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Project Information

Developed as part of her master’s thesis, Megan Smeznik created Meeting Jane and Emmett to explore the ways in which digital history impacts learning and forming historical thinking skills, particularly in relation to women’s history. The project is graciously supported by Kent State University’s History Department and Special Collections.

The documents and letters come from the Jane Melchior Boyd Papers held by Special Collections. The Jane Melchior Boyd Papers contains a small group of family papers, Boyd’s original artwork and drawings, and a series of letters between Boyd and her husband, Emmett, while he was in the military service during World War II. The project concentrates on these letters to investigate family life, gender, and society through the eyes and pens of Jane and Emmett. Jane and Emmett wrote these letters during the period of 1939-1945. Between these years, over two hundred of these letters are housed at Kent State Special Collections. Due to the nature of this project, only a small handful of those letters are utilized. It is the hope of the creator of the project, to revist these letters in the future and to examine them even further in relation to other primary sources and secondary materials.

 To learn more about Kent State Special Collections, please follow this link. For more information about the Jane Melchior Boyd Papers and how to view them, please follow this link.