Overview
Published copies of plays, correspondence, programs, photographs, etc., of Florence Lewis Speare, playwright and teacher.
Dates
- Creation: 1911-1968
Language of Materials
Materials in English.
Access Restrictions:
Access. Collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright. Copyright in the papers created by Florence Lewis Speare as well as copyright in other papers in the collection may be held by their authors, or the authors' heirs or assigns.
Copying. Papers may be copied in accordance with the library's usual procedures.
Extent
.42 linear feet (1 file box)The papers of Florence Lewis Speare consist primarily of published copies of her plays including Jones versus Jones (1913), written when president of the Radcliffe Drama Club; The Star Gleams: A Community Christmas Choral (1919); and The Bride and the Burglar (1922). Also included are correspondence, programs, photographs, a biographical sketch by her husband, and clippings. The collection was arranged by her husband, M. Edmund Speare, after her death in 1965.
BIOGRAPHY
Florence Lewis Speare was born in 1886. As an undergraduate at Radcliffe College, she was president of Professor G. P. Baker's "English 47" drama club and wrote two prize-winning plays, "Jones vs. Jones" and "Let's Go A-Gardening." After graduation in 1913 she continued to write plays and novels; several of her plays were published and some produced in Boston and elsewhere. She also taught, in 1919-1920 founding the Department of Drama and Expression at Goucher College and lecturing at Johns Hopkins University, and teaching at the Breadloaf Graduate Summer School of English at Middlebury College in 1925. As president of the New York Radcliffe Club and chairman of the entertainment committee of the New York Town Hall Club, she organized dinners in honor of Professor Baker and Radcliffe Presidents Le Baron Russell Briggs and Ada Comstock.
Physical Location
Collection stored off site: researchers must request access 36 hours before use.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Accession number: 1473
The papers of Florence Lewis Speare were deposited with the Schlesinger Library in October 1968 by M. Edmund Speare.
Processing Information
Processed: January 1975
By: Suzanne McLaughlin
Subject
- Briggs, Le Baron Russell, 1855-1934 (Person)
- Title
- Speare, Florence Lewis. Papers of Florence Lewis Speare, 1911-1968: A Finding Aid
- Author
- Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
- Language of description
- eng
- EAD ID
- sch00920
Repository Details
Part of the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute Repository
The preeminent research library on the history of women in the United States, the Schlesinger Library documents women's lives from the past and present for the future. In addition to its traditional strengths in the history of feminisms, women’s health, and women’s activism, the Schlesinger collections document the intersectional workings of race and ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class in American history.