Papers of Antoinette N. Spruyt, 1898-2016 (inclusive), 1906-1968 (bulk)

The papers of Antoinette Naglee Spruyt document her personal and professional life. The collection includes Spruyt's diaries, personal and professional correspondence, photographs, and legal and financial records. The majority of this collection is correspondence, and contains a rich collection of family letters, encompassing the 1906 San Francisco fire and earthquake, two world wars, and the changes that occurred in the aftermath. Antoinette Spruyt's correspondence also includes topics such as food and gasoline rationing during and after World War II, travel across Europe and the United States, her children and their education, the cost of food and household goods, her sons serving in the Armed Forces, her health, and life both on a California fruit ranch and on a farm in western Massachusetts. This collection also documents Antoinette and Frederik Spruyt's marriage and eventual divorce.

Also found in these papers are Antoinette Spruyt's correspondence with many of her friends, including the Spruyt children's former nanny Mary "Marnett" March Barnett, family friend Ruth Franken, and former Putney School teacher Jane Arms Kelly. This collection also contains correspondence that reflects Antoinette Spruyt's struggle with her mother's decline; detailing her care, estate planning, and mental deterioration in letters with her brother and his wife, John and Alberta Burk, and the family lawyer. This material also documents not only the effects of World War II in Holland, but also Antoinette Spruyt's effort to contribute goods in 1945 to the town of Veenendaal.

Most of the folder titles, and the arrangement, were created by the archivist; Spruyt's titles, when used, appear in quotation marks.

Series I, PERSONAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL, 1909-1963, 2016 (#1.1-1.16), includes diaries, appointment books, legal documents, and a family tree. Antoinette Spruyt's diaries include descriptions of taking the Overland Limited train from Chicago, Illinois, to San Francisco, California; living in Mount Kisco, New York; visiting brother John "Jack" Burk at the Salisbury School in Connecticut; participating in dog shows; horseback riding; music lessons; and various health problems, such as having leg braces and throat operations. This series also contains material related to a lawsuit that Antoinette Burk and Antoinette Spruyt brought against an investment firm in New York, over unsuccessful investments during the 1930s (#1.12.). This series is arranged alphabetically.

Series II, CORRESPONDENCE, 1906-1968, n.d. (#2.1-20.7, FD.1), includes Antoinette Spruyt's correspondence with family, friends, and others. Letters between Antoinette and Frederik "Fric" Spruyt describe their courtship and later, their married life. Frederik Spruyt was often away, either while attending the University of California, Berkeley, or while working in Washington, DC. Antoinette Spruyt often traveled between the east coast and California to help her mother, leaving Frederik and the children at home. Because of this almost constant separation, their correspondence reflects most of the concerns in their marriage and home life. Topics include money and income tax issues, their three children, Frederik's career in entomology, Solana Ranch, and Trap Rock Farm. Frederik Spruyt also often wrote about his work for the Interim Commission for Food and Agriculture and the Committee on Medical Research of the Office of Scientific Research and Development during World War II. Antoinette and Frederik Spruyt's correspondence also reveals their eventual decision to live separately, and finally divorce during the 1940s and 1950s.

This series also contains correspondence between Antoinette and Frederik Spruyt, and Antoinette's doctor at the Milwaukee Sanitarium in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin (#15.4). Also found in this series is Antoinette Spruyt's correspondence with her three children, the Burk and Robins families, and the Spruyt family. Topics include travel arrangements, health issues, world events, the devastation in Europe during and after World War II, and Holland's liberation in 1945. Antoinette Spruyt often wrote to her brother and her three children regarding income taxes and estate planning, both for herself, and her mother, Antoinette Naglee Burk. Letters from her children include news of their families, and their own lives.

Antoinette Spruyt's correspondence with friends and others located in this series often includes discussions regarding goat breeding (#8.9) post-World War II; purchasing the Solana ranch and ranch expenses; taking classes at the University of California, Davis, University Farm program; the health and schooling of her three children; and travel. Spruyt's incoming letters often contain thank you notes from friends and family for her generosity. Also found in this series are the letters Antoinette Spruyt exchanged with a French soldier through the "Oeuvre Mon Soldat 1915" program during World War I (#6.8).

Antoinette Spruyt filed most of her outgoing and incoming correspondence separately, with a few exceptions, such as her letters to her mother Antoinette Naglee Burk (#4.8-5.2), her early letters to her husband Frederik Spruyt (#12.4-15.7), and the folders titled "Correspondence" (#17.1-17.4), which contain both incoming and outgoing letters. The majority of Antoinette Spruyt's incoming correspondence were received in their original envelopes; these were arranged by the archivist by correspondent when there were multiple letters; single letters were filed together into folders titled "Incoming letters." Copies of most of Spruyt's outgoing personal and business correspondence were once kept in binders, which she referred to as her "le cashier noir" and are titled "Outgoing letters" (#18.1-20.7). Spruyt made copies of incoming and outgoing family letters, and shared them with family and close friends around the United States and Holland, and also kept these in her binders; there is some overlap within Spruyt's correspondence as a result. This series is arranged alphabetically, then chronologically.

Series III, SPRUYT AND BURK FAMILIES, 1898-1987 (#20.8-21.8), includes correspondence, obituaries, writings, and legal documents. The correspondence found in this series includes letters between Frederik "Fric" Spruyt and his second wife, artist Clara Lucile "Lucie" Green (#21.5-21.7). Topics include their courtship; Lucie's position as a Washington, DC, librarian; her art work; Frederik Spruyt's house on Enoch Island, Amityville, New York; her first marriage, and planning her wedding with Frederik Spruyt. This series also contains the wills and deeds of Antoinette Naglee Burk. Material related to Antoinette Naglee Burk also includes information regarding her brief second marriage to Gustave Oscar Alsen in 1947; she changed her last name back to Burk after the divorce from Alsen. The material also contains a diary from a 1917 sea voyage from the United States to France, containing a description of life on board ship, teaching French to American children, submarine warnings, the weather, and the tasks of the sailors (#21.8). This series is arranged alphabetically.

Series IV, PHOTOGRAPHS, 1922-1948, n.d. (#PD.1-PD.10), includes photographs removed from folders throughout the collection. This series includes images of Antoinette Spruyt on horseback, Antoinette and Frederik Spruyt's wedding, Trap Rock Farm, and goods being distributed among the workers at the textile mill in Veenendaal, Holland. The photographs are arranged to mirror the series above.

Most of the photographs in this collection are or will be digitized and available online.