Ruth Mehrtens Galvin papers
Scope and Contents
The Ruth Mehrtens Galvin Papers consist of research files, notebooks, writings (published and unpublished), pocket diaries, correspondence for her Time magazine work, lectures, and memorabilia. Her writings and research files cover a wide range of topics with an emphasis on women's issues, including aging, alcoholism, blacks, divorce, drugs, the Equal rights Amendment, homosexuality, Matina Horner, Masters and Johnson, Edward Kennedy, mental health/illness, pornography, psychology, rape, sexuality, Smith College, violence, and widows. There is substantial material collected from the National Women's Conference in Houston, 1977, which Galvin covered for Time. The collection also includes taped interviews of prominent women including Gloria Steinem, Helvi Siipola and Donna Leirhoff.
Dates of Materials
- 1858 - 2002
Creator
- Galvin, Ruth Mehrtens (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for use without restriction beyond the standard terms and conditions of Smith College Special Collections.
Conditions Governing Use
The Sophia Smith Collection owns copyright to the unpublished works by the creator of this collection. Copyright to materials created by others may be owned by those individuals or their heirs or assigns. Permission must be obtained to publish reproductions or quotations beyond "fair use." It is the responsibility of the researcher to identify and satisfy the holders of all copyrights.
Biographical / Historical
Ruth Beatrice Mehrtens Galvin was born New Haven, 14 Jan 1922, daughter of Behrend and Paulin Clara (Gademann) Mehrtens. She received her A.B. from Smith College in 1942. She was a letters correspondent for Life magazine, 1945-46; then became a researcher, then contributing editor for Time magazine in 1946. From 1951 on, she was a correspondent for Time in Chicago, Canada, London, Boston, and Israel; bureau chief in Boston 1960-66; a national correspondent, 1966-74; and senior correspondent from 1974 until her retirement in 1985. She also worked as a freelance journalist; was a member of the Smith Alumnae Quarterly editorial board, 1968-71; and was a Smith College Trustee, 1987-88, and 1991-92. She married Roderick Allen McManigal, 1947; divorced; married John Thomas Galvin, 1968. Ruth Galvin died 23 Oct 2002.
Extent
26.333 linear feet (24 containers)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
The papers contain the records of Ruth Mehrtens Galvin, journalis and editor. Papers consist of research files, notebooks, writings (published and unpublished), pocket diaries, correspondence for her Time magazine work, lectures, and memorabilia. Writings and research cover topics with an emphasis on women's issues, as well as aging, race, drugs, psychology, and sexuality. Includes material on the National Women's Conference in Houston, 1977, which Galvin covered for Time, and interviews with Gloria Steinem, Helvi Siipola and Donna Leirhoff.
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. Note that in most cases, container numbers start over at 1 with each new accession.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The collection was gifted by Ruth Mehrtens Galvin in 1985 (85S-44), 1986 (86S-1), 1990 (90S-73), 1991 (91S-7), 1999, and 2003.
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.
- Audiotapes
- Galvin, Ruth Mehrtens
- Interviews
- Journalism -- United States -- 20th century
- Journalists
- Journalists -- United States -- 20th century
- Manuscripts
- National Women's Conference (1st: 1977: Houston, Tex.) Time, inc.
- Oral histories
- Speeches.
- Women editors -- United States
- Women journalists -- United States -- 20th century
- Women's rights -- United States -- 20th century
- Writings
- clippings
- correspondence
- diaries
- notebooks
- photographs
- scrapbooks
Source
- Galvin, Ruth Mehrtens (Person)
- Title
- Finding aid to the Ruth Mehrtens Galvin papers
- Status
- Legacy Finding Aid (Updated)
- Date
- 2006
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
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)
- 2017-07-26T17:48:10-04:00: This record was migrated from InMagic DB Textworks to ArchivesSpace.
- 2018-10-19: Updated to conform to DACS
- 2021-07-02: Content description added from accession inventory
Repository Details
Part of the Sophia Smith Collection of Women's History Repository
