Skip to main content
COLLECTION Identifier: 81-M18--84-M2

Papers of Ruth Elspeth Raymond, 1909-1974

Overview

Diaries, manuscripts, correspondence, etc., of Ruth Elspeth Raymond, writer and librarian.

Dates

  • Creation: 1909-1974

Language of Materials

Materials in English.

Access Restrictions:

Access. Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright. Copyright in the papers created by Ruth Elspeth Raymond 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

6 linear feet (6 cartons)

This collection consists mainly of diaries kept by Ruth Elspeth Raymond from 1925 to 1974; the later diaries also contain correspondence. There are also Raymond's manuscripts of several short stories and No Crystal Stair , and photographs, mostly from the years 1933 to 1942. Among these papers were scrapbooks kept by Raymond's mother, Grace Goodenough, which have been discarded.

BIOGRAPHY

Ruth Elspeth Raymond, writer, was born November 5, 1909 in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Percy and Grace (Goodenough) Raymond. As early as 1924, when she was a student at Lexington (Massachusetts) High School, Raymond had written a collection of plays and a number of short stories; by 1928 she had completed a longer work, No Crystal Stair . In that year she also traveled to Canada, England, and Scotland, returning to enter Mount Holyoke College, where two of her stories were published in a campus periodical, The Mount Holyoke . She transferred to Radcliffe in 1929, but stayed only a year. In 1933, with a letter of recommendation from Ada Comstock, Raymond again traveled to England and Scotland to do research for a historical work, The Duke of Perth , and resided there for a few weeks. After returning to the United States, Raymond resumed her college education at the Harvard Extension School, finishing in 1943. In later years she devoted herself to library work: from 1949 to 1963 she worked at Treadwell Library at Massachusetts General Hospital, and from 1963 until her retirement in 1974 at Countway Library at the Harvard Medical School. Raymond died January 28, 1979.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Accession numbers: 81-M18, 84-M2

The papers of Ruth Elspeth Raymond were given to the Schlesinger Library in January 1981 by Ruth Temple.

Related Material:

There is related material at the Schlesinger Library; see Ruth Elspeth Raymond Additional papers, 1922-1976 (84-M41).

Processing Information

Preliminary inventory: March 1984

By: Sheila Simmons

Title
Raymond, Ruth Elspeth, 1909-1979. Papers of Ruth Elspeth Raymond, 1909-1974: A Finding Aid
Author
Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
Language of description
eng
EAD ID
sch00871

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.

Contact:
3 James St.
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
617-495-8540