Papers of Sara R. Ehrmann, 1859-1997

This collection includes personal and biographical papers and materials concerning the League of Women Voters, capital punishment, and Sara R. Ehrmann's other volunteer activities. Most of the papers documenting her work against capital punishment are at Northeastern University. The papers of her husband, Herbert B. Ehrmann, are at the Harvard Law School Library, the American Jewish Historical Society, and the Harvard Theatre Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

The personal and biographical materials include correspondence, clippings, printed material, essays, and photographs. Topics covered include school, family, Lane Bryant Volunteer Awards (1964-1969) and other honors. The photographs are of Ehrmann, Elizabeth Glendower Evans, and others.

The League of Women Voters materials include correspondence, notes, handbooks, bylaws, announcements of meetings, minutes, and financial papers. Many are from the League of Women Voters of Brookline; most of the remaining records are from the Massachusetts and national leagues. Most date from the 1940s. Notable correspondents are Dorothy Bisbee and Vivian Pierce.

The capital punishment materials include clippings, essays, notes, correspondence, and printed material from the American League to Abolish Capital Punishment and the Massachusetts Council for Abolition of the Death Penalty. Notable correspondents are Miriam Van Waters, Vivian Pierce, and Felix Frankfurter. There are also scattered materials, including correspondence and announcements, from the American Jewish Committee, Anti-Defamation League, Massachusetts Civic League, Women's City Club, and other organizations.

Clippings were photocopied and discarded.

Additional material donated between 1997 and 1999 was added to the collection in May 2018. These new materials are housed in PD.3, F+D.1, OD.2, and 4.1-19.6, Mem.1. All other files remain in the same order, but they were renumbered from 1-57o to 1.1-3.14, OD.1. These bulk of these addenda consists of personal and family correspondence which trace many of the relationships among members of two Jewish families especially during World War I and World War II. These include courtship letters between her parents, Abram and Helen Rosenfeld in the 1880s; Sara to her parents during her years at college and during her courtship and engagement in which she describes social events, men she's met, finances, reading, etc.; and the (often daily) courtship and post-marriage correspondence of Sara and Herbert. Sara and Herbert were engaged in the fall of 1915 and didn't marry until May 1917, so their letters to each other cover a host of topics: how to announce the engagement, Sara's college career, their desire to be financially secure before marrying, wedding plans disrupted by the entrance of the United States into World War I, and their social circles especially Herbert's community of Jewish friends and relatives in Boston (Maida Herman Solomon was one of them). They also discuss the kinds of issues Herbert was grappling with in his law practice and Sara was working on at college--suffrage, minimum wage, immigration, war relief, Herbert's play writing, Jewish philanthropic and other civic work--as well as social issues such as racial prejudice. From June 1918 to August 1919 Herbert worked in Washington, DC, while Sara remained in Boston caring for their son, and letters describe his work, the baby's progress, financial affairs, etc. Also included are letters to Sara and Herbert from their siblings, notably Herbert's sister Eva who was married to Sir Reginald Mitchell-Banks, M.P., and wrote from England describing their lives during the war (requests for help from Polish relatives, illness and death of her husband, possible evacuation of her son William, air raids, politics, requests for financial assistance, sponsorships in the United States, etc.) Some letters contain enclosures from other family or friends.

In 2017 the bulk of these addenda was treated by Belfor, a property restoration company, using a HEPA vacuum and sponge wipes as needed. The conservator at the Schlesinger Library also did some cleaning and stabilization of moldy and water-damaged material.