Ronald and Jodie Foster went to New Haven to eat French food. It was delicious, but the portions were small.
"When I read a good novel or watch a good drama, Jennifer and I will come here to share the joy." Jodie Foster loved this restaurant.
"Hmm..." Ronald listened absentmindedly and dipped the bread in olive oil and put it in his mouth.
Foster was a little discouraged when she saw that Ronald was only eating baguette and not paying much attention to her. She thought again, grabbed Ronald's other hand and asked, "Why don't we go to my dormitory?
Can we discuss your views on the movie? I really like your narrative rhythm in 'The Dragon King', and the character of Mr. Miyagi is very well created."
"Hmm...ah?" Ronald was still thinking about the similar copper key.
"Don't worry, your great-grandfather may have changed his name or transferred to another university midway."
Judy shook Ronald's hand, thinking that he was in a bad mood because of her great-grandfather's matter, "I'll give you my audition photos first, and we'll exchange phone numbers and keep in touch."
Ronald was not in the mood to chat, so he went to her dormitory to get the audition photos and resume. After exchanging numbers, he rejected Jodie Foster's offer to stay and hurried back to the hotel in New Haven to retrieve the box of relics left by his father.
, and dug out the key.
"Well, this shouldn't be a Yale key. Although it looks similar, the patterns and letters on it don't conform to the Yale tradition. I think it should be used by a similar old school nearby."
The Yale librarian patiently looked at Ronald's key. The abstract plant pattern on it was obviously different from Yale's ivy, and the "MH" cursive letters did not belong to any Yale college.
"MH, you can try Mount Holyoke College. They are also one of the Seven Sisters girls' schools. They have as long a history as Yale. It takes about an hour and a half to drive from here."
"Didi..." Ronald drove the rented car thoughtfully and arrived in the small town of South Hadley, Massachusetts in the afternoon. Among the ancient buildings, he found the location of Mount Holyoke College.
The Seven Sisters are seven women's liberal arts colleges (Liberal Arts) founded at about the same time as the Ivy League. Each of them has a vague connection with one or several Ivy League universities. Mount Holyoke College and Yale
, the relationship between Dartmouth and Harvard is like that between Harvard and Wesleyan College.
Students from the Women's College of Arts and Sciences can attend classes at each other's universities and recognize each other's credits. Those who meet the conditions can also transfer between schools.
Even students from both sides are married. It is considered a shortcut for high-class talents to solve their marriage problems. Therefore, only a few hundred students are recruited here every year, and the vast majority are women. They teach history, arithmetic, literature, humanities, etc.
Subject-based.
The gate of Mount Holyoke College is a large iron gate installed between two ancient towers. Once you enter the school, there are no new buildings inside, all of them are old buildings built before the last century.
The teaching building is a neoclassical building with red bricks on the outside. There are columns at the gate and a carriage aisle. In the middle is a towering bell tower. On the hill next to it, there is an ancient observatory. It happened to be the afternoon class time, and the school
There was no one inside, and the thatch grew randomly, accompanied by the ripples on the lake, making the campus more and more quiet.
Ronald became inexplicably nervous and his heart was beating loudly. He felt as if the ancient history of his family was opening its arms to him.
In the quiet campus, Ronald found the library.
Williston Library is also an old building. The steps at the door are worn and sunken in the middle. The sunlight shines obliquely and reflects into Ronald's eyes on the large glass window at the door, which is a bit dazzling.
"Where are you a student? There is neither a gryphon nor a Pegasus on your clothes. It seems that you are from another school?" The library administrator stopped Ronald and asked.
"ah……"
"I've seen a lot of college students like you, and they all want to go to Mount Holyoke to find a girlfriend. We all have passwords here. Those who enroll in odd years use griffin and yellow-green, and those who enroll in even years use pegasus and red and blue.
There's nothing on your clothes. Are they from Yale or Dartmouth?"
"No, I'm from New York."
"That's not okay. The library can't lend books to non-school students, or to college students who have signed a mutual credit recognition program with our school. New York University..." This old female administrator, with gray hair, spoke very humorously, and said
The implication is that New York University is not part of the Ivy League, so don’t try to impress the female students here.
"I'm here to ask if this key is from Mount Holyoke College." Ronald took out his key and handed it over.
