Nancy Catching Shields

Nancy Catching will pursue her studies in Italy this winter.

June 1905 Kalends:

Nancy Catching, who has been studying in France and Italy since her graduation, will continue her work at the University of Chicago next winter.

July 1929 Alumnae Quarterly:

Nancy Catching Shields has been in Washington for several months working at the Library of Congress towards the completion of her dissertation on "Italian Translations Published in America", the last requirement necessary for her PhD degree in Romance Languages and Literature from Columbia.

February 1931 Alumnae Quarterly:

Nancy Catching Shields has been awarded her PhD in Romance Languages. This winter finds her at the Villa Scholastica, Duluth, Minnesota.

February 1933 Alumnae Quarterly:

Nancy Catching Shields, we hear, is doing work on a supplement to her doctor's dissertation, "Italian Translations in America." The priveleges of working in Northwestern's magnificent new library are hers, as well as the adjacent libraries of Chicago. Mrs. Shields' work was honored by commendations from Professor Hazard of the College de France and Benedetto Croce of Naples.

May 1935 Alumnae Quarterly:

Nancy Catching Shielfs has returned from an interesting year of study abroad and looks forward to joining us at Commencement time. She writes:
"I first went to Spain, by way of France. It was pleasant to spend a beautiful September day in Paris, to take lunch at the American University Club, where I had stayed years ago when first studying at the Sorbonne, and to have ample time to catch the evening train for Irun, on the Spanish frontier, where one arrives after a trip of some fourteen hours.
After 'discovering Spain' I had no great difficulty in locating the extensive new university that is still in course of construction in the locality occupied by the Spanish Exposition some ten years ago and situated on one of the precipitous outskirts of Madrid. Although excellent courses for foreigners were offered in the new university, I preferred studying at the Centro de Estudios Historicos, the liberal branch of the old University of Madrid, conveniently located in the center of modern Madrid, near the Prado.
The latter is one of the world's most famous art museums...I could not study too long or too often the paintings of Velasquez and El Greco. I continued my study of the latter in Toledo, where he spent most of his life and where there has been established the Museo del Greco.
Just when the early spring had arrived in Madrid...I decided that I had best return to Paris, since the spring semester of its university begins the first of March, while the university in Spain ends at that time...It was pleasant to frequent again the lecture halls of the Sorbonne and the College de France and to find that the Director of the latter was Joseph Bedier, under whom I had studied Old French many years ago. Though well occupied with work at the University and at the Institut de Phonetique, I found time to further some research work in the different libraries, particularly in that 'fortress of learning,' the Bibliotheque Nationale.
As my course ended the latter part of June, I was enabled to reach Perugia for the opening of the summer work at the Universita per Stranieri, situated in that ancient and interesting city, a former stronghold of the Papal States. I varied my work there with tours to nearby points of historic and artistic interest and by research work in the library of the University of Perugia, which dates back to the thirteenth century. Incidentally, one of the walls of the garden to the house where I lived for some three months was a viaduct built by the Etruscans.
I was glad to get back to America in the face of growing war threats, though I hope to return to Europe before many more years pass. My greatest immediate hope, however, is to visit Baltimore again before any more years pass!"

July 1935 Alumnae Quarterly:

Esther Bixler and Carrie Fehr, at the last minue, drove down from Easton, Pa., for reunion, proving the wisdom of the adage "Better Late than never." Nancy Catching Shields joined them to represent 1903 at the alumnae banquet.

May 1938 Alumnae Quarterly:

Concerning Nancy Catching Shields a Jackson, Miss., paper said: "Mrs. Thomas H. Shields has been honored by receipt of a lengthy and favorable study of her recently published volume, Italian Translations in America by the famous scholar, N. Vian, the study appearing in the well-known Italian journal Studium, of Rome.
Dr. Shields has recently reopened her home on Fairview Street, where she is continuing her research on Spanish literature interrupted in Spain by the outbreak of hostilities."

November 1938 Alumnae Quarterly

Nancy Catching Shields was "written up" in a Jackson, Miss., paper a short time ago as follows: "On Monday classes for beginners and for the advanced in SPanish and French will be organized at the Y.W.C.A. under the instruction of Mrs. Nancy C. Shields, PhD. Dr. Shields is employed as a professional by the Adult Education Division of the W.P.A. She recieved her Doctor's degree in Romance Languages from Columbia University and has had several years' study abroad, including one year at the University of Madrid and another at the University of Paris."Nancy reports sixty enthusiastic students, varying in proficiency and aims, "ranging from utilitarian to cultural objectives, including college extension credit."

