In 1936, American novelist Willa Cather sent this colorful Easter card to her friends Harriet Fox Whicher and George Frisbie Whicher, English professors at Mount Holyoke and nearby Amherst College. Inside, Cather wrote a brief message in her distinctive hand: We were abroad all the autumn – got home just a little before your Christmas card came. It has been a hectic winter – friends awfully ill and going up for operations. She may have been alluding to the devastating news that her beloved friend Isabelle McClung Hambourg had recently been diagnosed with inoperable kidney disease. Still, Cather expressed the hope many of us summon as we emerge from a season of grief or pain: May the spring bring us all joy and new beginnings!
Willa Cather (1873–1947), Easter greeting card by Norcross Studio Designs with autograph note to George F. Whicher and Harriet Fox Whicher, [1936]. Gift of Mrs. George F. Whicher, 1965; MA 2419.29.