Student Profiles

Student Profiles

[...] the relationships between French family and boarder were, with only two or three exceptions, described as affectionate or cordial. It is true of course that some students are described as shy or reserved, but none was described as rejecting the family life in their French home, and nearly all of them were seen as entering into the family life quite easily and naturally and happily. Almost all of the students have kept up correspondence with the French families at whose home they have lived. Two of the families interviewed indicated that there had not been any subsequent correspondence. Most typically the American students write from two to four times a year, many of them send parcels, and almost all of them write regularly at Christmas. Correspondence is naturally more frequent at first. It apparently tends to persist at least to the extent of a long Christmas greeting for a good many years. The over-all impression which American students are making upon French families is rather nicely summarized by a young woman from Tours who has had students from the Sweet Briar Junior Year in France program living at her home for the past five years. "Before I knew these fine young American people we believed that their chief characteristic was outrageous egotism, and exaggerated independence, and a profound disdain of our old civilization. We have noticed with astonishment that these young girls and boys had also at home a family life very much like ours. We have found them to be friendly and considerate. They are intelligent, resourceful, and eager to learn and understand. When they leave, they always wish to return to France and they do not hesitate to come as far as Tours to see us again, knowing that they will be received with as much joy as young relatives come for a visit. The young people from the Sweet Briar program are good ambassadors from the United States. (Pace 19-20)

Carolyn French

A member of the Smith College Class of 1949, Carolyn French was among the first students who returned to Paris for the Junior Year Abroad program following WWII. Her correspondence (including photos and other artifacts) is preserved in Smith College's Archives and paints a vivid picture of the postwar privations and student exuberance that characterized this era. French lived at Reid Hall, as did her Smith classmates, so she also details what it meant to eat, sleep, and socialize at the revamped study abroad center.

One of her earliest letters to her parents, dated August 11, 1947, features a wonderful description of French's first experience at Reid Hall:

Sat. aft. we taxied over to Reid Hall to leave a few bags and see the place. Oh, dear family, what a charming place! We will have a terrific year – we can't miss. The street is very short and narrow and #4 looks as though it were a dumb, dirty yellow pension sitting on the sidewalk – but when the double doors open – what a change! You realize that this pension is really a square with the middle + one end cut out for gardens, lawn, flowers, etc. There is a delightful balcony looking over the garden, the rooms are large & have plenteous bookshelves, a nice kitchen (American food – French cook), a cheery dining room, large libraries & reading rooms (Carolyn French papers, Smith College Archives, CA-MS-01159, Smith College Special Collections, Northampton, Massachusetts).

Another letter, addressed to her "dear poor neglected family" and dated October 5, 1947, is written on Reid Hall stationery. She reports:

Well, I'm all settled in Reid Hall, and very happy...We're most of us in singles and 2nd semestre, we move up to studios with glass fronts + skylights! Mme. Guilloton is being typically wonderful + sage + helpful – Miss Leet, the director is most charming and understanding with a very good attitude...I have a tiny little balcony, a wash stand + curtain, a chair, table, bureau & a minuscule closet. (We keep our lovely trunks in our rooms).

Though French herself thought very highly of Mme. Guilloton and Miss Leet, never objecting to the policies at Reid Hall, she reported to her parents some complaints from her peers: "...some of the gals have written their parents saying Reid Hall is like a cloister – and asking their parents to write her [Mme. Guilloton] complaining about the rules etc. In reality we have tremendous freedom – our only rule is that we must be in groups of 3 when we go out in the evening + we must have a purpose in mind when we go out." (November 3, 1947)

One of the more consistent themes in French's correspondence is that of deprivation. Postwar France was still recovering and many goods, both staples and luxuries, were simply not available. In her October 24, 1947 letter, French says, with some tact, "We eat very well here – but not enough if you know what I mean – 4 or 5 fried potatoes beautifully cooked – a little bit of yummy spinach, etc. but of course the French people don't even get as much as we do. They have hardly any bread & no grain or paste for macaroni, not enough potatoes so all they eat is greenery – of which there will be none of course during the winter."  

American students often traveled to Paris toting canned goods and toiletries but French also included a list of items in each letter that she was hoping her parents would ship to Reid Hall. Preserved in the Smith College Archives, along with her letters, is her ration book for the year, with several coupons for milk still inside! 

