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Martha Foote Crow Papers

An inventory of her papers at Syracuse University

The adult education holdings are collectively known as the
Alexander N. Charters Library of Resources for Educators of Adults.

Overview of the Collection

Creator: Crow, Martha Foote, 1854-1924.
Title: Martha Foote Crow Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1885-1921.
Quantity: 3.75 linear ft.
Abstract: Papers of the American author, educator, lecturer. Includes correspondence, 1885-1921; writings; and memorabilia.
Language: English
Repository: Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries
222 Waverly Avenue
Syracuse, NY 13244-2010
https://library.syracuse.edu/special-collections-research-center

Biographical History

Martha Foote Crow, educator and writer, was born in 1854 in Sackets Harbor, New York, the daughter of the Reverend John B. and Mary Pendexter (Stilphen) Foote. She received a Ph.D. in 1885 from Syracuse University. In 1884 she married archaeologist John M. Crow, who died in 1891.

Mrs. Crow served on the faculty of Ives Seminary, Waynesburg College, and Wellesley College, becoming principal of Grinnell College in 1884. In 1891 she became assistant professor of English literature at the University of Chicago, and in 1900 was appointed dean of women at Northwestern University.

In addition to lecturing before many scholarly societies, Crow was an active member of the Browning Society, the League of American Pen Women, the Poetry Society of America, and the General Foundation of Women's Clubs. Among her published works are Elizabethan Sonnet Cycles (1896), The World Above (1905), Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1907), Harriet Beecher Stowe, a Biography (1913), The American Country Girl (1915), Lafayette (1916), and Christ in the Poetry of Today (1917).

Mrs. Crow's home was in Chicago, Illinois, where she died on January 1, 1924.

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Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Martha Foote Crow Papers comprise Biographical material, Correspondence, Writings, and Memorabilia of the American educator, lecturer, and author. Spanning the years 1885 to 1921, the Correspondence-Subject file (Boxes 1-2) is arranged alphabetically and includes family letters as well as literary correspondence (Katharine Bates, Anna Hempstead Branch, Amelia Josephine Burr, Grace Hazard Conkling, Edwin Markham, Harriet Monroe, Edwin Arlington Robinson, Sara Teasdale, Elinor Wylie). In addition, there is a sizable collection of organizational correspondence including that of Alpha Phi, the Colorado Federation of Women's Clubs, the General Federation of Women's Clubs, the League of American Pen Women, the National Women's Christian Temperance Union, and the Poetry Society of America. Perhaps the most interesting of the organizational correspondence refers to the expulsion of George Sylvester Viereck from the Poetry Society of America.

Writings (Boxes 3-7) include (for a given title) any combination of background information, typescript manuscripts, production material, publicity, and reviews of various of Martha Foote Crow's books including Christ in the Poetry of Today, Elizabethan Sonnet Cycles, "Enigma" (unpublished), and Lafayette. Also included are the typescript manuscripts for a number of Crow's essays, which range in subject from poetry to education and women's issues. The bulk of the Writings are Crow's lecture notes, which have been arranged by topic and include Bible history, Robert Browning, chirography, drama, George Meredith, and the character of the 19th century.

Memorabilia (Box 8) includes miscellaneous clippings (newspaper clippings which refer to Crow have been placed with biographical material in Box 1), photographs, and the writings of others, some of which are poetic tributes to Crow.

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Restrictions

Access Restrictions

The majority of our archival and manuscript collections are housed offsite and require advanced notice for retrieval. Researchers are encouraged to contact us in advance concerning the collection material they wish to access for their research.

Use Restrictions

Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

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Subject Headings

Persons

Bates, Katharine Lee, 1859-1929.
Branch, Anna Hempstead, 1875-1937.
Conkling, Grace Hazard, 1878-1958.
Crow, Martha Foote, 1854-1924.
Markham, Edwin, 1852-1940.
Monroe, Harriet, 1860-1936.
Teasdale, Sara, 1884-1933.
Wylie, Elinor, 1885-1928.

Corporate Bodies

Alpha Phi.
General Federation of Women's Clubs.
League of American Pen Women.
National Women's Christian Temperance Union.
Poetry Society of America.

Subjects

American poetry -- 20th century.
American poetry -- Women authors.
Educators -- United States.
Lecturers -- United States.
Poetry, Modern -- 20th century.
Poets, American -- Correspondence.
Women authors, American.
Women educators -- United States.
Women poets, American -- 20th century.

Genres and Forms

Correspondence.
Photographs.

Occupations

Authors.
Educators.

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

Martha Foote Crow Papers,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries

Acquisition Information

Gift of Elizabeth Foote, 1932.

