Lives in letters

Returning to her hometown of Caen, France, after receiving a master of arts in French and Francophone literature from the University of Delaware Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures in May, Laurène Tabouillot appreciated the familiarity of home, but she was also struck by the feeling that much had changed.

"When you come back, it's all different, and it's the same," she said.

Tabouillot drew on an unusual source to validate and understand the feeling of returning home after an extended absence - 200-year-old letters from Baroness Henriette Hyde de Neuville, a French aristocrat who lived in the U.S. from 1807-1814 and 1816-1822 when her husband served as the French ambassador, written to Gabrielle Joséphine du Pont, sister-in-law of Dupont company founder Éleuthère Irénée du Pont. The du Pont family immigrated to the U.S. in 1800.

Tabouillot became familiar with the correspondence during an internship at Hagley Museum and Library, where she and fellow French graduate student Cécile Raas were tasked with transcribing and translating the 53 surviving letters.

Written between 1810 and 1835, the letters provide a testament to the women's long friendship and give readers insight into the Francophile community living in the U.S. during the early 19th century.