July 1939 Alumnae Quarterly:

Nancy Catching Shields sent her marked ballot to the Lodge with her regrets at not being in Baltimore for Reunion and her hopes to make the next one in 1944.

November 1948 Alumnae Quarterly:

"I am planning to return five years hence, if not before, and I hope that every other class member is making the same plan. We can all grow five years younger in the meantime, I feel, if we work hard on some interesting and worthwhile project.
My chief interest for the past three years has been state conversation work for the DAR's. These three years have seemed almost a continuation of my DAR war work, even when I served as War Service Chairman for my local chapter, that service having included a great deal of conservation work, as well as responsibility for the sale of bonds and stamps.
My three years of conservation work were rewarded by having Mississippi obtain two awards of Washington elms for work done in memorializing the men and women who served in World War II by planting and setting aside trees. Certificates were presented to two chapters at our conservation breakfast, attended by several hundred people, and I had the pleasure of receiving one for a chapter of our State that had no representative available for breakfast.
Next year I hope to obtain two more awards for our work in Mississippi, and I hope to return to Congress to see that they are fittingly received, and to resume my work at our conservation booths, where all day long I talk conservation to interested visitors, giving them literature that will help indeveloping old or new interests. Next year then, if you are interested, you will find me at our tables, which number almost ten, ready to renew a pleasant acquaintance of past years, and to arouse a new interest, perhaps, for future years. Do look me up, those of you who live near Washington!"

Fall 1950 Alumnae Quarterly:

Nancy Catching Shields wrote in July, and sent her news by airmail. Even so, it arrived just after I had had to send in my notes. So I give you news of her now. She writes: "Your card of June 5th was forwarded to me in Atlanta, my native city, to which I returned on June 2nd after an absence of thirty five years. It was nice to hear from you, but, since I am still in the midst of getting settled in my new 'home,' I can only reply with a card.
Although my husband died over two years ago, it has taken that long to make a satisfactory sale of the home we bought over twenty five years ago in Jackson, Miss. when he became the Executive Secretary of the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi. and to find a desirable apartment here.
I made such a fortunate 'find,' in such a beautiful location that I hope that every one coming south -will stop by to see me as well as my new home."
Nancy's new address is 3377 Peachtree Rd., N.E. Apt. 4A., Atlanta.

Winter 1952 Alumnae Quarterly

Nancy Catching Shields, after returning to Atlanta, opened a defense stamp and bond booth in a large store. She writes: "Since the public in general seems to become more and more 'bond conscious,' I am hoping to continue the project for another six months, acquiring a sufficiently large total of sales to redound fittingly to the generosity of the store which has allowed me space for sales.
In the meantime, I am trying to become acquainted with the long list of 'new' Goucher graduates listed with such admirable accuracy in the BULLETIN of July, 1951. The publication is of inestimable value to those of us who are not fortunate enough to live near our cherished Alma Mater."

Winter 1954 Alumnae Quarterly:

"This will be an unsatisfactory answer to a request by Eda Briggs Frost, dated December 12, to write a letter for our calss notes. I meant to write the letter to Eda personally, returning some of the flattery she was kind enough to send me, but if I stop to start again, I will make no more headway than I have during the last two weeks.
I found Eda one of the most familliar looking of our calssmates, recognizing her at once, though I had not seen her for 50 years. After some little study of their faces, the other girls became familar to me, and the renewed association, even for two brief days, gave me extraordinary pleasure.
The only class member that I remembered seeing since graduation was Carrie Fehr, whose lovely voice I recalled. She had been kind enough to come from her home to Baltimore to greet me on the occasion of my own return for graduation in 1934. It must have been that year, as 1904, my former calss, was having its formal reunion. It was a pleasure to recall some of the faces of those I sat near, at my miscellaneous table, though 30 years had made some little difference in their appearance. I felt less alone at my table when Mrs. Charles Sumwalt recognize me and came over to greet me.
It must have been because of Mrs. Sumwalt's efficiency that my dissertation was on display, in the Library, in recognition of my informal visit. As everyone knows, you have to write an aceptable thesis to receive your doctorate. As perhaps you do not know, you have to work at a seemingly insurmountable literary quest, if, like most women students, you select a brilliant professor to direct your investigatins.
The professor that I selected at Columbia, although of New England descent, was better known in Italy than he was in America. Perhaps that accounted for my work, which, by the way, was a critical bibliography on "Italian Translations in America,"being reviewed in "Studium", Rome, Italy. Incidentally, I received from Benedetto Croce, Italy's great scholar, philosopher, and statesmen, who died last year at the age of 86, in Naples, the following note of congratulation on my work: 'Your volume is very useful for a student, and very instructive for what is learned in it of the fortune of Italian books in America.' (translated from the Italian.)"

