Elfreda Ransome papers

Elfreda Mabel Ransome was born in England and emigrated to the U.S. with her family circa 1910. They settled in the Chicago, Illinois area and traveled regularly to visit family members in Europe. Ransome pursued a teaching career in the Chicago area public elementary schools and served in the United States Women's Air Corps during World War II. She died in Florida sometime in the late 1960s. This collection consists primarily of photographs and correspondence between Elfreda Ransome and members of her family, including her brother and parents; her paternal grandparents residing in England and Germany; and numerous aunts, uncles and other members of the extended family. These materials document over one hundred years of family history, including both World Wars. There is extensive correspondence written by Ransome, who served in the U.S. WACs during World War II; her brother, Ralph Ransome, who served in the U.S. Navy; as well as several other enlisted men. The family was well-to-do and regularly traveled around Great Britain and continental Europe, and the photographs in the collection offer a correspondingly rich visual history of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century family life in that time and place. The collection also includes a small amount of biographical material pertaining to several members of the extended family, as well as photographs of Elfreda Ransome in her role as an elementary school teacher in the 1950s and 1960s.