Reflection by Alexis Kaftajian

Frances Mulkey Keys was an educator, a mother, a friend, and a collector. I decided to feature Frances in this collection because she was a teacher in Texas, but I learned so much more about this woman. The Frances Mulkey Keys collection — which was donated by her daughter Kay Keys — is 10 cubic feet. That’s 10 cubic feet of photographs, letters, medical documents, trinkets, handmade cards, graduation pamphlets, and other ephemera. Frances’s collection includes so much more than just information about herself. Frances saved genealogical information, family histories she’d written, and letters written to and from her brother, mother, husband, and daughter. I was able to learn about the Mulkey and the Keys families, giving me an even clearer picture of who Frances was and how she fit in this world.

It is apparent that family and memories are important to the Keys family, as Frances saved and collected these pieces of correspondence and photographs and Kay donated them to Texas Woman’s University. I saw something very similar in the Keys as I do my own family; however, the Keys are archived in the Woman’s Collection and my family members are archived in keepsake boxes across the South in the grandchildren and great-grandchildren’s houses.

The most meaningful part of this project to me was being able to hold these items and understand the importance each held to Frances. Going through her collection reminded me of going through the items left behind by my great-grandmother. I was 7 years old when my mother and grandmother had to go through Mamaw’s things. I would lift items up—items so small and ordinary I felt they couldn’t possibly have any meaning—and one of them would start in on a story about the significance of the object. Everything had meaning, and everything felt like it held a little bit of Mamaw.