Portia Pratt Dahl papers
Scope and Contents
The Portia Pratt Dahl papers consist of .75 linear feet and include documents related to Ms. Dahl's work as a bookbinder from her student days in Paris, France and her workshop in Boston, Mass. The papers also include a commonplace book, documents and photographs of her father, Seth F. Pratt. In addition, there is an artist's sketchbook of Peter Dahl (1857-1929), possibly a relative of her husband's, Dr. Ernst O. Dahl.
Dates of Materials
- 1864-1955
Creator
- Dahl, Portia Pratt, d. 1970 (Person)
Language of Materials
English; French
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research.
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
Helen Portia Pratt Dahl was a graduate of Smith College Class of 1914. After graduation she traveled often between the United States and Europe and in 1926 was in China. She studied bookbinding in Paris in the late 1920s and eventually established a bookbinding studio in Boston, Mass., where she designed and bound many rare editions of English and French texts. In 1932 she married Dr. Ernst O. Dahl, M.D., a Danish physician. Together with him they traveled often to Europe, spent summers on Cape Cod and extended periods of time in California. Dr. Dahl died in 1949. Portia Pratt Dahl died on Jan. 20, 1970 without heirs and left the bulk of her estate to Smith College.
Ms. Dahl's father, Seth F. Pratt, attended Monmouth College, Monmouth, Illinois, and at one time was a cashier at the Roseville Union Bank, Roseville, Illinois.
Nothing is known about Peter Dahl (1857-1929) except that he was born in Jutland and died in Copenhagen, Denmark. He likely was a relative of Dr. Ernst O. Dahl.
Extent
0.625 linear feet (2 containers)
Abstract
Bookbinder. Papers include documents related to Dahl's work as a bookbinder from her student days in Paris, France and her workshop in Boston, Mass. Seth F. Pratt's commonplace book also includes documents and papers related to him. In addition, there is an artist's sketchbook of Peter Dahl (1857-1929) and related papers.
Arrangement
This collection is organized into three series:
- I. PORTIA PRATT DAHL'S PAPERS (1914-1955)
- II. SETH F. PRATT'S COMMONPLACE BOOK AND PAPERS (1864-1902)
- III. PETER DAHL'S SKETCHBOOK AND RELATED MATERIALS (1884-1940)
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The Portia Pratt Papers were donated by Portia Pratt to Smith College and transferred from the Smith College Archives to the Mortimer Rare Book Collection in August 1993.
Processing Information
Processed by Melvin Carlson, Jr., 2006.
- Title
- Portia Pratt Dahl papers
- Subtitle
- Finding Aid
- Author
- Melvin Carlson, Jr.
- 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)
Repository Details
Part of the Mortimer Rare Book Collection Repository
