Ruth Herschberger papers
Scope and Contents
Manuscript of Adam's Rib (including revisions; and Norwegian and Swedish editions); and The Old Sex and the New; published books, articles and poetry; unpublished writings. Major themes in the collection include literature, sexuality, and the women's movement.
Dates of Materials
- 1861 - 2014
Creator
- Herschberger, Ruth (Person)
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
Born in Philipse Manor, NY, 1917; grew up in Chicago; attended University of Chicago, 1935-38; Black Mountain College, North Carolina, 1938-39; studied theatre and poetry at U. Michigan, 1941; and playwrighting at the Dramatic Workshop of the New School for Social Research, New York City, 1942-43. Wrote and produced plays for stage and radio; published book of feminist essays, Adam's Rib, under pseudonym Josephine Lang Staff, in England, 1948; published 2 books of poetry and contributed to anthologies; has received several awards for poetry. Participated in women's liberation movement of the 1970s; lived at Yaddo, Taos and Ossabau Writers' Colonies; resided for many years in Westbeth artists' residence, Greenwich Village. Herschberger died October 14, 2014.
Extent
51.375 linear feet (50 containers)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Poet; Playwright; Author. Manuscript of Adam's Rib (including revisions; and Norwegian and Swedish editions); and The Old Sex and the New; published books, articles and poetry; unpublished writings. Major themes in the collection include literature, sexuality, and the women's movement.
Arrangement
This collection has been added to over time in multiple "accessions." An accession is a group of materials received from the same source at approximately the same time.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The collection was gifted by Susan J Forbes from 1990-2016.
Processing Information
Between September 2022 and February 2023, Smith College Special Collections renumbered many boxes to eliminate duplicate numbers within collections in order to improve researcher experience. A full crosswalk of old to new numbers is available.
- Appointment books
- Audiotapes
- Books
- Cartoons
- Certificate of literacy
- Death certificate
- Dramatists, American -- 20th century
- Feminism
- Feminist literature
- Financial records
- Herschberger, Ruth
- Manuscripts
- Negatives
- Notes
- Periodicals
- Phonograph records
- Playbills
- Plays
- Posters
- Prescriptions
- Receipts
- Royalties statements
- Sound recordings
- Typescripts
- Videotapes
- Women authors
- Women authors, American -- 20th century
- Women authors, American -- 20th century
- Women poets, American -- 20th century
- Women's liberation
- Writings
- articles
- clippings
- correspondence
- diaries
- memorabilia
- notebooks
- photograph albums
- photographs
- poems
Source
- Herschberger, Ruth (Person)
- Forbes, Susan J. (Person)
- Title
- Finding aid to the Ruth Herschberger papers
- Status
- Legacy Finding Aid (Updated)
- Date
- 2005
- 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)
- 2017-07-26T17:48:14-04:00: This record was migrated from InMagic DB Textworks to ArchivesSpace.
- 2018-10-25: Updated to conform to DACS
- 2021-07-09: Content description added from accession inventories
Repository Details
Part of the Sophia Smith Collection of Women's History Repository