"Huh?" The administrator put on his reading glasses and looked carefully.
"I didn't expect that I would be able to meet his real owner to retrieve the things he had stored before I retired." She put down her glasses and looked at Ronald, "With all due respect, if you have no special requirements for privacy,
Can I ask about your relationship with the Jerome family? Their ancestors can be traced back to the Mayflower. They were the first Englishmen to immigrate to the New World. They were also the first industrialists to settle in New Haven. They made Jerome
Mu brand clocks are very famous."
"Well, it's my father's relic. I never knew where it belonged. I recently went to Yale and found out that this key belongs to the University of New England."
"Okay," the administrator temporarily gave up his curiosity, "wait for me here for a while."
Five minutes later, the old lady administrator loaded a large iron box on a cart and came out.
"The Jerome family's depository was last opened in 1939. The deposit fee has been paid in advance for fifty years. According to the law, if the fee is not renewed after fifty years and in 1989, Mann
Holyland College has the right to open the box and take it out as a historical relic."
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Ronald's heart moved. In 1939, it happened to be a few years before his grandfather James died on the battlefield of World War II.
The tin box was two feet square. Ronald opened it with a key. Inside were three separate folders and a smaller wooden box.
"Most of them are the relics and letters of your previous grandparents. If you are lucky, you can find a suicide note and inherit a trust inheritance." The administrator joked with him and continued the work of organizing the books.
Carrying the contents of the iron box, Ronald returned to the car. He couldn't wait to open the time capsule that had been sealed for more than 40 years in the car.
The first folder was the thickest. Ronald opened it and saw that it contained personal portraits of women from the previous century.
Elizabeth A. Gilbert, and her daughter Elizabeth Maud Jerome.
The portrait is very well drawn, and it perfectly outlines the quiet temperament of women of the last century and the different charm of each person.
It seems that my ancestors were in the portrait painting business? There is a portrait of the daughter of a well-known family in Meg in New Haven at that time. At that time, girls went on blind dates and used this kind of portrait painting. The business of these two ancestors
It must be good.
It seemed that these two mothers and daughters were the most famous portrait painters in New Haven at that time. Ronald flipped through the names under the portraits above. They were either nobles with European titles, or the daughters of emerging industrialists and bankers.
Could it be that his talent for taking portraits was also inherited from his ancestors? Ronald thought to himself.
The second document is the record of Elizabeth Maude Jerome, the daughter of the two painters.
A scrapbook contains portraits of Elizabeth Maud Jerome as a girl. Portraits of her friends, family portraits, and sketches from her days at Mount Holyoke College and Harvard School for Girls are illustrated.
Many poems written during girlhood.
Then there is the graduation autograph book, which is dated from 1877 to 1881. It is composed of signatures, good wishes and suggestions written by friends, classmates, teachers and principals in high school and college. Graduation messages from classmates, accompanied by headshot sketches, may be
It is one of the best memories of this girl's childhood.
Underneath the signature book was a letter, which Ronald opened carefully.
"From Manhattan, New York.
My dear Elizabeth, I checked the whereabouts of little Gilbert's father based on the name you provided.
After leaving New Haven, your ex-husband Mr. Lee left New York and went to San Francisco to work in a bank run by the family of his Yale classmate, and then went to Tennessee. Please forgive me for not being able to continue to trace his whereabouts.
I'm very sorry about little Gilbert. Now I can't contact his father. Please tell me in your reply the time when you and Jenny will come to New York. I will prepare the tickets for you to go to China in advance. Please forgive me.
Yours faithfully, Frederick Dwight”
At the end of the folder was an (incomplete) obituary of Gilbert Nelson Jerome cut from the New Haven Courier.
Gilbert Nelson Jerome, also known as Gilbert Vaille Lee, was born in 1889.
Graduated from Yale University with a bachelor's degree in engineering, and later received a doctorate. He was an award-winning student for excellence in French.
He participated in the First World War in 1917. He received pilot training and flew a Spad 90 aircraft for the French Eighth Army. He repeatedly shot down enemy planes and won the title of ace. Near Bramont, France, in order to rescue his wingman
, shot down by the Germans.
He was buried with military honors by the enemy in the German Cemetery near Bramont. His remains were moved to the American Cemetery in Argonne in 1919 and then taken back by his mother and sister in 1921 and reburied.
in New Haven.
