Addie Whitlock Hale papers

The Addie Whitlock Hale Papers consist almost entirely of household account books kept by Addie Hale (1855-[1940]?), the wife of Charles Reverdy Hale, of Meriden, Connecticut. Charles Hale (1848-1924) was the son of Elias and Eliza Camp (Miller) Hale.

Little else is known about Addie Hale's life beyond the fact that she had no children. The collection suggests that she was a compulsive recordkeeper, watchful as to how she spent her money and her time. Most of the volumes constitute a record, spanning nearly sixty years, of every small purchase she made. Other books record time spent and/or money earned mending, teaching and practicing music, teaching arithmetic and algebra, and learning to type. Her husband ("Charlie") and her sister-in-law Ida Hale Whitlock's family are frequently mentioned in the accounts.

Hale's account books, along with a volume partially in the hand of Bryant Burwell Glenny, Jr. (Yale 1909) and two diaries in other hands, were purchased from Whitlock's Book Store in April 1940. The proprietor of Whitlock's Book Store was Addie Hale's great-nephew, the grandson of her sister-in-law, Ida Hale Whitlock.