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Ruth George Collection of T.S. Eliot

 Collection
Identifier: D-MSS-0291

  • Staff Only

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

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.

Related Materials

The following items can be found in the Perkins Autograph Letter Collection in The Claremont Colleges Digital Library:

  • Virginia Woolf letter to T. S. Eliot, 1933 January 15 http://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/pal/id/6873/rec/10


  • Virginia Woolf letter to T. S. Eliot http://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/pal/id/6871/rec/17


  • Emily Hale letter to Ruth George, 1935 December 6 http://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/pal/id/2272/rec/11


  • T.S. Eliot letter to Ruth George, 1953 April 7 http://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/pal/id/2260/rec/3

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

Contact:
1030 Columbia Ave
Claremont 91711 United States US