Manuscripts
The collection comprises 66 items including 23 travel letters, 15 diaries, 4 scrapbooks, 22 photographs and 2 pieces of miscellaneous ephemera. The travel letters cover two trips taken by Mary Catton: 1. Trip to Japan, China, Hong Kong, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, India, Egypt, Israel, Switzerland, Italy, France, England, Scotland and the United States in 1931-1932; 2. Trip to Canada, the United States, Panama, New Zealand, Australia and Fiji in 1938-1939. Her travel letters, which are written like diaries but addressed and sent to family members back in Hawaii, contain detailed descriptions of each place she visited. They are illustrated with photographs and postcards, many with handwritten captions (the travel letters contain over 1,000 photographs). While Catton visited the typical tourist sites at each city, because she was a social worker, much of the content of her travel letters is dedicated to comments and discussions regarding the lesser-seen parts of the cities, their hospitals, conditions of the poor, the homeless, the available social work services, government and politics, and education and schools. She often met with doctors and social workers and talked to them about their experiences; Catton was also often a guest of honor at events where she was asked to give talks about her work in Hawaii.
HM 68114
