Skip to Main Content

HIST 307: The Individual and Mass Society, 1914-1945 (BMC)

HIST 307: The Individual and Mass Society, 1914-1945. (Black)

Overview

The Bryn Mawr Special Collections includes a number of collections with diaries, letters and scrapbooks of women who were involved in the war in Europe in the 1910s, with refugee relief immediately after the war, or in the Spanish Civil War.  The following are the major collections.   Longer descriptions and collection guides for most of these collections can be found online.

Alma Clarke Papers.  Alma A. Clarke was an American who volunteered in World War I helping French orphans through the Committee France-America for the Protection of the Children of the Frontier and as a Red Cross Auxiliary Nurse in the American Red Cross Military Hospital No. 1 in Neuilly-sur-Seine.  The collection includes two scrapbooks of photographs and documents from her time in France, and papers and correspondence relating to her service in France.

Beatrice Danford Diaries.  Beatrice Danford, born in England in 1873, lived with her family in the town of Condette in northeastern France during World War I.  The collection includes her diaries from 1914 to 1918, describing life near the front and her volunteer work.  No finding aid online.

Louise Heron Blair Daura Papers.  Louise Heron Blair Daura, BMC 1927, was married to the Catalan painter Pierre Daura. He joined the Spanish Republican Army in 1937, and Louise wrote a series of letters to her family about going to visit Pierre while he was on leave in Barcelona in 1938.

Margaret Hall, Letters and Photographs from the Battle Country, 1918-1919.  Margaret Hall, BMC 1899, worked as a Red Cross nurse in France in 1918 and 1919.  She maintained a diary throughout her service, and transformed it into a more polished scrapbook, with photographs and documents, shortly after the war.   Blog entry on the volume was posted on the Special Collections website two years ago.

Dorothy North Haskins Papers.  Dorothy North Haskins (1886-1962), BMC 1909, was a relief worker in France, Austria, and Chicago during and after WWI, acting as part of the American Friends Service Committee. The papers consist primarily of her correspondence with family and other relief workers while working in Europe between 1917 and 1923,  and her published reports about her relief work.

Anna Mitchell (Olivia Hatch Papers). Anna V. S. Mitchell was engaged in relief work in Serbia and Constantinople from 1916 to 1936, with most of that time spent in Constantinople working with Russian refugees following the Revolution.  The collection contains her letters to family members describing her experiences in Europe.

Overviews of our holdings and guides to particular collections can be found on the Special Collections web site. The book collections are included in Tripod.  It is possible to limit your search to just the Special Collections holdings by using "Tripod Classic", and choosing “Bryn Mawr Special Collections” from the Tripod menu box that normally reads “View Entire Collection.”

Hours: 9:00 am – 4:30 pm Monday – Friday, open until 8:00 pm on Wednesdays.   An appointment is a good idea for your initial visit to talk about resources for your project.