Emma Doris Meyer journals

Emma Doris Meyer (1879-1961) grew up in a German-American family that lived in the Queens and Brooklyn boroughs of New York in the late-nineteenth century. Meyer's father, Otto, emigrated from Germany in the mid-1800s and her mother, Anna, was born in Missouri. She had one sibling, a brother named Hans. In 1880, the family lived in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, but they subsequently moved to Brooklyn and in 1891 were living at 564 State Street in the Boerum Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn. Meyer's father, an attorney, died when she was approximately ten years old.

As a teenager, Meyer's writing indicates that she harbored a dream of becoming a teacher and enjoyed helping others to learn. According to one of her great-granddaughters, the donor of the collection, Meyer's subsequent decision to set aside this ambition and marry was motivated at least to some extent by financial difficulties. Meyer married Harold Everett Stearns, Sr., a large-animal veterinarian, and the couple had three children: Harold, Elijah, and Doris. While she did not pursue a formal career as a teacher, Meyer schooled her children at home and passed on the family's German ancestry by teaching her children the German language.

Meyer's youngest child, who was also the donor's grandfather, Harold E. Stearns, Jr., made use of this knowledge while working for the American consulate in Stuttgart, Germany prior to World War II and when serving in later positions, such as Chief of Intelligence with the Office of Military Government, United States (OMGUS) in Germany following the war. According to the donor, Meyer took great pride in her son's utilization of the knowledge that she had imparted.