Overview
The collection consists of collected diaries, correspondence, and writings of a member of Radcliffe's first graduating class.
Dates
- Creation: 1875-1978
Language of Materials
Materials in English.
TERMS OF USE
Access. Unrestricted.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright. Copyright is held by the President and Fellows of Harvard College for the Schlesinger Library. Copyright in other papers in the collection may be held by their authors, or the authors' heirs or assigns.
Copying. Papers may be copied in accordance with the library's usual procedures.
Extent
1.05 linear feet (2 + 1/2 file boxes)The collection consists of Annie Barber Clarke's freshman and sophomore diaries, course materials, and 50th reunion speech documenting the early years of the Harvard Annex. Additionally there is correspondence with family and friends. Poems, writings, and a song composed by Henry Leland Clarke in honor of the Harvard Annex are also included.
Series I, Biography (#1.1-1.8), contains birth certificates, reminiscences, obituaries, and diaries written while Clarke was a Radcliffe student. Also included is sheet music and lyrics to The Bounty of Athena, composed by Henry Leland Clarke, in celebration of the thirteen subjects taught at the Harvard Annex in 1879 (#1.8).
Series II, Correspondence (#1.9-1.27), contains correspondence between Clarke and her family including her mother, Elizabeth, her sister, Alice (Lise), and her brother Clayton. There is also additional correspondence with her husband, the Reverend Ward Robinson Clarke and Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the National American Woman Suffrage Assocation (#1.20). Letters pertaining to Radcliffe are also present (#1.27).
Series III, Writings (#2.1-3.5), contains her English themes and German exams from the Harvard Annex (#2.2), as well as writings on suffrage, poems, and short stories submitted for publication for both local and national magazines. Also included are poems by Margaret Browning Barber.
BIOGRAPHY
Annie Barber Clarke was born June 9, 1861, the daughter of Reverend Henry Barber and Elizabeth Pratt in Deerfield, Massachusetts. She was a member of the first graduating class of Radcliffe (1883) and received her AM from Columbia University (1891).
Following graduation, Annie Barber Clarke and her classmate, Abbie Parsons, taught at the Parsons school in Greenfield, Masssachusetts (later the MacDuffie school). She then joined the staff at Miss Anne Brown’s school, on Fifth Avenue, New York City. From 1896 to 1901 she was secretary to Professor Warren in Harvard's Oriental Languages Department.
In 1901, Clarke married the Reverend Ward Robinson Clarke, a Unitarian minister in Dover, New Hampshire. Their son, composer Henry Leland Clarke, was born in 1907. While in Dover, Clarke was active in the suffrage movement, often organizing lectures.
The Clarkes moved to Oklahoma City for three years, then to Montpelier, Vermont, and finally settled in Saco, Maine. In 1944 they returned to Cambridge.
Clarke was the first president of the Radcliffe College Alumnae Association, 1887-1890, and an alumna trustee, 1894-1900. Throughout her life she was an avid writer and often submitted poems and short stories to local and national publications.
Annie Barber Clarke died November 19, 1956.
ARRANGEMENT
The collection is arranged in three series:
- Series I. Biography
- Series II. Correspondence
- Series III. Writings
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Accession numbers: R78-31, R84-17, R98-16
These papers were given to the Radcliffe Archive by the Reverend Ward Clarke, October, 1957 and Henry Leland Clarke, June 1984; other papers were donated by the Memorial Library, Deerfield Massachusetts, July 1998.
Processing Information
Reprocessed: July 2006
By: Jane S. Knowles and Lindsay M. Skay
Subject
- Catt , Carrie Chapman, 1859-1947 (Person)
- Radcliffe College. Class of 1883 (Organization)
- Radcliffe College--Students (Organization)
- Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women (U.S.) (Organization)
- Title
- Clarke, Annie Barber, 1861-1956. Papers of Annie Barber Clarke, 1875 - 1978: A Finding Aid
- Author
- Radcliffe College Archives, Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
- Language of description
- eng
- EAD ID
- sch00398
Repository Details
Part of the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute Repository
The preeminent research library on the history of women in the United States, the Schlesinger Library documents women's lives from the past and present for the future. In addition to its traditional strengths in the history of feminisms, women’s health, and women’s activism, the Schlesinger collections document the intersectional workings of race and ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class in American history.