Della J. Evans papers, 1894-1956
This collection is open for research.
Advance notice is required.
Della Julia Evans was born in Evansville, Indiana. She attended Indiana University in
Bloomington, Indiana, between 1894 and 1897, graduating with a degree in English. During
her time at IU she worked as an Associate Editor for The Student and was a member of
Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, helping to establish a new chapter at University of Illinois
at Champaign in 1895.
Miss Evans was a prolific writer after her graduation from Indiana University. In 1921
two of her plays,
M-R-S and
The
Younger Son
were published by R.C. Badger of Boston, and
M-R-S was reproduced in the
Indiana
University Alumni Quarterly
in 1923. She frequently submitted poems to
newspapers for publication, sometimes using her chosen pseudonym, Julian Allen.
Moving from Evansville, Miss Evans spent her remaining years in Port Washington, New
York, close to her sister, philanthropist Caroline Hornbrook Evans Veatch. Della Evans
died June 03, 1956 and her remains were interred in New York.
Collection is arranged into two series: Subject files and Writings. The Writings is
further arranged into six subseries: Journals; Essays; Plays; Short stories; Verse; and
Collected writings
This collection contains two series, Subject files and Writings. Arranged
alphabetically, the first series, Subject files, contains Miss Evans’s personal
artifacts. Notable items within this series include an unsigned letter written circa
1835 to a Dr. Richard Harlan, a noted Philadelphia physician and naturalist, the program
from her sister Caroline Veatch’s funeral, and various architectural and botanical
sketches.
The second series, Writings, is further organized into six sub-series including
Journals; Plays; Verse; Short Stories; Essays; and Collected writings. The series and
subsequent sub-series are arranged alphabetically, with the exception of journals, which
have been given the primary position in the Writings series, and the Collected writings
sub-series, which appears last and contains works Ms. Evans collected from various
sources and either clipped or transcribed for her personal files.
The Journals sub-series contains volumes of works produced by Della Evans at various
phases in her life. They contain a variety of materials, including biographical
information, verse, newspaper clippings, collected works of other authors, and travel
narratives.
The second sub-series in the Writings series contains Ms. Evans’s essays. The essays in
this collection are generally defined as works appearing to be non-fictional in subject
matter, and have been arranged alphabetically by their titles. If a title was not
assigned by the author, they have been alphabetized according to their subject matter.
Ms. Evans wrote a variety of plays, and these make up the third sub-series. The
collection includes copies of her published plays, as well as pageants performed in
local productions. These, like the above sub-series, have been arranged alphabetically
by title.
The fourth sub-series contains short stories written by Ms. Evans. These are arranged by
title and are essentially Ms. Evans’s only substantial fictional works in prose form.
The fifth sub-series, Verse, contains Della Evans’s various works of poetry. Within this
sub-series one can track Ms. Evans’s enjoyment of literary experimentation, as she
dabbled in many forms of verse. Poems not assigned titles by the creator have been
labeled according to their first line. All poems in the collection have been arranged
alphabetically, with all drafts of each poem appearing in one folder for the poem title.
Some poems within these folders have been signed and/or published under the name Julian
Allen, Della J. Evans’s pseudonym.
The final sub-series, Collected works, contains clippings and transcriptions of various
poems, and were found mixed into Della Evans’s own various writings. These are arranged
alphabetically by the poets name. If there is no indication of the author, the works
have been alphabetized according to their title.
Photographs of her trip to South America were transferred to the Archives Photographs
Collection.
