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COLLECTION Identifier: MS Thr 210.1

Robert Woodruff Anderson letters to his parents

Overview

Letters by Robert Anderson and sent to his parents while a student at Harvard.

Dates

  • Creation: 1931-1956
  • Creation: Majority of material found within 1935-1940

Language of Materials

Collection materials are in English.

Conditions Governing Access

There are no restrictions on physical access to this material. Collection is open for research.

Extent

1 linear feet (2 boxes)

A collection of 255 letters written by Robert Anderson to his parents, James Hewston Anderson and Myra Grigg Anderson, 1931, 1935-1956.

Most of the letters describe Anderson's academic and extra-curricular activities while an undergraduate at Harvard University, 1935-1939, especially in Dunster House productions, the Harvard Dramatic Club and the Harvard Glee Club.

Biographical / Historical

Robert Woodruff Anderson was born in New York City on April 28, 1917, the son of Myra and James Anderson. He was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy (1931-35), and at Harvard University, where he received both his A.B. (magna cum laude) in 1939 and his M.A. in 1940. He became a prolific playwright, remembered chiefly for All Summer Long and Tea and Sympathy.

Arrangement

Arranged chronologically.

Physical Location

b

Immediate Source of Acquisition

*2003MT-193. Gift of Robert Anderson, 7 October 1986.

Separated Materials

For other correspondence, see the Robert Anderson Papers (MS Thr 210), which has a separate finding aid: Anderson, Robert Woodruff, 1917-. Papers.

Title
Anderson, Robert Woodruff, 1917-. Robert Woodruff Anderson letters to his parents, 1931-1956: Guide.
Author
Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
Language of description
und
EAD ID
hou00971

Repository Details

Part of the Houghton Library Repository

Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.

Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.

Contact:
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