“Just went out to see a double rainbow emblematic of the way I feel since getting your letters. You dear old girl, I shan’t run away on a trip like this again without taking you along.” In 1919, newlyweds Doris Holmes Blake, who would soon become a Smithsonian entomologist, and Sidney Fay Blake, a USDA botanist, exchanged romantic letters when Sidney Blake was engrossed in field work abroad. You may have already transcribed some of the diaries and correspondence by their daughter, Doris Sidney Blake (b. 1928), but travel back through the family’s history to make these letters, which reveal how two scientists kept in touch between continents, more discoverable to researchers.
“Just went out to see a double rainbow emblematic of the way I feel since getting your letters. You dear old girl, I shan’t run away on a trip like this again without taking you along.” In 1919, newlyweds Doris Holmes Blake, who would soon become a Smithsonian entomologist, and Sidney Fay Blake, a USDA botanist, exchanged romantic letters when Sidney Blake was engrossed in field work abroad. You may have already transcribed some of the diaries and correspondence by their daughter, Doris Sidney Blake (b. 1928), but travel back through the family’s history to make these letters, which reveal how two scientists kept in touch between continents, more discoverable to researchers.
For more information, explore the finding aid.