Ruth George Collection of T.S. Eliot
Scope and Content of the Collection
The Ruth George Collection of T.S. Eliot consists of manuscripts, typescripts, correspondence, photographs, posters, printed materials, memorabilia, and other materials collected by Emily Hale, Ruth George, Jeanette McPherrin, and Scripps College Ella Strong Denison Library.
Dates
- Creation: 1888-1965
Creator
- Eliot, T. S. (Thomas Stearns) (Creator, Person)
Languages
Languages represented in the collection: English and French.
Access
Collection open for research.
Publication Rights
All requests for permission to reproduce or to publish must be submitted in writing to Ella Strong Denison Library.
Biography/Administrative History
Need info about T.S. Eliot, Emily Hale, and Ruth George and how this collection came to be.
Extent
2.5 Linear Feet (2 document boxes, 1 oversized box measuring 20.5 inches by 16 inches)
Abstract
The Ruth George Collection of T.S. Eliot (1888–1965) is comprised of inscribed books, manuscripts, and memorabilia given to Scripps College by Emily Hale, former faculty member at Scripps and life-long friend of T. S. Eliot. A commemorative accumulation of documents having direct or tangential relation to Eliot’s visit was initiated by Emily Hale in 1945, when she indicated her wish to have created, at the Ella Strong Denison library in honor of her friend, Ruth George, a collection devoted to T.S. Eliot. The George-Eliot collection is invariably assumed, in the references to it that have now entered its archive, to be a kind of trace of Eliot’s presence, and also to manifest Scripps’s historical claim, via one of its faculty, to be connected with the poet. Many of the documents in the archive refer to the archive itself. After Hale’s bequests, the archive was periodically updated by the addition of magazine and newspaper articles, both local, like Koeninger’s, and general, about Eliot’s life, as if to add talismanically to the collection’s association with Eliot. In the early 1980s, Jeanette McPherrin, who had been good friends with Hale and had known Eliot through her, donated some Eliot-related letters she possessed, and donated upon her death in the early 1990s a number of letters Eliot wrote to her, most of them anxiously concerned about Emily Hale’s health and welfare. The documents in the archive referring to the addition of these materials self-consciously view them as further documentation of Eliot’s relation to Scripps, and as themselves historical objects of interest.
Organization and Arrangement
The collection is arranged alphabetically by folder title in alphabetical order in two boxes.
Physical Location
Please consult repository.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Gift of Emily Hale, 1945, with additional gifts and bequest from Jeanette McPherrin, 1992.
Accruals
No additions to the collection are anticipated.
Processing Information
Processed by Zoey Ji Young Ryu in 2018 in the Claremont Center for Engagement with Primary Sources (CCEPS), with assistance from Lisa Crane. Processing of this collection was generously supported by the Gould Center. This collection was minimally processed to facilitate access and preservation. Materials are in their original folder groupings, though renamed and reboxed. The original order divided the collection into four partially filled boxes which have been condensed into two full boxes.
- Title
- Guide to the Ruth George Collection of T.S. Eliot
- Author
- Zoey Ji Young Ryu
- Date
- 4/30/2018
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the 02 - Ella Strong Denison Library Repository