Emerson College Magazine, 1896-1904: writings by M. Frances Holbrook and notes on Mrs. Frances Holbrook Pfeiffer

The students’ and alumni magazine of the Emerson College of Oratory, Boston. Found 10-11 Oct 2026; read from the scans’ text, and the items marked (image) from the page image by Claude. Quotations follow the page.

Her own writing, as “M. Frances Holbrook”

• “The Kidder Literary Society,” vol. V no. 1 (Nov 1896), p. 15, signed “M. Frances Holbrook.” A society for debate and speaking, open to men and women, organized by a band of students on the afternoon of 27 Oct 1896 and named for Professor Kidder: “we believe that in a co-educational society there will be a stronger spirit of enthusiasm and helpfulness.”
• “The Press of the Storm,” vol. V no. 3 (Jan 1897), pp. 72-73. A short story: the wife of a lighthouse keeper sits up on a stormy night, unable to sleep, and climbs the tower to trim the lamp. Her only son, fifteen, took the lighthouse boat out “on the glassy, treacherous straits” and was drowned. “Her husband does [sleep]. He has been in bed for hours. Do men forget, or do their wills more readily bend to God’s?” Fir trees stand on the shore; no place is named.
• “Mr. Elbert Hubbard,” vol. V (Feb 1897), pp. 118-119, signed “M. Frances Holbrook”: on Hubbard’s reading of his paper on Mrs. Browning to the college, “on Tuesday morning of February 2nd” [1897]. “He knows how to read his own writings! This is a rare accomplishment, among authors.”
• “Wendell Phillips the Orator,” vol. VI no. 2 (Dec 1897), p. 46, “M. Frances Holbrook, ’98.” An essay that opens with Phillips’s boyhood vow (“whenever a thing be right it may take no courage to do it”) and follows him from Beacon Hill to the antislavery cause: “It was divine action on the part of Wendell Phillips when he threw himself body and soul into this unpopular cause.”
• A poem, vol. VI no. 3 (Jan 1898), p. 70, “M. Frances Holbrook, ’98.” The black-letter title reads “Enwakened” in the scan’s text and probably “Awakened.” It begins “A worm crawled up on my arm one day,” and ends “Then I saw life on every side,- / A soul in the worm, and leaf, and bird.”
• “Elbert Hubbard,” vol. VI no. 4 (Feb 1898), pp. 112-113, signed only “M. F. H.”: on his talk at the college on Tuesday, 8 Feb [1898]. It ends “every Emersonian would vote to have Mr. Hubbard appear before us at least three times a year.” No other student with those initials is in the catalogues of 1896-98, and her signed piece on him of the year before makes the attribution probable.
• “Class Song,” May 1898 (vol. VI), p. 196: “Words by M. Frances Holbrook. Music by Ruth Jean Vose.” The class of ’98’s song: “We go from our alma mater / Out into the world to-day … And we would have the true success,- / Success of upright living.”
• “The Day at Millis,” the same issue, pp. 221-222, “M. Frances Holbrook”: the college’s outing on Saturday, 30 Apr 1898, to Dr. Emerson’s home, Elmcroft, at Millis, where “we had fervently grasped Doctor’s hand for an instant, and heard his kindly words as he welcomed his children home.”

Notes about her

• Vol. VII no. 1 (Nov 1898), p. 30: “Mrs. Pfeiffer, formerly Miss Frances Holbrook, is teaching in Oswego College, Oswego, Kan.”
• “The Daughter of ’98,” vol. VIII no. 1 (Nov 1899), p. 27 (image): “A far western paper dated Aug. 25, 1899, prints the following: ‘Born, to Mr. and Mrs. E. C. Pfeiffer, née Frances Holbrook, a twelve-pound daughter.’” The note goes on to call her Alice Phillips Pfeiffer, and is signed “L. P.”
• Alumni list, vol. VIII no. 3 (Jan 1900), the first complete list of the college’s graduates: p. 104, “Holbrook, M. Frances, ’98, See Pfeiffer”; p. 107, “Pfeiffer, Mrs. Frances Holbrook, ’98.”
• Alumni notes, vol. IX no. 2 (Dec 1900), p. 66 (image): “At a recent meeting of the Washington State Equal Suffrage Association, Mrs. Frances Holbrook Pfeiffer, ’98, read a paper which was received with much interest. Mrs. Holbrook [sic] was elected first vice-president of the State Association for the ensuing year.”
• Vol. X no. 3 (Jan 1902), p. 92: “Mrs. Frances Holbrook-Pfeiffer, ’98, is now a resident of Boston and an occasional visitor at the College.”
• Vol. XII (Mar 1904), p. 159: among those who signed in at the Alumni Association’s meeting on the evening of 20 Feb [1904], “’98, … Frances Holbrook Pfeiffer.”

Her name in all of these is Frances; “Mollie” does not appear. The Woman’s Journal of 10 Nov 1900 printed the call for the Washington State Equal Suffrage Association’s convention at Seattle on 20 Nov 1900, to elect officers; whether that was the meeting meant here is not known.