Hope Days
"Don't forget our Hope days!" - Message for Anna in her college memory book
Perhaps in support of her widowed father, Anna remained at home for two years until she enrolled at Hope College in the fall of 1921. Located in nearby Holland, Michigan, Hope was quite progressive for its time and place. Before the turn of the century, and even during the years of Anna’s childhood, many still held to the opinion that intellectualism damaged women’s abilities to reproduce – and that it should therefore be discouraged. Hope College took a progressive stance against this opinion. Founded in 1866 with the support of the Reformed Church of America, Hope allowed co-education in 1878 and graduated its first class of women in 1882. Considering the controversy surrounding women’s higher education at the time, it is remarkable that such a conservative institution allowed equal education between the sexes so early. But Hope was dedicated to educating and training women to bring the gospel to the world – an attitude that Anna deeply embraced. By the time she enrolled as a freshman, hundreds of women had attained their degrees from Hope. Some went on to become global missionaries, no doubt inspiring Anna in her own call to the mission. Attending Hope was without a doubt one of Anna’s most formative decisions; it was also a joyous time of her life.
Anna was an English major with a sharp sense of humor and a wide range of interests. She took on many roles during her college years: photographer, member of the Dorian Society, student government leader, and literature lover. Each activity, documented thoroughly in her memory book, reveals an aspect of Anna’s personality that followed her throughout the rest of her life. She valued close friendships, was not afraid of leadership, and was dedicated to learning how to educate others.
The memory book – what would now be equivalent to her scrapbook or Facebook page – is a collection of memories and experiences from her college career. The book itself, made from cardstock and bound accordion-style, is bright and full of color. Looking over the images and keepsakes would strike a current Hope College student as both eerily familiar and vastly different. Anna includes pictures of campus after a snowstorm in early May, an all-too common occurrence during unpredictable West Michigan springs. She dedicated several pages to news clippings and photographs of the Pull, a tug of war competition between the freshmen and sophomore classes. Hope’s longest standing tradition, the first Pull took place at Hope in 1898 and proved to be a lasting institution. Anna rooted for the class of odd-year sophomores in 1922. Her photographs show the faces of the miserable but dedicated Pullers on the rope, their moralers at the ready. She was careful to capture the ensuing victory, and their celebration in Holland’s Black River. In the following year of 1923, the freshmen were odd-year – and they won again. Anna captioned the victory photo, “Their second bath,” and attended a celebratory party for Juniors that night. These are images and events that could be mistaken for current if they were not quite so yellowed and frayed around the edges. Anna was close to the action in each of the photographs, revealing the prowess of a fearless and enthusiastic photographer.
Anna’s memory book overflows with invitations and other keepsakes from her days as a member of the Dorian Society. Established during her freshman year of 1921, the Dorians became an official sorority twenty years later, adopting the Greek letters Kappa Beta Phi. The Dorian motto is “simplicity of manner, strength of purpose, and beauty of character. After rushing Sigma Sigma and Delta Phi – two other prominent societies for women at Hope – it was these qualities attracted Anna to pledge Dorian. Ever the photographer, Anna took many pictures of her Dorian sisters, including wind-swept portraits of the young ladies at their annual breakfast at the Holland State Park beach. Taped above a collection of photos and banquet invitations is Anna’s carefully folded, typewritten copy of the Dorian Creed. “I believe in the Triumph of Womanhood,” it reads. “In woman’s honored place in the world….That friendship is one [of] the most precious gifts of life….I believe that my life should be lived, not for self, but for others.” These are sentiments that Anna treasured and strove to uphold for the rest of her life.
Her Dorian sisters – as well as her other friends and peers at Hope College – overwhelmingly supported her desire to go into the field of missionary work. They wrote words of encouragement in her memory book and begged her not to forget her “Hope days.” The last page of the book, entitled “Enroute to Winnebago,” lists a dozen stops that Anna would visit on the way to her calling. At each spot, she would receive a gift to help her in her new life. Although they would miss her greatly, her friends were determined that they would not send her off empty-handed.