He is also a poet.
His wife Malolyn and son James, mother Elizabeth and sister Jenny were with him when he was buried.
No wonder there is no admission record of Gilbert V. Lee at Yale. Ronald understood that because his great-grandfather's parents divorced, he later lived with his mother, and was provided by the inheritance inherited by his mother and the remuneration for painting portraits.
A good education eventually allowed him to study at Yale University.
Later, he changed his mother's surname to Yale, named after Gilbert Nelson Jerome. However, his son James restored Lee's old surname and it has been passed down.
Ronald opened a third folder.
This material dates from 1914 to about 1921. It includes yearbooks, eulogies and published biographies.
The biography, titled "Lieutenant Gilbert Nelson Jerome," was written by his mother, Elizabeth Maud Jerome, and was privately printed and published in 1920.
The book describes his childhood, education, artistic talent, active participation in the Boy Scouts of America and the YMCA, and served as the Commander-in-Chief of the Connecticut Boy Scouts.
Military training and service during the First World War, as well as death in battle. The book also includes some of his paintings and poems, and is illustrated with many photographs.
Behind it are copies of several pages from Yale's yearbook describing his college achievements and extracurricular activities, a copy of "In Memory of Yale's War Dead," published by the Yale War Memorial Committee, and a photo of Gilbert's visit to the United States.
A photo with my beloved Spad 90 biplane.
The two documents were attached to a letter from the University Secretary's Office sent to his mother in memory of Jerome's life and war service.
Then there were photos of various ages sent by his widow and son James. It stopped abruptly when James was about ten years old. After that, there were only photos of James playing alone at his grandmother's house.
Finally, there is a note from Gilbert's sister, Jeanne Jerome, written in 1939.
"My mother's health is already very bad. My brother's son, James, left behind with Miss X in London is a boy named Charles. In compliance with my mother's wishes, I have deposited in my
and his mother’s alma mater, Mount Holyoke College. When James comes back, he can use this to bring little Charles back to the Jerome family.”
"Tsk", Ronald thought to himself that his father's lineage has a bit of a romantic and philandering gene. He is either a portrait painter or a poet. Either his father divorced and ran away, or he died as a pilot for the country leaving orphans and widowers, or he secretly seduced famous ladies.
Gave birth to an illegitimate child.
At the bottom is a small wooden box.
Ronald opened the lid, and the documents inside were also yellowed ancient objects.
The first is a donation notice. It says that my great-grandfather’s mother, Elizabeth, ordered a window glass with Quaker logo and eight-pointed star pattern from Tiffany & Co. for her son who died in World War I and donated it to
New Haven Quaker Church.
"It's all the thoughts of my grandmother Elizabeth in my family." Ronald was shocked and felt the grandmother's longing for her son for decades.
Ronald reached down again to see if there were any keys underneath.
The tentacle had a cloth texture. Ronald took it out and saw that it was an even older book. It was wrapped in cloth, and the paper had become yellowed and fragile.
"Huh..." Ronald blew at the cover. On the yellowed cloth cover, you could vaguely see the appearance of a child, holding a paper fan in one hand and wearing a melon skin hat on his head.
There is also the appearance of a braid.
Next to the child, there is a rectangular sign in the shape of a water sign commonly used in Chinese restaurants.
Above is the title of the book, "When I was a boy in China."
The Chinese name of the book "Tang Ren Zhuan" is also written in Chinese characters below the water sign.
Below is the author's name "Yan Phou Lee".
"Could it be that my great-grandfather's father, my ancestor in this life, was Chinese?"
Ronald picked up the book and faced it in the dim light of dusk. It was published in Boston in 1887. The book only has more than a hundred pages and is very thin.
Opening the cover carefully, there is a portrait of the author on the title page.
Sure enough, he was a handsome Chinese man. Below the photo was his English name Yan Phou Lee. At the bottom was a line of words written in pen, which is still clear and legible after all the years.
"To my beloved wife, Elizabeth." There is also a line of names signed in Chinese below:
"Lee Eun-fu".
The light was so dim that Ronald could not see clearly the small print inside the book. He carefully put the book back into the box, pulled on the handbrake, and drove back to New Haven.