Today was an incredibly sad day. I don't know how good I'd be at this job on a professional level. I keep getting carried away emotionally by the stories in these boxes. I'm laughing out loud and what I read, I'm groaning and rolling my eyes sometimes, and today I am saddened and haunted. Two figures loom large in the Burnap's box and today I happened to be dealing with both of them. Their letters, notebooks and assorted ephemera make up the largest segment of this collection by bulk, and If all you had to go on were the contents of this box, you would think that Daniel K. Burnap and Emily Hollister Hyde were the two most important and most influential members of this family.
Daniel K. Burnap was the only son of Daniel (the clockmaker) Burnap. He died in his sophomore year at Yale, Emily Hollister Hyde was the middle daughter of Charlotte Elizabeth Burnap and T.C.P. Hyde. She also died in college (one later source said she was thrown from a carriage). These two unexpected and quick deaths clearly traumatized their families, and souvenirs from these short life are throughout this collection. Firstly there are the letters; at least 100 letters and postcards from Emily's last 2 years survive. Her family were all prolific letter writers, but Charlotte Elizabeth did not save nearly as many letters from her other two children. Emily's death- shocking, and violent- must have been the reason these letters were saved. Emily wrote home at least once, usually twice, a week during her two years away at school. I had to put them in chronological order today and I couldn't help but find it upsetting when the regular letters stop so abruptly that December. After she passed, someone in her family collected all her letters from this time to her immediate family and even to close friends. Combined Emily's letters from a single 20-month period make up the largest single chunk of materials in the whole collection. In addition to her mundane letters, there are random bits and pieces that could only hold sentimental value to her family. For example, triangles and squares about 3" wide were wrapped in brown paper labelled "patchwork worked by Emily."
Similarly, the memory of Daniel K. loomed large. His childhood school workbooks survived 150 years despite damage by bugs fire and dry rot. The writing in them is barely visible anymore, Sad poems and odes are also included.