Summer 1955 Alumnae Quarterly:

"At first I thought I had nothing to write about, but I remembered a Goucher luncheon, given during spring cavation, in honor of Miss Stimson, who was visiting her niece, Mrs. Sheppard Smith, a Vassar graduate. There were 19 of us present representing the 50 graduates who live in Atlanta. Miss Stimson's remembrance of everyone was most interesting.
After devoting about 8 years of intensive study to the work of conservation, both in Mississippi and here, I was persuaded by my D.A.R. chapter of Atlanta to become its historian. Now I have the privilege of working up for publication a complete history of its past 55 years of activities. When I have finished - perhaps within a year's time, - I may possibly return to my real enthusiasm of conservation. In that case, I might return to Washington to attend once more our conservation breakfasts, addressed by such dignitaries as the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture." After telling about some of her immediate activities in D.A.R., church, and college alumnae work, Nancy continues, "I limit my patriotic and historical work to 3 organizations: the D.A.R., the U.D.C., and the Daughters of Founders and Patriots of America. I find the work of the League of Women Voters sufficiently important to five at least 2 mornings a month to a group of serious-minded young women, who know the value of keeping themselves informed about public affairs. I am sympathetic with the objectives and educational efforts of the A.A.U.W. trying to attend at least 1 meeting a month. I was appointed a visiting delegate to the Internatinal Federation, which met in London in 1953, but decided that Coronation year was not the time for a person of modest means to visit England. I decided to defer my attendance 3 years, hoping to be appointed a visiting delegate to the 1956 meeting in Paris, with headquarters at Reid Hall, where I have had the pleasure of staying twice before. I shall be looking forward to seeing many of you at our 1958 reunion, hoping for a repetition of the many pleasures of our last get-to-gether."

Spring 1957 Alumnae Quarterly:

"I enjoyed your notes and decided to carry out your request for information about my limited activities just to assure myself of hearing from you again. Some of us, I am sure, have been planning to return for our reunion in 1958, - five years after our last one. Now I see from the Quarterly that our next one is listed for 1963. I hope that may be changed, for I do not think travelling becomes people of eighty. However, all that I have to say about age has been expressed by Browning in the words, 'Grow old along with me; the best is yet to be.'
Knowing that my training in English literature is scant, I started an interesting adult course in 'Approaches to the Novel,' given at night by our State College of Business Administration, which is a rather wonderful institution, developed during the last twenty-nine years by Dr. George M. Sparks, who I find, is one of my neighors, living on the south turn of the horseshoe made by Delmont and Sheridan Drives. This curving driveway runs to a short length from Peachtree Road. About half a mile further towards the city proper, Peachtree Road crosses Peachtree Creek, where one of the bitterest battles of the Civil War was fought, indicated by historical markers. Eight of the lectures at 'State' proved worthwhile, but I had to omit the last two as the winter cold proved too much for an arthritic knee which troubles me at intervals.
In addition to the usual club activities that an older woman can interest herself in, there are those connected with art institutes and museums. Our classmates who live in or near large cities are fortunate in this respect. I recall the small Walters Art Galelry of Baltimore very vividly, as most of us do who visited it after the splendid lectures by Dr. Froelicher. The Atlanta Art Institute, with its Art Association activities, directed by Dr. Reginald K. Poland of Brown University, offers an admirable sucession of exhibits, concerts, and lectures. This last week we have had an exhibition of Spanish paintings, the masterpieces having been collected from the leading museums in our country. When I walked into the main gallery I almost felt as if I were back in Madrid at the Prado, with the beautiful coloring and design of Zurbaran and Goya surrounding me. The Institute has a permanent collection of great value, contributed over the years by the 'Friends of Art.' On the completion of the airconditioned rooms the Kress collections have been added. One of the Kress brothers married an Atlanta girl, and the collection seems a beautiful memorial to her.
Art begins in the home, as we all know, and my small landscaped garden is demanding more work that I can give it in the way of grass cutting and the removal of the stubbornest form of Bermuda grass that I have ever encountered."

