Eva McDonald Valesh

Title: Valesh Lists Her Accomplishments
Type: Letter
Date: no date
Source: Minnesota Historical Society

Description: Valesh wrote these notes in a letter to a friend who was preparing her biography. Valesh describes her work for the newspapers and the labor movement.
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Activities:

1. What can this list of events tell us about Valesh's life?
   
   
   
   
   Answer: The list can tell us what she did, when certain events occurred in her life, and in what order these events happened. The fact that she is writing this herself gives us a good idea about which life events she thinks are most important.
2. What might the receiver of this letter do with this information?
   
   
   
   
   Answer: The friend who received this list from Valesh wanted to write her biography. He was looking for information from her about what she had done and some basic facts about her life.
3. How might this list be different if Valesh were writing it for someone who wasn't a good friend?
   
   
   
   
   Answer: She may have written different items on the list or made some of her accomplishments sound more impressive to an outsider.
4. Eva Valesh was known for misstating some facts about her life, such as her birth date. In this letter, she says that her birth date is actually years later than it really is, making her appear younger. Why do you think she would do this?
   
   
   
   
   Answer: If she could make herself appear younger, it would appear that she had accomplished more in a shorter period of time. It is fairly common for people to be vain about their age and present themselves as being younger than they actually are.