Eda Briggs Frost

ENGLISH-HISTORY-SOCIOLOGY
Prepared at Central High School of Washington, DC.

Letters
January 10, 1925
March 1930
August 18, 1938

Handwritten Excerpt (109 KB)

Eda Briggs Frost and Anna Slease after classes in Van Meter, Summer 1961

Instructor of History and Latin in the 'Philadelphia Collegiate Institute for Girls,' 1903-.
Present address: 1305 North Fifteenth Street, Philadelphia, Pa.

Eda Briggs has been married to Mr. Frost, a member of the Washington bar.

February 1909 Kalends:

Eda Briggs Frost has a daughter, Janet, born in December.

January 1912 Kalends:

Eda Briggs Frost was visiting College in December with her daughter Janet.

April 1930 Alumnae Quarterly:

Two daughters of 1903 mothers were elected to Phi Beta Kappa at Goucher this spring. They are Janet Frost, daughter of Eda Briggs Frost, and Margaret Vliet, daughter of Claire Ackerman Vliet.

July 1930 Alumnae Quarterly:

Eda Briggs Frost has not changed a bit- happy and sweet as always. She had a lovely daughter in the graduating class. Eda teaches in Technical High School in Washington, and admits that her hobby is boys. So many of her pupils enjoy her hospitality and friendship. Janet Frost, Eda Briggs' daughter, will be doing graduate work in history at George Washington University.

July 1939 Alumnae Quarterly:

Eda May Briggs Frost sent greetings and regrets, but partly made up for her absence by contributing beautiful, hand-painted place cards for the banquet, done by herself.

Winter 1954 Alumnae Quarterly:

Sometime during the coming year we hope to have finished a "1903 Book" which will be on file at the college, for all visiting 1903's to see. If space allows, it will probably be kept at the Alumnae Office. You will be getting brief questionnaires asking for information about yourselves that would be interesting to your classmates. As these are returned they will be typed on uniform paper and bound in a class book. Claire Ackerman Vliet says this should have been done long ago, and so it should, for it may be hard to fill in the facts about those of our numbers who have died. But we shall do the best we can, and we shall be grateful for the facts you may know about those who are with us no longer. Will you send any such informatin to Alice or to me? And do save a recent snapshot of yourself to paste on your page in our book.

Summer 1956 Alumnae Quarterly:

As Quarterly goes to press we learn of the death on July 2 of Paul Delavan Frost, husband of Eda Briggs Frost and father of Janet Frost '30, who have the sincere sympathy of their alumnae friends.

Fall 1956 Alumnae Quarterly:

Dear Classmates:
You were all deeply grieved, I know, when you learned from the summer issue of the Alumnae Quarterly that the husband of our beloved Quarterly Representative had passed away suddenly on July 2 at his home in Washington.
I wrote at once to Eda to express the deep sympathy which I knew the Class would want me to send her for its members as well as my own and I asked if I might help by preparing the 1903 notes for the fall Quarterly. Brave as she is, Eda replied that it would be good for her to keep at the familiar tasks and that she would try to carry on.
However, late in August, Eda and Janet went to Williamsburg for a much needed rest and there on August 30 Janet's heart, which had not been too strong, now had no reserve to help her over the shock of her father's death and she passed away.
Then Eda remembered my offer to help and asked if I would take care of the 1903 notes for the Quarterly. Ever mindful of her classmates, she sent me letters that have come to her so you might hear, as usual, what some members of the class have been doing...To Charlotte and Eda for all of you, I send our deepest sympathy, our prayers and our love. -ALICE DUNNING FLICK

Winter 1957 Alumnae Quarterly:

Charlotte Jones and I have been busy at the same task - disposing of family belongings that have accumulated through many years. It is a sad and tedious occupation. My task is now over and I have moved into an apartment in the building where my two sisters live, and even on the same floor.

Winter 1958 Alumnae Quarterly:

Two pink dogwood trees have been planted on the lawn of the Alumnae House, the gift of Eda Briggs Frost.

Winter 1959 Alumnae Quarterly:

"About me: My sister, Martha, died last October, after a long and painful illness. This left my other sister, Blanche, alone in one apartment and me in another, so I gave up mine to move in with her - same house, same floor, same address. I wish to thank those of you who knew of our loss for their messages of sympathy and healing comfort."

