

 

 

 

Folder 9

Miscellaneous teaching notes (on index cards)
(from loose papers)

n.d.

 

 

 

Folder 10

Clippings about Jane Dabney Shackelford
as a teacher and writer; book reviews
  (from loose papers)

1945-1978

 

 

 

Folder 11-13

Teaching materials; clippings on religious subjects:
handwritten notes on her own experiences
  (from Scrapbook 16)

1978-

 

 

 

Folder 14-16

Note cards; sheets with handwritten headings; clippings on
  educational issues; clippings on current topics
  (from Scrapbook 17)

1979-

 

 

 

Folder 17

"The Schools Everyone Loves" - Article from
NRTA Journal

1979

 

 

 

 

Article? on Jane Dabney Shackelford's
experience with Ku Klux Klan
  (under heading of Douglas School)

n.d.

 

 

 

Loose

Note cards for speeches

n.d.

 

 

 

Sheets
I-VIII

Letters with questions for the "Quiz Kids"
(a school trivia game during Negro History Week)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
     

Document Case 4

 

 

 

 

Folder 1

Clippings about people, events, and issues in the
   Terre Haute area
(from loose papers)

1962-1979

 

 

 

Folder 2

Advertisements showing black children modeling clothes
(from Scrapbook 2)

1975-1977

 

 

 

Folder 3-7

"We Are Rising" - pictures, clippings and programs
about black celebrities, mostly from Terre Haute
and Indianapolis newspapers
(from Scrapbook 2)

1976-1977

 

 

 

Folder 8-12

"My Country! My Country! - Whither Goest Thou?"
Things I Do Not Understand: crime, drugs, inflation
  (from scrapbook 4)

 

 

 

 

Folder 13-16

"My President - Jimmy Carter"
(from Scrapbook 7)

1976-1977

 

 

 

Folder 17-18

Busing - Clippings and statements on
(from Scrapbook 3)

1975-1977

 

 

 

Folder 19-20

"Lest I Forget"

1977

 

 

 

 

"Why We Are Catholics"
(from Scrapbook 8)

1956-1977

 

 

 

 

 

 

Document Case 5

 

 

 

 

Folder 1-4

Race Relations

1977

 

 

 

 

 

"My Spiritual Experiences

 

 

 

 

 

 

"My People! My People!"
(from Scrapbook 3)

 

 

 

 

Folder 5-7

International Relations
  (from scrapbook 1)

1977-1978

 

 

 

Folder 8

Current Problems and Events
(from loose papers)

1977-1978

 

 

 

Books

Lindbergh. The Tattler (yearbook) - p. 25

1914

 

 

 

 

Lindbergh. The Advance (yearbook) - p. 45

1919

 

 

 

 

Lindbergh. The Ivy Leaf - Nos. 1-4 p.21 (yearbooks)

1938

 

 

 

 

Abundant Living - E. Stanley Jones

1941