Papers of Marjory Collins, 1904-1985

This collection contains the papers and photographs of Marjory Collins, including biographical information, writings on various topics, and audiovisual material. Although the processor created the arrangement, where possible, original folder titles have been maintained and appear in quotation marks; the remaining folder titles were created by the processor. The papers are arranged in three series.

Series I, BIOGRAPHICAL AND PERSONAL,1904-1985 (#1.1-5.26), includes a partially completed autobiography; a biographical sketch; correspondence; educational material; clippings regarding Collins' family and relatives; financial information; passports; and résumés. The autobiographical material includes handwritten and typed drafts, essays, notes, and revisions arranged alphabetically by proposed chapter title, which Collins may have hoped to publish as a complete autobiography. For each chapter, items include diary-like entries or essays documenting Collin's personal life, work, and observations from her extensive travels throughout the United States and abroad. The material dates from approximately the 1940s through the 1960s as well as later reflections on those earlier periods, which date to the 1980s. Some chapters also include segments found in other chapters, which may be evidence of Collins' editing process. A few chapters include numbers in parentheses, which may indicate Collin's desired chapter arrangement.

Series II, WRITINGS AND RELATED, 1944-1983 (#5.27-13.5; T-391.1 - T-391.3), includes published articles, captions, commentaries, essays, notes, published photograph stories, reports, and support material such as clippings, flyers, and printed material arranged by topic. Of particular interest are Collins' writings on women and aging (#5.36-6.20) and her travels throughout Africa (#5.29-5.35), Europe (#9.1, 9.9-9.10, 9.19-9.29), Alaska (#6.20-6.21), and the American South (#6.23-8.4). In 1963, Collins photographed and wrote about the civil rights struggle and racism in Danville, Virginia; Hattiesburg, Mississippi; and New Orleans, Louisiana, among other Southern cities and towns. There are also photographs of her experience in the South that are located in the photographs series, including a small image that appears to be Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking at a civil rights event in Danville, Virginia (#PD.133-PD.134). Collins also appears to have used portions of these writings in her draft autobiography. Many original folder titles appearing in quotation marks may have been used by Collins for article or photograph essay submissions.

Series III, PHOTOGRAPHS AND RELATED, 1940-1978 (#PD.1-PD.416), contains photographs, negatives, slides, and transparencies arranged alphabetically by topic and then by format. Many of the subjects reflect topics about which she wrote professionally and in her autobiographical writings. There is a substantial number of photographs from Collins' time spent in Alaska in 1944 (#PD.76-PD.132). This set of images evidences the intricate cataloging system that Collins used to organize some of her photographs. There are also extensive photographs of Collins' travels through Africa and Europe in the 1950s and 1960s, which document everyday life, traditional ceremonies, customs, and political events.

Most of the photographs in this collection are or will be cataloged in VIA, Harvard University's Visual Information Access database. Others, referred to as "uncataloged" photographs, are not of sufficient research interest to warrant cataloging and are simply treated as part of the documents they accompany; they are marked on the back with an asterisk in square brackets [*].