Series:
Writings, 1894-1956
Subseries:
Journals, 1897-1956
Box 1
Writing Journal, 1897-1900
Writing Journal, undated
Travel Journal, Europe, 1905
Travel Journal, Venezuela, undated
Subseries:
Essays, undated
Box 1
After Fifty Years,
undated
Appropriateness in Writing,
undated
Barbs,
undated
Europe,
undated
The Green Goddess,
undated
In Other People’s Gardens,
undated
Industries of South America,
undated
An Intimate Monarch,
undated
The Letters of a Pioneer,
undated
Life of Samuel G. Evans,
undated
Matrimony,
ca. 1906
A Matter of Faith,
undated
The Meaning of Music: Daniel Gregory Manson in the
New York Outlook,
undated
Mr. Bradley,
undated
The One-Act Play,
undated
Origins of hieroglyphics,
undated
Palissy’s Patience,
undated
Play-Making,
undated
Preface,
undated
Recently at Rouen there was unveiled a statue of
Gustave Mahler,
undated
The Remodeled Religious Frock,
undated
The Riddle of the Universe,
undated
The Rise of High Comedy,
undated
The Short Story,
undated
Silver, Coal, Iron, & Tin Business,
undated
Some Dogs I Have Known,
undated
To a Barbarian Bachelor,
undated
A Translation from the German,
undated
Subseries:
Plays, undated
Box 1
And Things are Not What They Seem,
undated
A Barrel of Potatoes,
undated
The Bastard,
undated
The Betrothed,
undated
The Black Tulip,
undated
The Blue Hoop Skirt,
undated
The Bride To Be,
undated
The Charming Mr. Slade,
undated
Coffee for One,
undated
The Conquering Spirit,
undated
Cousin Willie,
undated
The Founding of a College,
undated
The Foundling,
undated
Hunting Dorothea,
undated
A Mother that Wasn’t Wanted,
undated
Mowbry’s Second Wife,
undated
M-R-S,
undated
Mrs. Votington for Mayor,
undated
Mrs. Williams,
undated
The New Manager at Biddel’s,
undated
No Husbands!,
undated
O’Connell’s Boy,
undated
One of Reggie’s Hairs,
undated
Peg, Meg, and Margaret,
undated
The Piece of String,
undated
Science is Introduced Into Education,
undated
Shakespeare Pageant,
undated
Skeleton in the Closet,
undated
The Tiger Rider,
undated
Twenty-Four Hours of Celebrities,
undated
Water I & II,
undated
When the Blind See,
undated
The Willings,
undated
Work,
undated
The World and the Bow Wows,
undated
The Younger Son,
undated
Subseries:
Short stories, undated
Box 1
The Bachelor,
undated
Betty,
undated
The Bishop’s Scarab,
undated
Black Eyes,
undated
The Book,
undated
Brown County,
undated
Casa Grande,
undated
The Child Idea of God,
undated
A Commuter’s Wife,
undated
Confessions of a Spinster,
undated
The Conquest of One who Knew Only Victory,
undated
The Doctor’s Story,
undated
Forty Questions on the Bible,
undated
Fumbling for God,
undated
Glimpse of Bohemia,
undated
Green Snake of Negro Tradition,
undated
Grossmutter Baumn’s Remorse,
undated
The Hills,
undated
How the Goldenrod Came to Be,
undated
Inez,
undated
The Joys of Single Blessedness: By a Spinster with
Apologies to Mr. Ade,
undated
Just Emmie,
undated
Just one Day,
undated
The Last One,
undated
Letterwell’s Nurse,
undated
The Little Blue Cup,
undated
The Little Dog that Laughed,
undated
Box 2
Little Town in Wales,
undated
Love Letter Written by Ernest Eastham,
undated
The Magic Flute,
27 November
1894
Major,
undated
The Marriage of Jimmy MacGowan,
undated
Mrs. Vernon Lee’s Progressive Driving Party,
undated
My Nearest Neighbors,
undated
The New Chauffeur,
undated
Other Side of Ruth,
undated
Pay Night,
undated
The Peregrinations of Billy,
undated
The Piano in the Garret,
undated
The Plot Furnisher,
undated
Portes des Mort,
undated
The Putting Green,
undated
The Sheltered Inn: Five Short Stories / Preface and
the Little Blue Cup,
undated
The Smile,
undated
Susan Sims,
undated
Troubadors,
undated
Two Bits: The Love Story of a Little Girl,
undated
