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COLLECTION Identifier: PC 209

Photographs of Eolyn Carolyn Klugh Guy, ca.1903-1977 (inclusive), 1919-1933 (bulk), undated

Overview

Photographs, newspapers, and other material of social worker Eolyn Carolyn Klugh Guy.

Dates

  • Creation: 1903-1977
  • Creation: Majority of material found within 1919-1933
  • Creation: Undated

Creator

Language of Materials

Materials in English.

Access Restrictions:

Access. Collection is open for research. #PD.3f. is closed while being digitized.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright. Copyright in the papers created by Eolyn Carolyn Klugh Guy 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

2.13 linear feet ((1/2 file box, 2 folio boxes) plus 1 oversize folder, 5 photograph folders)

Collection includes 586 black and white photographs and one negative, the majority of which are in two photograph albums; two certificates to Eolyn Klugh from the Webster School in New Haven, Connecticut; and two issues of the African American newspapers, The Guardian (January 9, 1932) and Boston Chronicle (April 17, 1943) featuring reports of Eolyn Guy's marriage and her brother David's obituary, respectively. The photographs center on Eolyn Carolyn Klugh Guy and document her family, work, education, social life, travels, marriage, and motherhood. Included are several photographs showing Guy at Spelman Seminary in 1918 with her classmates on campus; with friends at Radcliffe College (1922); at a YWCA camp in Detroit (1925); with faculty at Livingstone College, Salisbury, North Carolina (1925-1927); and an image of Guy in an academic gown when she was awarded a master's degree from Simmons College, Boston, Massachusetts (1928). Also included are photographs of family members on vacation and on beaches or sightseeing in New England and Canada, including in Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts (1922); in Hull and Plymouth, Massachusetts (1926); in Maine (1926); in Saratoga Springs, New York (1927); and the White Mountains in New Hampshire (1929). Two group photographs capture the all-women Northeastern students conference at Camp Magua in Poland, Maine, in 1930.

The larger photograph album may have been compiled by Guy following her father's death. Reverend Dr. David S. Klugh, Sr., served as pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in New Haven until he was appointed pastor in 1918 of the Peoples Baptist Church in Boston, Massachusetts, where he would serve until his death in 1934. One photograph shows Reverend Klugh standing with his congregation in front of Immanuel Baptist Church. One image shows Guy, her brother, and her father standing in front of the Boston Urban League in 1929, and other photographs from that year show her father receiving an honorary degree. There are also numerous photographs documenting Reverend Klugh's 1923 trip to Europe, Egypt, and Palestine. A handful of photographs from the smaller album appear to document Maurice Guy's family in and around Detroit. Included are photographs of Maurice Guy working as an engineer in the field, hunting, on outdoor trips, and at the Detroit Idlewild Club on Lake Michigan. There are also a few images of his father Harry P. Guy, including one of Maurice Guy standing in front of his father with a trumpet in hand.

Most of the photographs in this collection are or will be digitized and available online.

BIOGRAPHY

African American social worker Eolyn Carolyn Klugh Guy was born in 1901 and grew up in New Haven, Connecticut, and Boston, Massachusetts. She was the daughter of Reverend Dr. David S. Klugh, Sr., and Adella Plyman Klugh. Her father was a Baptist pastor and her mother was an alumna of Spelman Seminary (now Spelman College) and active in churchwomen's organizations. Guy attended Spelman Seminary in Atlanta, Georgia, and graduated from Radcliffe College with a bachelor's degree in 1922. She received a master's degree from Simmons College in 1928. Guy had two sisters, Artoria M. Klugh and Lois Klugh Bailer, and two brothers, Pritchett Klugh, who attended Harvard University and participated in the desegregation of the dormitories in 1921, and David Simpson Klugh. As a young woman, Guy worked as a social worker and researcher. She lived and worked at the Robert Gould Shaw House, a settlement house in Boston's South End. In October 1928, Guy published the article "Colored Girls at Work in Boston" in Opportunity, the magazine of the National Urban League. In this article she reported on the few meaningful job opportunities for Black women with some high school education in the Boston area.

In 1924, she attended the national meeting of the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) as Girl Reserve and industrial secretary of the St. Aubin Branch of the YWCA in Detroit. In 1930, she attended the National Conference of Social Work, held in Boston. That same year, Guy also participated in and likely served as a facilitator for the all-women Northeastern students conference at Camp Magua in Poland, Maine. In 1932, while still working at the Robert Gould Shaw House, she married Maurice H. Guy. Maurice Guy was an African American chemical engineer from Detroit who worked as a sewer inspector and later a safety engineer for the city and was the son of ragtime pianist and composer Harry P. Guy (1870-1950). Around 1933, they had one son, Harry Maurice Guy, Jr. The family lived in Detroit, Michigan, until 1946 when Eolyn Guy was named program director of the 12th Avenue Center YWCA in Tucson, Arizona. She also served on the board of the YWCA in Tucson.

Eolyn Klugh Guy died in October 1963.

Physical Location

Collection stored off site: researchers must request access 36 hours before use.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Accession number: 2021-M43

The photographs of Eolyn Carolyn Klugh Guy were acquired by the Schlesinger Library from James Arsenault and Company, 2021.

Related Material:

There is related material at the Schlesinger Library; see the Radcliffe College Archives collection on early Radcliffe College African American students, 1983-2000 (SC 96); see the Radcliffe College student files, 1890-1985 (RG XXI, Series 1); see the Records of the Radcliffe College Alumnae Association (Series 2), ca.1894-2004 (RG IX, Series 2).

There is related material at the University of California, Berkeley Bancroft Library; see the Harry M. Guy photograph collection, ca. late 1800s-1960s (BANC PIC 1992.081); see the Eolyn C. Guy family papers : Boston, Mass., circa 1930-1948 (BANC MSS 2011/56)

Processing Information

Processed: August 2021

By: Laura Peimer

Updated and additional information added: March 2022

By: Cat Lea Holbrook, with assistance from Anna Taylor.

The Schlesinger Library attempts to provide a basic level of preservation and access for all collections, and does more extensive processing of higher priority collections as time and resources permit.  Finding aids may be updated periodically to account for new acquisitions to the collection and/or revisions in arrangement and description.

Author
Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
Language of description
eng
Sponsor
Processing of this collection was made possible by the Jane Rainie Opel ’50 Fund and the Zetlin Sisters Fund.
EAD ID
sch02148

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.

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