Vassar College Digital Library

Finding Aids Collection

This collection of finding aids describe items in both the Virginia B. Smith Memorial Manuscript Collection and the College Archives. The Virginia B. Smith Memorial Manuscript Collection is named after the eighth president of Vassar College, whose vision for the library included the addition of personal papers of a number of key literary figures. The holdings range from medieval illuminated manuscripts to modern manuscripts, and include over 500 collections of Vassar College graduates, faculty, and others affiliated with the college. The Vassar College Archives documents the history of the College from its founding in 1861 to the present. It includes publications, administrative records, meeting minutes, architectural drawings, photograph and audiovisual collections, subject files, artifacts, and other materials. For more information please visit the Archives & Special Collections Library website here: https://library.vassar.edu/specialcollections/

Guide to the John H. Bushnell Papers, 1948-1976

Collection Title
John H. Bushnell Papers
Abstract
Field notes and manuscripts related to Bushnell's ethnographic work in Mexico.
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Guide to the Ruth Fulton Benedict Papers, 1905-1948

Collection Title
Ruth Fulton Benedict Papers
Abstract
Personal and professional papers consisting of correspondence, diaries, notebooks, manuscripts and typescripts, articles, speeches, financial papers, reports, teaching materials, and photographs. Correspondents include Franz Boas with whom she studied and worked. Subjects include American Anthropological Association, Progressive Education Association, West Side Defense Council (New York City), Council Against Intolerance in America, American Association of University Women, American Folklore Journal, Mary Wollstonecraft, Indians of the American Southwest including Pima, Zuni, Dakotas, Sioux, and Shoshone, civil rights, and Japan and Japanese culture. Other items include her published and unpublished poetry; grant proposals; correspondence, clippings, and reports from field work, including her Mescalero trip, 1931-1932; and a draft of Margaret Mead's .
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Guide to the Walter A. Fairservis Papers, 1931-1994

Collection Title
Walter A. Fairservis Papers
Abstract
Correspondence, manuscripts, teaching materials, and other papers related to Fairservis's work as a professor, archaeologist and playwright. Of particular note is his correspondence with his family describing his trips overseas.
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