Evidence of V: A Novel in Fragments, Facts, & Fictions
Johann Grund, Marguerite in Prison, 1863-1867, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Laura Dreyfus Barney and Natalie Clifford Barney in memory of their mother, Alice Pike Barney. CORRESPONDENCE
Every two weeks, V may write one letter to her family.
Every week, V’s family may send one letter in return.
For V, the state provides the stamps.
All state school correspondence, written and received, is inspected by the officers because naturally V’s welfare must come first.
There is no truth that censored V can tell. An honest letter from her time will never be discovered. I’m getting by just fine, she writes her mother. The girls here sure can cook. We get a nice breeze off the lake.
One wrong word to Minneapolis, and her mail privileges will be lost.
[And eighteen years beyond Miss Fannie French Morse’s rousing 1919 speech, the Minnesota Home School for Girls, Sauk Centre holds true to her bright dream. America’s ambitions for reformed girls remarkably consistent.]
“Because the girls of today become the wives and mothers of tomorrow, the emphasis in training in the school is placed upon home making and home management.”
—Minnesota Home School for Girls at Sauk Centre, “Biennial Report to the Minnesota State Board of