Two Little Aberdeens,
undated
The Water Lily,
undated
Where There is Smoke,
undated
Widower Cardinal’s Son,
undated
Will Booth,
undated
Young Hamilton Payne,
undated
Subseries:
Verse, undated
Box 1
Collection, undated
"Abstraction,"
undated
"The Altitude Test,"
undated
"Bartholomew Sous,"
undated
"Cabbage and Kings,"
undated
"A Case of Bluff,"
undated
"The Childless,"
undated
"A College Hall to Her Future Students,"
undated
"The Coming of Skippy,"
undated
"A Corros in Verse: Or, Sunset on the
Hill,"
undated
"Cradle Song,"
undated
"The Deep Love,"
undated
"Delphiniums,"
undated
"Evening,"
undated
"Finding my First Flint Arrowhead / The Love that
Passeth, Understanding,"
undated
"For a Song,"
undated
"The Great Adventure,"
undated
"Guanoco,"
undated
"Farewell to a Bride,"
undated
"Goodbye to a Bird,"
undated
"Here comes a candle to light us to bed,"
undated
"Home / To a Snowdrop"
undated
"I Heard a Cat Bird Sing One Night,"
undated
"Immutability,"
undated
"In the Harbor at the Port of Spain,"
undated
"Jamie,"
undated
"Josie Johns,"
undated
"Just like soldiers straight and tall,"
undated
"The Little Pauper,"
undated
"The Miracle / Summer (Natura Mystica),"
undated
"Missing,"
undated
"Morning Dew,"
undated
"My dear, my dear in a year or two,"
undated
"My Haunted House / Memory,"
undated
"My Heart is away on a pilgrimage,"
undated
"My Wireless,"
undated
"Natura Mystica: Autumn,"
undated
"Natura Mystica: Spring / Butterflies,"
undated
"Natura Mystica: Summer,"
undated
"Natura Mystica: Winter,"
undated
"Nature as a Love Cure,"
undated
"A Negro Lullaby,"
undated
"Oh that old boy Chopin,"
undated
"Oh to be!,"
undated
"Oh What a Day / June in Indiana,"
undated
"Oh who will go agipsying,"
undated
"On the Yacht at Port of Spain,"
undated
"One More Kiss,"
undated
"A Parent,"
undated
"Peace,"
undated
"The Penitent,"
undated
"A Place Called Home,"
undated
"The Poacher,"
undated
"The Priest of St. Mary’s,"
undated
"Progress Speaks,"
undated
"A Raindrop Rag,"
undated
"Red Bird, Red Bird, Sing to Me,"
undated
"The Riddle,"
undated
"The Robin’s Song,"
undated
"The Rose,"
undated
"Runaway Time,"
undated
"Sea, Take Me,"
undated
"Self-Satisfaction,"
undated
Box 3
"The Setting of the Sun Dial,"
undated
"She’s Got the Vote,"
undated
"A Short Story,"
undated
"Softly our voices blend,"
undated
"Song,"
undated
"The Song in Your Eyes,"
undated
"Song of a Negro Field Hand,"
undated
"The Spooky Mook,"
undated
"Sunset,"
undated
"Tango in the Patio,"
undated
"There’s a Disagreeable Woman,"
undated
"Theta Pansies,"
undated
"To Betty,"
undated
"To a Companion of Travel,"
undated
"To the Fellows Who Made it,"
undated
"To a Flower Found in the Forest,"
undated
"To a Snowdrop,"
undated
"To a Violet,"
undated
"To You,"
undated
"The Touching Ballad of Mary,"
undated
"Two American Indian Love Lyrics,"
undated
"Two Women,"
undated
"The Wail of the Unfortunate,"
undated
"The West Wind,"
undated
"What is Poetry?"
undated
"Where to Grow Old,"
undated
"Where the Light Shines Brightest,"
undated
"Which,"
September 1935
"Will O the Wisp,"
undated
"Wisdom,"
undated
"The Wren’s Song / Morning Dew,"
undated
"A Woman’s Pride,"
undated
Subseries:
Collected writings, undated
Box 3
Anon.
"De Profundis,"
undated
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett,
"Sonnets
From the Portuguese,"
undated
Hammond, Herbert,
"The Real and the
Ideal,"
1893
Kipling, Rudyard,
"If,"
undated
Labouchere, Henry,
"Compressed
Schopenhauer,"
undated
"Life’s Darkest Moment,"
1949
Payne, William Morton,
"Lohengrin,"
undated
Reid, Cale Young,
"The Immortal,"
and Sara Teasdale,
"Blue Squills,"
undated
"Taps,"
undated
"The Thrill that Comes Once in a
Lifetime,"
1949
Turner, Nancy Byrd,
"Click O’ the
Latch,"
undated