Fall 1959 Alumnae Quarterly:

"Anne Wilson Bullard '21, of Rockland, Md, has made a very generous gift to the 1903 Shefloe Language Laboratory Fund in memory of her "most beloved professor." You have our thanks, Mrs. Bullard, which will be echoed for years to come by our language students.
I have spent most of my odd hours this summer preparing water-color sketches and getting facts together about all the flowers which Shakespeare mentions in the plays and poems. There was more research about it than I anticipated when I promised to give a talk on the subject at the University Women's Club October 3. But the sketches are ready and I have more facts than I know what to do with. Let's all wish ourselves good luck with the Anniversary Fund and hope to see some 1903 friends at the celebration."

Fall 1960 Alumnae Quarterly:

"For the first time in my life I am not sure that I want winter to come and of course what I feel hasn't anything to do with what comes, but it occured to me that it is just a lack of that same starch that is the matter with me. But I do love the fall. Good-bye and best wishes!"

Winter 1961 Alumnae Quarterly:

"Mary Bunting writes rather sadly of a small round robin that circulated among a few friends for many years, until one by one they died - Edith Beck '04, Viola and Grace Emery '02, Clara Tucker Thrall '02, Olive Osborn Farmer '02, Frances Doherty, and Martha Baxter. There is always the last one in any group."

Spring 1961 Alumnae Quarterly:

"Lottie Magee and I do not see each other often, but we have the pleasantest telephone visits imaginable, -sometimes even enjoying a grouch together. Earlier this spring I gave a talk before the University Women's Club on all the birds mentioned in Shakespeare's plays and poetry; I counted 55. The talk was illustrated with water color sketches of the birds. I am still finding quotations that I might have used and corrections that should be made in the colors of some of the birds. I sent to England for their bird books, for we don't always give the same names here that they do there and birds called by the same name and belonging to the same family don't always look alike. It has been quite interesting."

Fall 1961 Alumnae Quarterly:

"Some interesting Shakespearean and historical research has kept me from paying too much attention to the heat. From time to time, I make notes on a vocabulary study of Shakespeare's plays, and I find it as much of a game as crossword puzzles and cryptograms, which I also spend time on. A quiet stay-at-home life is rather entertaining, as so many of us are finding out."

Winter 1962 Alumnae Quarterly:

"Mary Bunting has told me about the Round Robin which the Cozy Corner girls started in 1901, each girl receiving it about twice a year until now, when Mary says she is the last survivor. They were Grace Emory, Viola Prouse, Clara Tucker, Olive Osborne, Martha Baxter, Edith Beck, Frances Doherty, and Mary herself. It prospered better than the 1903 Robin did, and what a joy that always was!"

Spring 1962 Alumnae Quarterly:

My sister and I are fortunate, too, for right on a busy city street, we are directly opposite the Zoo. From it come birds of fields, streams and forest that drop down into our patio, and a wooded hilside is our calendar of the seasons. Not quite as good as it would be farther out, Luella, but very pleasant.

Winter 1963 Alumnae Quarterly:

"My sister and I find the study of Braille rather fascinating, very slow, but not too difficult. At the rate we read now it would take us two or three days to read The Gettysburg Address, even if we knew all the contractions that would be met in the Braille. It is a comfortable sort of insurance...We are informed that the Shefloe Language Laboratory is a much used and very important tool in the teaching of all foreign languages at Goucher."

Spring 1964 Alumnae Quarterly:

"And I am happy to have just recently registered for the primaries and will vote for the first time in my life in the presidential election this fall. Suffrage for the District has been granted only for the national candidates."

Fall 1964 Alumnae Quarterly:

"At last I shall have my postponed cataract operation the first week in October, when I shall retire from the follies of the world for a brief time."

Winter 1972 Alumnae Quarterly:

I would like so much to see some of Milly's paintings. If she could even send a picture of a picture, it would be fine! I envy her contacts with her family, for I have no family...I said jsut now that I have no family. My sister, Blanche, died in September after months of invalidism. She was a serene and sympathetic companion; we were fortunate to have had each other for so long a time.
Christmas is a cure for many things; it takes us out of ourselves for we can't shut out the season's joy. May your new year bring you many real satisfactions.

Summer 1973 Alumnae Quarterly:

Over the years, Eda Briggs Frost has done such a wonderful job keeping us well-informed about our classmates, I hardly know where to start, but I'll try to fill in for Eda as Alice asked.
Eda is still living in her apartment, but without her dear sister who died over a year ag. She has many friends who drop in to see her, and she still enjoys her view "from my window and the landscape as it changes with the seasons - each different but still the same home scene - just Mother Nature in a change of dress." She is thinking of having a tea for some of her young friends and letting each one choose a book or two from her library since she doens't read as much as she used to.

Winter 1975 Alumnae Quarterly:

Eda Briggs Frost died in June in Providence Hospital in Washington, D.C. She was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and active in the University Woman's Club and the National Education Association until several years ago. She was a long time representative of our class.