Finding Aid Information

Created by: KM
Date: May 1990 rev.
Revision history: 13 Feb 2007 - converted to EAD (AMCon)

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Inventory

Correspondence-Subject file
Box 1 Biographical material (2 folders)
Box 1 A (one folder)
Box 1 Allen, Lyman Whitney 1919-1921
Box 1 Alpha Phi 1919-1920
Box 1 Armstrong, A. Joseph 1920
Box 1 B (one folder)
Box 1 Babbitt, Shirley D. 1920
Box 1 Babcock, Edwina Stanton 1917, 1920
Box 1 Baker, Karle Wilson 1919
Box 1 Barker, Elsa 1920
Box 1 Barr, Frances Greeno 1917-1918
Box 1 Barrows, Mary Minerva 1920
Box 1 Bates, Katharine Lee 1917, 1920
Box 1 Best, Nolan Rice 1917
Box 1 Blanchard, Phyllis Mary 1920
Box 1 Boole, Ella Alexander 1919
Box 1 Boston Browning Society 1920-1921, 1898 - printed material
Box 1 Botsford, Florence Hudson 1920
Box 1 Branch, Anna Hempstead 1917-1920
Box 1 Buchanan, June ca. 1919
Box 1 Burr, Amelia Josephine 1920
Box 1 Burt, Maxwell Struthers 1917
Box 1 Burton, Guthrie undated
Burton, Ruth Guthrie Thomson Harding
See Burton, Guthrie
Box 1 C (one folder)
Box 1 Canby, Henry Seidel 1921
Box 1 Cassidy, Ina Sizer 1920
Box 1 Cogswell, Dorothy 1920
Box 1 Colorado Federation of Women's Clubs 1919, undated - printed material
Box 1 Conant, Isabel Fiske 1921, undated
Box 1 Conkling, Grace Hazard 1920
Box 1 Coolbrith, Ina D. 1920
Box 1 Crew, Helen Coale undated
Box 1 D (one folder)
Box 1 Davidson, Gustav 1919-1920
Box 1 Dawson, Miles M. 1917, 1920
Box 1 Day, James R. 1920
Box 1 Deutsch, Babette 1920-1921
Dransfield, Jane
See Poetry Society of America
Box 1 Driscoll, Louise 1919-1920
Box 1 E (one folder)
Box 1 F (one folder)
Faulks, Theodosia
See Garrison, Theodosia
Box 1 Fiske, Horace Spencer 1917
Box 1 Flanner, Hildegarde - holograph poems
Box 1 Flugel, Ewald 1896
Box 1 Foote (parents) 1901, undated
Box 1 Foote, Elizabeth L. 1920-1921, undated
Box 1 Foote, William Y. 1900-1902, undated
Box 1 Foster, Jeanne Robert 1917
Box 1 Frank, Florence Kiper 1917
Box 1 Frasier, Scottie McKenzie 1920
Box 1 G (one folder)
Box 1 Garrison, Theodosia undated
Box 1 General Federation of Women's Clubs 1920 (2 folders)
Box 1 Gordon, Anna Adams 1919, 1921
Box 1 Gorman, Herbert Sherman 1920
Box 1 Gray, Agnes Kendrick undated
Box 1 Guiney, Louise Imogen 1917
Box 1 Guiterman, Arthur 1920
Box 1 Gunsaulus, Frank W. 1920
Box 1 H (one folder)
Box 1 Hagedorn, Hermann 1919
Harding, Ruth Guthrie
See Burton, Guthrie
Box 1 Hayes, L. Newton 1919
Box 1 Hazard, Caroline 1917
Box 1 Henderson, Alice Corbin undated
Box 1 Horder, W. Garrett 1919
Box 1 I (one folder)
Box 1 J (one folder)
Box 1 Johnson, Helen Louise 1919
Box 1 K (one folder)
Box 1 Kelley, William Valentine 1919
Box 1 Kemp, Harold 1919-1920
Box 1 King, Horatio Collins 1915
Box 1 L
Box 1 League of American Pen Women, Inc. 1920-1921
Box 1 Lee, Muna 1919
Box 1 Lieberman, Elias 1921
Box 1 Lindsey, Frederick Brooks 1920
Box 1 Lindsey, William 1920
Box 1 Lomax, John Avery 1920
Box 2 M (one folder)
Box 2 MacClintock, Porter Lander undated
Box 2 McClurg, Alexander Caldwell undated
Box 2 McElroy, Cora Cleona Clark 1919
Box 2 Markham, Anna Catherine undated
Box 2 Markham, Edwin 1917
Box 2 Melcher, Frederic Gershom 1920
Box 2 Millen, Mabel 1920
Box 2 Molineux, Marie Ada 1920
Box 2 Moody, Harriet 1919-1921
Box 2 Morrison, Charles Clayton 1920
Box 2 Morton, David 1920
Box 2 Mosher, Thomas Bird 1896
Box 2 N (one folder)
