Women & WW II: The Letters of Margaret Payne Digital Exhibit

The story of these letters and the subsequent digital exhibit begins with a fairly simple question:  who were Margaret Payne and John Dolin?  Margaret Payne was born in Piedmont, South Carolina on July 9, 1925 to James Huff Payne (37) and Blanche Peden Payne (32). She had three older brothers - James (who died in infancy), Harold, and William, and one younger sister, Lillian. 

Piedmont in the early 20th century was a small mill town, and people who knew Margaret and her sister Lillian "Lil"  shared that she lived a fairly typical life for a girl in the 1940s.  There is mention of "Lil" in the letters, and we have been told that Margaret, Lillian, and their cousin Ruby Payne (who was just a year older than Margaret) enjoyed spending time together.  At right is a photograph of Margaret, Ruby, and Lillian taken on the street (location and date unknown).

Margaret met John Dolin at some point in 1942 while he was stationed at Greenville Army Air Base.  From the letters and other background research we surmise they may have met at a social event or dance, most likely at or near the base or in nearby Greenville SC.  Margaret was about 17 at the time and living at home with her parents, brother William, and sister Lillian at 58 Main St., Piedmont SC, in one of the mill houses owned by the Piedmont Manufacturing Company.  Margaret worked in several places during her lifetime, including the Piedmont Manufacturing Company mill with her father and brother, but never married; some friends and family speculate that John broke her heart. She died in 2016 in Greer, South Carolina when she was about 91 years old. 

The seeds of the Women & WWII Digital Exhibit: The Letters of Margaret Payne were planted in the fall of 2022, when three students began doing transcription work on 44 handwritten letters from the Margaret Payne Collection held at the Piedmont Historical Preservation Society (PHPS).  These letters were mainly written by John Dolin to Margaret, although there are a number of letters written to Margaret by John's sister Isabel.  The transcription project was part of a History Internship (HIST 499), working with Professor Tammy Pike and Mr. Joe Hursey of the PHPS.  In December 2022, the University Archivist, Ann Merryman, suggested a collaboration with Professor Pike to expand the planned transcription work in her upcoming Spring 2023 Service Learning / Community Engagement-designated HIST 391 course into a digital exhibit project, providing students with the opportunity to strengthen their research skills as well as create digital content that could be highlighted on their resume. 

In the Spring of 2023, twelve students in professor Pike's HIST 391 "Women and World War II: War, Propaganda, and the Homefront" course (seen in the photo at left) continued to transcribe 27 additional letters from the Margaret Payne collection; each student was assigned two letters, with a few students being assigned a third letter.  In addition to providing transcriptions, the students did background research into elements mentioned in the letters or events happening locally, nationally, or globally during the time each letter was written.  The transcriptions and accompanying background research were used to build out separate pages for each letter, providing context and depth to the transcribed letters and bringing a point in history to life for the students. 

In order to bring balance to both sets of letters in the digital exhibit, the University Archivist, a Faculty Librarian, and the work-study student in the University Archives researched and provided additional content for letters 1 through 40, mirroring the work students were being assigned in HIST 391.     

This digital exhibit combines digitized letters, transcriptions, and related background information provided by the students working on the project.  The University Archives plans to do a deeper dive into the remaining materials of the Margaret Payne Collection, hopefully uncovering additional letters to finish telling Margaret Payne's story.  The collection can be accessed HERE.