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Letty Cottin Pogrebin papers

 Collection
Identifier: SSC-MS-00294

Scope and Contents

The collection consists largely of Pogrebin's professional papers reflecting her career as a writer and journalist, as well as her social activism in the women's liberation and feminist movements. The collection is organized primarily by writing and other projects and includes correspondence; research, organization, and subject files; drafts, published writings, and speeches interspersed throughout. There is a small amount of biographical material and memorabilia.

Dates of Materials

  • Creation: 1955 - 2022

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research use with following restrictions on access:

Files pertaining to Pogrebin's consciousness raising group "Next Step Women" are closed until January 1, 2050 or Pogrebin's death, whichever comes first.

Financial information was formerly closed at the direction of the donor until January 1, 2020.

Box 67 is CLOSED due to visible mold.

Conditions Governing Use

To the extent that she owns copyright, Pogrebin has assigned the copyright in her works to Smith College; however, copyright in other items in this collection may be held by their respective creators. 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. For instances which may regard materials in the collection not created by Pogrebin, 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 New York City, 9 June 1939. Graduated from Brandeis University in 1959. She began her career in book publishing as an editorial assistant and director of publicity and subsidiary rights at the publishing house of Bernard Geis Associates. Her journalistic career has included freelance writing for the New York Times, TV Guide, Boardroom Reports, and Good Housekeeping, among others. She contributed "The Working Woman" column to Ladies' Home Journal from 1971 to 1981. A founder of Ms. magazine, she edited and contributed from its beginning. Pogrebin is the author of How to Make It in a Man's World (1970), Getting Yours (1975), Growing Up Free (1980), Family Politics (1983), Among Friends (1987), and Deborah, Golda and Me (1991). She is also editor of Stories for Free Children (1982), contributor to numerous anthologies, and a popular lecturer on non-sexist childrearing, family life, and feminism and Judaism. She was a founder of the National Women's Political Caucus and is an active member of many other organizations.

Extent

0.0193 Gigabytes

116.917 linear feet (123 containers)

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

Journalist; co-founder, National Women's Political Caucus; co-founder, Ms. magazine; editor; Feminist. The collection consists largely of Pogrebin's professional papers reflecting her career as a writer and journalist, as well as her social activism in the Women's Liberation and feminist movements. The collection is organized primarily by writing and other projects and includes correspondence; research, organization, and subject files; drafts, published writings, and speeches interspersed throughout. There is a small amount of biographical material and memorabilia.

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.

Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

As a preservation measure, researchers must use digital copies of audiovisual materials in this collection. Please consult with Special Collections staff to request the creation of and access to digital copies.

This collection contains materials received from the donor in digital form that are not currently available online. Please consult with Special Collections staff to request access to this digital content.

Other Finding Aids

One or more content listings to individual accessions in this collection are available for download. Links can be found in the description of the individual accessions.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Letty Cottin Pogrebin began donating her papers to the Sophia Smith Collection in 1986 and has made regular additions to the collection, most recently in 2023.

Related Materials

See also : Associated materials can be found in the Gloria Steinem Papers; the records of Ms. Magazine and Ms. Foundation for Women; and an interview with Pogrebin in An Activist Life student oral history project.

Separated Materials

All materials related to Free to Be... You and Me were returned at the donor's request (with the intention to sell them elsewhere) and formally deaccessioned in November 2020.

Processing Information

Accessioned by Amy Hague, 1995

The contents of computer media in this collection has been copied to networked storage for preservation and access; the original directory and file structure was retained and file lists were created.

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.

Subject

Source

Title
Finding aid to the Letty Cottin Pogrebin papers
Status
Legacy Finding Aid (Updated)
Date
2014
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)
  • 2017-07-26T17:48:22-04:00: This record was migrated from InMagic DB Textworks to ArchivesSpace.
  • 2018-05-11: Finding aid updated to remove "Piven" in places and relace it with "Pogrebin," and to bring standard notes in line with current practice
  • 2018-12-04: Archived website added
  • 2020-05-29: Description added for born-digital content.
  • 2021-06: Legacy inventories to 30 accessions added
  • 2021-07-20: Content description added from accession inventories

Repository Details

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

Contact:
Neilson Library
7 Neilson Drive
Northampton MA 01063