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Grace Gallatin Seton-Thompson papers

 Collection
Identifier: SSC-MS-00143

Scope and Contents

The collection includes biographical articles and clippings, correspondence, published writings and typescripts, memorabilia, notes, photographs, and organization files. Correspondence (1903-40) pertains to her travels, publications, and involvement in feminist and social organizations. Organizational files include minutes, agendas and reports relating to the International Council of Women (1915-26),the National Council of Women, and the Montessori Education Association of New York. Her work for the International Writers Conclave (Chicago, 1933) brought occasional correspondence from women authors around the world. Typescripts of articles and addresses including an essay on Chinese medicine and information on Dr. Mary Stone, medical missionary, China (n.d.). Material related to her world travels includes writings, correspondence, travel literature, maps and notes. Individuals represented include May Wright Sewall, Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman, Lena Madesin Phillips, and Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin.

Dates of Materials

  • Creation: 1903-1940

Creator

Language of Materials

English.

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research use without restriction beyond the standard terms and conditions of Smith College Special Collections.

Conditions Governing Use

Materials in this collection may be governed by copyright. For reproductions of materials that are governed by fair use as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission to cite or publish is required. Researchers are responsible for determining who may hold materials' copyrights and obtaining approval from them. Researchers do not need anything further from Smith College Special Collections to move forward with their use.

Biographical / Historical

Grace Gallatin was born in Sacramento, California on January 28, 1872. In 1888 she began writing articles for San Francisco newspapers under the pen name of Dorothy Dodge, and in 1892 graduated from Packer Collegiate Institute, in Brooklyn, NY. She married Ernest Thompson Seton in 1896, a founder of the Boy Scouts of America. Their daughter Ann (known as 'Anya') was born in 1904. Active for women's rights, Grace Seton served as vice president and president of the Connecticut Woman's Suffrage Association (1910-20), was president of Pen and Brush (1898-1939), and with her husband, helped to organize the Girl Pioneers (later the Camp Fire Girls) in 1910. During World War I, she organized and directed a women's motor unit to aid soldiers in France. She was President of the National League of Pen Women from 1926 to 1928 and from 1930 to 1932. She helped organize an international conference of women writers at the Century of Progress Exposition in 1933 and arranged an exhibit of 3,000 books by women, which later became the core of the Biblioteca Femina at Northwestern University. In the 1920s and 1930s Seton visited Japan, China, Indochina, Hawaii, Egypt and Latin American and later wrote books about her travels, including A Woman Tenderfoot (1900) and A Woman Tenderfoot in Egypt (1923), Chinese Lanterns (1924), Yes, Lady Saheb (1925). Seton divorced in 1935. In the 1940s she followed Yogananda, traveling to his ashrams. She died in Palm Beach, Florida, March 19, 1959.

Extent

1.542 linear feet (4 containers)

Abstract

Author; Travel writer; Feminist; Suffragist; and Relief worker, World War I. Includes printed material, correspondence, published writings and typescripts, memorabilia, notes, photographs, and organization files. Information relating to the International Council of Women, the National Council of Women, and the Montessori Education Association of New York.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Grace Seton-Thompson donated her papers to the Sophia Smith Collection from 1948 to 1950.

Related Material

Additional papers are located at Boston University; Northwestern University (the Biblioteca Femina Collection); and the Schlesinger and Houghton Libraries at Harvard University. Most of Seton-Thompson's suffrage material went to Connecticut College.

Processing Information

Finding aid revised in 2002 by Gayla Spaulding, intern.

Title
Grace Gallatin Seton-Thompson papers
Subtitle
Finding Aid
Author
Finding aid prepared by mnsss.
Date
2003
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Sponsor
Encoding funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Revision Statements

  • 07/26/2017: This resource was modified by the ArchivesSpace Preprocessor developed by the Harvard Library (https://github.com/harvard-library/archivesspace-preprocessor)
  • 2005-09-23: mnsss113 converted from EAD 1.0 to 2002 by v1to02-5c.xsl (sy2003-10-15).
  • 2017-07-26T17:48:10-04:00: This record was migrated from InMagic DB Textworks to ArchivesSpace.

Repository Details

Part of the Sophia Smith Collection of Women's History Repository

Contact:
Neilson Library
7 Neilson Drive
Northampton MA 01063