In spite of the general shortages in Paris, Reid Hall still managed to offer feasts on special occasions. Some of French's most vivid writing comes in a December 9, 1947 letter recounting the Thanksgiving celebration from which she was still recovering:

Reid Hall really did itself proud that day. The chef had found turkey and had also made pumpkin pie with real crust – unheard of delicacy. Delicious potage, huge delicious slices of perfectly flavoured turkey (just like home) with stuffing made of meat and chestnuts- cranberry jelly, sweet potatoes, salad, pumpkin pie a la mode, bananas, apples, grapes, nuts, fudge, coffee and of course our best $48 a bottle refill of 'vente libre' wine. Oh what a feast – and we didn't leave the table until 3.45 (we began at 12.30). The tables had huge pumpkins filled with fruit for decoration and huge yellow chrysanthemums were everywhere in lovely green jars. Miss Leet had bought them at Les Halles (central market) at 4:30 that morning.

Another festive occasion was the official postwar Reid Hall reopening held in February 1948 which French describes for her parents in the above image. Given the palpable joy surrounding the Club's reopening, it is perhaps fitting that the last line of French's Feb. 21, 1948 letter is, "The champagne was delicious."

The last letter in which French mentions her beloved Reid Hall is dated April 29, 1948, presumably just before the academic year ended and she embarked on a summer of European travel before sailing home.

Since I wrote last I've been doing a lot of reading, a lot of 'play going-to' and a lot of sunbathing. It's spring! and wherever there are both Smith Girls and Sun- there always develops a suntan colony. Thank heavens, we live on the border of the Latin Quarter where anything can happen- or probably the police would have raided Reid Hall long ago.

Jacqueline Bouvier – Kennedy

One of the most rewarding periods of my life was my Junior Year in Paris with the Smith group. I found that the knowledge of a foreign language, acquired by any student who is fortunate enough to study abroad, has an immeasurable and lasting effect on his life (Letter, JYA, November, 1961).

Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, about whom Alice Kaplan provides interesting information, was a student in the Smith Junior Year Program, headed by Jeanne Saleil. She traveled to France on August 29, 1949 on the ocean liner SS De Grasse with Hedda Hopper and other students from Smith College and signed the Reid Hall student register on September 3, 1949. Bouvier returned to the U.S. on September 1950 on the ship SS Liberté, together with Hubert Beuve-Mery (who founded Le Monde), Jacques Fath (fashion designer), and Sadruddin Aga Khan. Her year in Paris  "[...] cemented her passion [for France], allowing her to absorb the country’s language and culture — and she would seek inspiration and intellectual refuge in these outlets for the rest of her life" (Mah).

During her stay in Paris, she resided with the De Renty family on Avenue Mozart (16th arrdt) and became good friends with their daughter Claude, who later went to study in the U.S.

Mme de Renty, who was part of the resistance Réseau Alliance, was sent to Ravensbruck and survived. However, the father, M. de Renty, was sent to and died in Dora. Jackie visited the camps near Munich, Germany, notably Dachau.

During her stay in Paris, she studied at Sciences Po. (with André Siegfried, Raymond Aaron, and J.J. Chevalier). She also studied at the Sorbonne and the Ecole du Louvre. She participated in several field trips organized by the program to, for example: The Gorges du Tarnes, the Pays Basque, Azay le Rideau, and other relevant sites in France. She also attended numerous theatre productions and lectures held at Reid Hall, and came to know the young Giscard D'Estaing, who attended a ball held at Reid Hall.

Sources

Angela Davis

Angela Davis attended the Hamilton College Program at Reid Hall in 1962 – 1963, just one year before the property was donated by Helen Rogers Reid to Columbia University.

 

Music Scholarship Students

In September 1953, two of Reid Hall's Board members offered a music scholarship for a year-long study stay at Reid Hall. Recipients were:

1953: Joan Webster, Mount Holyoke and Judith Yaeger, Radcliffe. Yaeger, who was active with the college music club and appeared as soloist in the Harvard-Radcliffe concert tour in Spring 1953, studied with Walter Gieseking. Webster studied with Marguerite Long, co-director of the Marguerite Long – Jacques Thibaud School. In her junior year, she had already studied piano in Florence, Italy. She played with the MIT-Mount Holyoke orchestra and a member of the choir and glee club. Concert with Nicole Haviland.

