Overview
Cedric Hubbell Whitman (1916-1979), poet and Greek scholar, taught at Harvard University from 1947 until his death in 1979. The collection documents his professional research, publishing, and teaching activities, as well as his personal life. Whitman's papers contain correspondence, teaching materials, manuscripts and unpublished writings, poems, photographs, audio recordings, family documents, and personal papers. There are also letters of Whitman’s second wife, Anne Miller Whitman (1937-1984), and poems by Miller and Whitman’s first wife, Ruth Bashein Whitman (1922-1999).
Dates
- Creation: 1916-1981 and undated
Creator
- Whitman, Cedric Hubbell (Person)
Researcher Access
The Papers of Cedric Hubbell Whitman are open for research with the following exceptions: Harvard University records are restricted for 50 years. Personnel and student records are closed for 80 years. Restrictions are noted at the series and folder level. Requires further review by the archivist; please see reference staff for details.
Conditions Governing Use
Audio recordings are closed for research until use copies can be made; please see reference staff for details.
Extent
15.35 cubic feet (46 document boxes, 2 flat boxes, 1 card box, 1 cassette box, 1 microfilm box, 1 accordion folder)The Papers of Cedric Hubbell Whitman document his professional research, publishing, and teaching activities, as well as his personal life. The collection contains manuscripts of Whitman’s scholarly works, unpublished papers and addresses, miscellaneous notes, and papers written by others on problems in Homeric scholarship. There are also grant applications, diaries and notebooks, certificates, awards, and degrees, and essays for Greek and Latin classes while still a student. Additionally, there are sixteen audio recordings of Whitman and others reading Greek and their own poetry.
Whitman’s papers contain incoming and outgoing personal and professional correspondence, including to Antonia Damaskos, and letters of his wife, Anne Miller Whitman. There are photographs, negatives, and slides of Whitman and his family and friends, and juvenilia and artwork of Whitman's daughters, Rachel and Leda. The collection also contains poetry written by both of Whitman’s wives, Ruth Bashein Whitman (1922-1999) and Anne Miller Whitman (1937-1984).
The teaching materials contain notes relating to classical Greek literature (in particular Homer, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes), materials related to Harvard’s Classics Department and the Oral Literature Center, and student recommendations. There is also correspondence relating to the establishment of modern Greek as a formal course of study at Harvard.
Biographical note on Cedric Hubbell Whitman
Cedric Hubbell Whitman (1916-1979), poet and Greek scholar, taught at Harvard University from 1947 until his death in 1979. He received his AB from Harvard in 1943 and his PhD in 1947.Whitman joined the Harvard University faculty as a lecturer in the Classics Department in 1947 and became tenured in 1954. He served as chair of the department from 1960 to 1966, and became Eliot Professor of Greek Literature in 1974.
In 1941, Whitman married Radcliffe student Ruth A. Bashein (1922-1999); the couple had two daughters, Rachel and Leda; they divorced in 1958. He married Latinist Anne Miller (1937-1984) in 1959.
Whitman is best known for his research into Greek playwrights, Sophocles and Homer, and wrote several books on the subjects. Whitman was awarded the 1952 Award of Merit of the American Philological Association for his work, Sophocles: A Study in Heroic Humanism. His 1958 book, Homer and the Heroic Tradition, won him the Christian Gauss Prize. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was awarded Guggenheim Fellowships in 1961 and 1976. Whitman died in 1979.
Biographical note on Ruth Bashein Whitman
Ruth Bashein Whitman (1922-1999), poet and educator, earned her BA in Greek and English from Radcliffe College in 1944 and an MA in Classics from Harvard University in 1947. While studying at Radcliffe, Whitman eloped with Cedric Hubbell Whitman, a fellow Harvard student. The couple had two daughters, Rachel and Leda. Their marriage ended in 1958, and she subsequently re-married twice.
Whitman started teaching poetry at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education in 1964. Beginning in 1969, she lectured on poetry at the Radcliffe Seminars and served as a poet-in-residence at Tufts University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Massachusetts. She published eight volumes of poetry, specializing in narrative poems written from the perspective of women from the past. From 1980 to 1995, she served as editor of the Radcliffe Quarterly, and was named Radcliffe Seminars Distinguished Instructor in 1984. Whitman died in 1999.
Biographical note on Anne Miller Whitman
Anne Miller Whitman (1937-1984) was a Latinist, best known for co-editing and translating The Principia: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy with Harvard history of science professor I. Bernard Cohen (1914-2003). She married Cedric Hubbell Whitman on June 7, 1959. Whitman died in 1984.
Arrangement
This collection is arranged in nineteen series:
- Diaries and notebooks, calendars, and address book, 1930s-1979 (HUGFP 107.1)
- Chronological correspondence, 1938-1981 (HUGFP 107.10)
- Alphabetical correspondence, circa 1940s-1979 (HUGFP 107.15)
- Letters to Antonia Damaskos, 1948 and 1952 (HUGFP 107.17)
- Correspondence of Anne Whitman, 1956-1981 (HUGFP 107.20)
- Miscellaneous personal and family papers, 1916-1979 (HUGFP 107.31, HUGFP 107.31 F)
- Certificates, awards, and degrees, 1932-1972 (HUGFP 107.33 F)
- Photographs, circa 1916-1970s (HUGFP 107.35 p)
- Negatives, circa 1950s-1960s (HUGFP 107.35.1 p/n)
- Slides, 1960s (HUGFP 107.35.2 p/tr)
- Classical literature scholarship and translations, circa 1943-1979 (HUGFP 107.43)
- Literary works, 1930s-1979 (HUGFP 107.50)
- Audio tapes of poetry readings and lecture, 1964-1970s (HUGFP 107.53 aud)
- Grant applications and miscellaneous professional papers, 1947-1979 (HUGFP 107.60)
- Papers for classical Greek literature courses, Harvard, 1947-1979 (HUGFP 107.62)
- Gradebook and student recommendations, 1947-1979 (HUGFP 107.70)
- Publications relating to Whitman (HUGFP 107.71)
- Poetry by others, circa 1940s-1970s (HUGFP 107.72)
- Publications and reference materials, 1929-1981 (HUGB W454.70)
Acquisition
Gift of Ann Miller Whitman, received February 10, 1982; Accession 09390.
Inventory update
This document last updated 2023 January 31.
Processing Information
This finding aid was created by Olivia Mandica-Hart in April 2021. Information in this finding aid was assembled from legacy paper inventories and container management data. The collection was not re-examined by the archivist.
Creator
- Whitman, Cedric Hubbell (Person)
- Title
- Whitman, Cedric Hubbell. Papers of Cedric Hubbell Whitman, 1916-1981 and undated : an inventory
- Status
- completed
- Author
- Harvard University Archives
- Date
- April 14, 2021
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hua34021
Repository Details
Part of the Harvard University Archives Repository
Holding nearly four centuries of materials, the Harvard University Archives is the principal repository for the institutional records of Harvard University and the personal archives of Harvard faculty, as well as collections related to students, alumni, Harvard-affiliates and other associated topics. The collections document the intellectual, cultural, administrative and social life of Harvard and the influence of the University as it emerged across the globe.
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