Manuscripts Collection
Grace Bakke was born in Sacred Heart, Minnesota on June 16, 1906. She received her R.N. degree from St. Luke's Hospital in St. Paul in 1931. She did private duty and pediatric nursing during the 1930s, and during World War II she practiced industrial nursing and served as an officer in the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps. Following the war she was on the staff of the Veterans Administration hospital in Minneapolis.
From July 1962 through October 1965 Peter served in the Peace Corps as a staff nurse in the general hospital in Kangar, Perlis, Malaysia. She was in charge of one of the hospital wings, and also assisted with family planning clinics. Following her Peace Corps service she was on staff at the Veterans Administration hospital in Washington, D.C. She was married to Louis G. Peter.
The collection consists mostly of letters from Peter to friends and relatives in the U.S. Her letters are augmented by a few pieces of official congratulatory correspondence sent to her, news clippings, and other documents. Peter's letters chiefly concern the Kangar general hospital facilities and the medical care that was delivered to the Malaysian people, but they also contain comments on local housing conditions, social customs, and relations between Malaysia and Indonesia. August 1963 letters describe a trip through Bali and Indonesia, and letters from September describe ceremonies that formed part of the establishment of the new state of Malaysia. In November her letters comment on the assassinations of South Vietnamese president Diem and U.S. president Kennedy. Some 1965 materials document public presentations she made about her Peace Corps experiences.
The collection materials are arranged chronologically.
Accession number: 10,246
Processed by: Dennis Meissner, December 2001
Catalog ID number: 09-00027784