1954: Scholarship given to Gilda Hoffman, Radcliffe. She had attended Julliard’s preparatory division. Gave a piano recital on April 21, 1955. She had done numerous concerts and won many competitions, and was heard on music stations (WQXR, WNYC).

1956 – 1957: Anne Brainerd, Oberlin School of Music. She gave a piano recital at the end  of the year.

Ann Louise Brainerd was born July 2, 1934 in Holyoke, Massachusetts to Robert and Marian (Britton) Brainerd and raised in South Hadley where she showed early prowess as a pianist. Ann attended the prestigious Oberlin School of Music, after which she traveled to Paris on a one year scholarship. She spent a year there performing and studying, and worked as rehearsal pianist for the famous flutist, Jean-Pierre Rampal. When she returned to the United States she received her Master's Degree from the University of Illinois - Champaign, where she met a handsome fellow pianist named Robert Nadeau. The two married and ultimately headed the piano department in the school of music at Mankato State University. Ann also taught piano at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN. Ann went on to receive her Doctorate from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Ann was a gifted teacher and performer, often bringing her audiences to tears with her soulful performances of Bach, Rachmaninoff, Beethoven, and especially Chopin (mankatomortuary.com/obituary).

1957 – 1958: Elizabeth Kalkhurst, Radcliffe, mezzo-soprano. She presented a program of songs in May. Elizabeth was a Magna cum laude graduate from Harvard in 1956. She sang in New York, Paris, and London, and was the producer of educational films and advertisements, and copy review chief at Time Warner in the 1980s and 1990s.

1958 – 1959: Frances, "Tanny" McDonald, Vassar College.

Irene was born March 10, 1934, in Princeton, Ind. From Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., she received both a bachelor of music degree with highest distinction and a master of music degree in piano performance. She was a Marston Fellow in Musicology at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. At the American School of Music and Fine Arts in Fonainbleau, France, she earned certificates in piano (Jean Casadesus) and in conducting (Nadia Boulanger). She performed in master classes for Rudolph Ganz, Artur Rubenstain, Robert Casadesus, Vronski and Babin. [errors in text]

She has taught choral music at several independent schools, including Fort Worth Country Day for 10 years. She served as pianist for the St. Francis Presbyterian Church in Fort Worth for eight years. Most of her professional life, however, has been devoted to private piano teaching. She has been president of the Fort Worth Piano Teachers Forum (1996-1998), Pre-College Music Teacher of the Year in 1995 and 2003, and president of the Fort Worth Music Teachers Association from 2001 to 2003. She was also the musical arranger for "Little Red Riding Hood," which was published by Pioneer Drama Service (legacy.com/us/obituaries)

1959 – 1960: Judith Kenigson, Vassar College '58, piano.

1960 – 1961: Judith Basch, violinist, Barnard  College '59; Karla Nelson, Oberlin School of Music, soprano. She gave a recital at Reid Hall.

1961 – 1962: Carol Garrett, Smith College. Admitted to the Conservatoire as a viola player. She gave a recital in May and stayed at Reid Hall a second year.

1962 – 1963: Susan Martula, Smith College, clarinet. She was part of the Smith-Amherst orchestra. Gave a concert at Reid Hall, May 14, 1963, clarinet, with piano and string instruments. She was an artist associate in clarinet at Williams College and also led the Williams Clarinet Choir. Earning her B.A. in Music from Smith College in 1962, she also took Paris classes with Delecluse and Boulanger. She received an M.A. Music from the  Manhattan School of Music 1964, and was the principal clarinetist of the Berkshire Symphony and the Albany Symphony, as well as a member of the Williams Chamber Players. She had extensive experience in performance and teaching of clarinet literature. Barbara Blanchard, soprano. Gave recitals at Reid Hall and continued their studies at the Fontainebleau school in the summer.

1963 – 1964: Joan Panetti, Smith College, pianist and composer and planning to study with Messiaen. She became professor of music at the Yale school of music and was an award-winning composer; she also founded the Yale summer music festival of chamber music and won the Nadia Boulanger award (NYT article 1987).