Elihu Grant papers
Scope and Contents
The collection contains documents pertaining to Elihu Grant's professional and personal life while working at Smith and after including correspondence to his family, especially to his wife Almy Chase Grant and some correspondence to Mrs. Grant from others, including Grace Coolidge. The collection also includes photographs of the family, Grant's publications while working at Smith, sound recordings of his lectures, his obituaries and biographies, and a memorabilia album that documents the Grant's marriage as well as small notes marking the anniversary of their marriage.
Dates of Materials
- Creation: 1873 - 1948
Creator
- Grant, Elihu, 1873 - 1942 (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
Smith College retains copyright of materials created as part of its business operations; 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 Smith College, 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
Elihu Grant (1873 - 1942) was born in Stevensville PA to William Thomas and Amanda Lewis Bird Grant. After receiving his undergraduate degree from Boston University in 1898, he remained in Boston to continue his studies at Boston University. In 1899, he married Almy Chase, with whom he had one daughter, Rachel (Class of 1929). Grant received his Ph.D. in 1906 and an S.T.B. in 1907.
During this time he worked as a student pastor in the towns of Wilmington and Revere (1894 - 1901). After being ordained into the Methodist Episcopal ministry in 1900, he was appointed superintendent of the American Friends' Schools in Ram Allah, Jerusalem. He returned to Massachusetts in 1904 to become a pastor in East Saugus.
In 1907, Grant joined the faculty at Smith College as an associate professor of Biblical Literature. Following his work at Smith College, Grant took a professorship at Haverford College in Pennsylvania in 1917 and remained active until his retirement in 1938. While at Haverford, he served as director of the Haverford Graduate School (1923 - 1927), and from 1928 until 1933, he served as director of Haverford American Excavations at Ain Shems (Beth Shemesh).
Grant authored many publications including:
- 1907
- The Peasantry of Palestine: The Life, Manners, and Customs of the Village
- 1916
- The Bible as Literature
- 1918
- Cuneiform Documents in the Smith College Library
- 1920
- The Orient in Biblical Times
- 1921
- The People of Palestine
- 1922
- A New Era In Palestine Exploration
- 1929
- Beth Shemesh (Palestine) : Progress of the Haverford Archaeological expedition
- 1931
- Ain Shems Excavations (Palestine) 1928 - 1931, part 1
- 1932
- Ain Shems Excavations (Palestine) 1928 - 1931, part 2
- 1934
- Rumeileh: Being Ain Shems excavations (Palestine), part 3
- 1936
- Ain Shems Excavations (Palestine), part 4
- 1938
- Palestine Today
- 1938
- The Haverford Symposium on Archeology and the Bible
- 1939
- Ain Shems Excavations (Palestine), part 5
- 1940
- Palestine Our Holy Land
Extent
0.438 linear feet (1 container)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Faculty. Collection contains audio recordings, correspondence, news clippings, photographs, publications and a wedding album documenting the professional and family life of Elihu Grant.
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 or email specialcollections@smith.edu to request the creation of and access to digital copies.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Source unknown.
Processing Information
Madison White, Class of 2016; Elizabeth Carron
Processing Information
Please note that prior to 2018, folder inventories were not always updated when new material was added to the collection. As a result, folder inventories may not be complete and folder numbers may be incorrect.
Subject
- Grant, Almy Chase (Person)
- Grant, Elihu, 1873 - 1942 (Person)
- Wood, Irving Francis, 1861 - 1934 (Person)
- Haverford College (Organization)
- Smith College. Department of Religion and Biblical Literature (Organization)
- Smith College--Faculty (Organization)
Genre / Form
- Title
- Finding aid to the Elihu Grant papers
- Status
- Legacy Finding Aid (Updated)
- Author
- Finding aid prepared by Madison White, Elizabeth Carron.
- Date
- 2015
- 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)
- 2018-11-06: Containers added and finding aid updated as part of College Archives survey
Repository Details
Part of the Smith College Archives Repository
