Papers of Tove Gertrud Gerson, 1919-1993

These papers provide information about Tove Gertrud Gerson's family, her education in Germany and the United States, her jobs, travels, blindness, and her interest and role in the civil rights movement.

Series I, Personal and biographical (#1-27), includes autobiographies written for college applications, six audiotapes on which Tove Gertrud Gerson discusses her life with a German radio interviewer (in German) and an American friend, Lenore M. Dickinson (in English), immigration papers, considerable material relating to her education, some financial records, writings, and photographs.

The audiotapes and related notes afford very personal insights into Tove Gerson's family, childhood, the gymnastics school, anti-Semitism and what was known about concentration camps, and her experiences in Germany before she emigrated. She also talks about her reaction to the treatment of African Americans in the United States, the Gersons' friends and social life, her speeches about Nazi Germany, her politics, how she is coping with her blindness, and why she returned to Germany.

Series II, Work and volunteer activities (#28-87), is arranged chronologically by Tove Gerson's place of residence, and chronologically within each place. It documents her employment, particularly the years in Oklahoma and Massachusetts, private practice, the speeches she and Gerhard Gerson gave (mostly in Oklahoma), and her aid to war victims, especially the help she organized for people in Holland after World War II. The series includes correspondence (some of it personal), minutes, photographs, clippings, brochures, fliers, programs, an audiotape, newsletters, and conference papers.

Of particular interest is correspondence about Greyhound Bus Lines hiring practices (#62); with Actors' Equity Association about, as Tove Gerson put it, (...the common practice not to have Negroes on the stage except...where they are needed as Negroes) (#69); about Marion Kilson's dispute with the Women's Educational and Industrial Union (#81); letters (#37,46-51) that describe war experiences and post-war conditions; and a Tove Gerson letter (#84) about abortion, migrant farm workers, and racial discrimination.

The years 1973-1986 are not covered and there are other gaps, perhaps due to the fact that one box of papers was lost in shipment.

Some of Tove Gerson's notes for and drafts of speeches, reports, and letters are in German. Other items, such as school records, diplomas, and correspondence, are in German or Dutch; some have been translated by Tove Gerson or others.

Many of the documents are not originals but photocopies made in Germany.