Back to top

Scope and Content:

Most of the earliest items pertain to Mrs. Walton's family, the Bakers, who had settled in Hingham, Massachusetts at least by the eighteenth-century. Letters to Mrs. Walton comprise a major segment of this series, including those to her from her father, James Baker, 1880-1882. Included are courtship letters from George Walton, a physician who attended Eleanore Walton while she was convalescing near Deland, Florida. Most were written from 1891-1892, after she returned to her home in Chicago. Letters from George Walton after the marriage suggest financial hardship and indicate that the couple was frequently separated from the beginning of their marriage and during the early childhood of their son Loring. After 1895, there is a gap in the correspondence.

Also included is George Walton's 1896 diary of a trip via wagon from Indiana to Florida. Later material and correspondence in the series pertains to Eleanore Walton's work as a clubwoman and motion picture censor in Kansas City, Missouri from the 1920s to 1948, when she retired and moved to Durham, N.C. to live with her son Loring Baker Walton, who was on the faculty at Duke University.

The papers of Loring Baker Walton, make up a separate and larger series in this collection. An extensive series of correspondence between Eleanor and her son is located there.

Contents