Fall 1958 Alumnae Quarterly:

I expect to see Nancy Catching Shields here in Washington the latter part of October, when she will be coming back from Europe and a holiday of the League of Women Voters. That will be once in my life when I shall be quiet and just make Nancy do all the talking if I can.-Eda Briggs Frost

Winter 1959 Alumnae Quarterly:

Nancy Catching Shields was to stop over in Washington on her way home from her European tour which she took with some members of the Georgia branch of the League of Women Voters, but poor Nancy broke her arm during a brief stopover in New York on her way home and had to go straight back to Atlanta. I missed the long private interview I had promised myself, but Nancy, good girl, sent on a most readable account of the tour, written by one of the tour - an easy running narrative that takes you through London, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France, to Paris where the tour ended. They were beautifully taken care of and after reading the story, I feel as if I, too, had had a kind of telescopic view of the places visited. It is a lively observant account; the writer deserves a title and I hereby confer it upon "The Happy Traveller." The last comment is good: "We close the story of our trip as the T.W.A. Jetstream leaves the ground at Paris. Just in front of us - a new world. New friends, new impressions, new concepts of our world and its peoples, and new hopes for the future."

Winter 1960 Alumnae Quarterly:

...A newly organized Goucher club gets a report from Nancy Catching Shields, who attended its meeting in Atlanta, where she met old grads she had not seen for years. Mary Taylor Reynold's sister was there; she was much interested in Nancy's memories of her father, Representative Taylor of Alabama. Nancy still feels some uncomfortable effects of the fall she had some time ago at the end of that wonderful European trip.

Summer 1960 Alumnae Quarterly:

Nancy Catching Shields wrote a pencilled card, apologizing for not using her typewriter as she usually does; her arm is improving right along but slowly. She was busy hunting down a reference to the author of the history of Sergeant Prentice. It was her husband's uncle, W. Shields. When she met our Ambassador at the American Embassy in Rome, he had asked her about the relationship; he had enjoyed the book. So Nancy was sending him the information he had asked.

Fall 1961 Alumnae Quarterly:

Nancy Catching Shields could not come to Baltimore in June for she was making preparations for a longer trip - to Europe. Nancy is always plum full of ideas, and when she travels she comes back "plum fuller." Says she is in very good health.

Fall 1962 Alumnae Quarterly:

Word came to me that Nancy Catching Shields is in a convalescent home in Atlanta but I have no direct word from her. Best love and good wishes, Nancy. Write when you can.

Fall 1963 Alumnae Quarterly:

Just today came a note from the nurse, Mrs. Hill, who takes care of Nancy Catching Shields, who has been in the Emory Convalescent Home in Atlanta getting treatments for Parkinson's disease. On June first, she slipped from the side of the bed and broke her hip in the fall. She is now back at the home after treatment at Piedmont Hospital; on fair days she is wheeled out of doors. A remarkable woman, says Mrs. Hill, about Nancy's determination to do what she is told, take the proper exercises, and cooperate 110% with the doctors. We believe that.

Winter 1964 Alumnae Quarterly:

You will remember that Nancy Catching Shields had a fall that undid the good which faithful exercise had wrought; it probably had much to do with her death, for she could no longer fight for strength.

Nancy Catching Shields died on October 10, 1963. As an aspiring language major of 1903, Nancy was granted a fellowship for further study which she used for continued work in romance languages at the Universities of Rome, Geneva, Paris, and Madrid. Columbia Unviersity bestowed the Ph.D. degree for her dissertation, "Italian Translations in Americam" in 1931; the Institut de Phonetique of the University of Paris bestowed its honor certificate in 1934. She was a charter member of Phi Beta Kappa at Goucher, and a worthy member, for her scholarly pursuits were balanced by her interest in people and their needs. For five years she was State chairman of Conservation in Mississippi, in connection with DAR work. She was active in the League of Women Voters, in the AAUW, and in the Episcopal Cathedral of Atlanta, giving her services freely to all three.
Her study, her delight in travel, and her community interests made her conversation both stimulating and entertaining. It was a privilege to know one whose life in study, in marriage, and in work was such a beautiful expression of her mind and spirit. -Eda Briggs Frost '03