National Woman's Christian Temperance Union
See Gordon, Anna A.
Box 2 Naylor, Emmett Hay 1920-1921
Box 2 Naylor, Ruth C. undated
Box 2 Nelson, Lawrence Emerson 1918
Box 2 New York Browning Society 1920
Box 2 Nicholson, Meredith 1917
Box 2 Noguchi, Yone 1919
Box 2 Norton, Clara Mamre 1917 - printed material
Box 2 O
Box 2 Oliver, Wade Wright 1919-1920
O'Sheel, Shaemas
See Poetry Society of America
Box 2 P (one folder)
Box 2 Paine, Paul M. 1919-1920
Box 2 Parker, Cornelia Stanton undated
Box 2 Payne, William Morton 1896
Box 2 Peattie, Elia (and Robert) 1920
Box 2 Peters, Iva Lowther 1920
Box 2 Pettus, Martha Elvira 1917
Box 2 Phelps, William Lyon 1896
Box 2 Piper, Edwin Ford 1920
Box 2 Poetry Society of America 1917-1920 (2 folders)
Box 2 Pollard, Alfred W. 1894-1897, undated
Box 2 G. P. Putnam's 1920
Box 2 R (one folder)
Box 2 Reese, Lizette Woodworth 1917
Box 2 Revell, Fleming H. 1917
Box 2 Rice, Cale Young 1917
Box 2 Rice, Paul North 1919
Rice, Ruth Mason
See League of American Pen Women, Inc.
Box 2 Robinson, Corinne Roosevelt undated
Box 2 Robinson, Edwin Arlington 1917
Box 2 Roth, Samuel 1919
Box 2 Rugg, Winnifred King 1920
Box 2 S (one folder)
Box 2 Schauffler, Robert Haven 1917
Box 2 Schola Poetarum Americana - manuscript poems
Box 2 Scollard, Clinton undated
Box 2 Siegrist, Mary undated
Box 2 Slack, Elvira J. undated
Box 2 Smalley, Frank 1896, 1920
Box 2 Smith, May Riley 1920-1921
Box 2 Squires, Vernon Purinton 1917, 1920
Box 2 Stott, Roscoe Gilmore 1917
Box 2 Sturgis, Lyman B. 1920
Box 2 T (one folder)
Box 2 Teasdale, Sara 1917, 1920
Box 2 Thomas, Edith Matilda 1917, 1920
Thomson, Ruth Sanders
See Alpha Phi
Box 2 Tolman, Albert Harris 1896
Box 2 Triggs, Oscar Lovell 1896
Box 2 Trine, Grace Steele Hyde 1920
Box 2 U (one folder)
Box 2 V (one folder)
Box 2 Viereck, George Sylvester
See also Poetry Society of America
Box 2 Vilas, Faith 1919-1920
Box 2 W (one folder)
Box 2 Welles, Winifred 1921
Box 2 Wheelock, John Hall 1917
Box 2 Widdemer, Margaret undated
Box 2 Wilkinson, Marguerite Ogden Bigelow 1917, 1921
Box 2 Winke, Charles 1919
Winter, Alice Ames
See General Federation of Women's Clubs
Box 2 Wylie, Elinor 1920-1921
Box 2 Y (one folder)
Box 2 Unidentified
Writings
Books:
Box 3 Christ in the Poetry of Today - background material
Box 3 Christ in the Poetry of Today - page proofs
Box 3 Christ in the Poetry of Today - publicity material
Box 3 Christ in the Poetry of Today - reviews
Box 3 Elizabethan Sonnet Cycles - correspondence, notes
Box 3 Elizabethan Sonnet Cycles - reviews
Box 3 "Enigma" (unpublished) - background material
Box 3 "Enigma" (unpublished) - typescript ms. (4 folders)
Box 3 "Enigma" (unpublished) - ms. fragments
Box 3 "Enigma" (unpublished) - typescript ms. Chapter I-VI
Box 4 "Enigma" (unpublished) - typescript ms. Chapter VII-XXXVI (6 folders)
Box 4 Lafayette - background material
Box 4 Lafayette - correspondence, notes
Essays:
Box 4 "A Book of the Skokie" - typescript ms. with holograph corrections
Box 4 "The Immigrant" - typescript ms.
Box 4 "The Immigrant in American Poetry" - typescript ms.
Box 4 "Parentage" - typescript ms.
Box 4 "The Social Burden" - typescript ms.
Box 4 "Woman" - typescript ms.
Box 4 Untitled - re: Montessori Schools
Lecture notes:
Box 5 Bible history (21 folders)
Box 6 Robert Browning (10 folders)
Box 6 Chirography (1 folder)
Box 6, 7 Drama (14 folders)
Box 7 George Meredith (6 folders)
Box 7 The Nineteenth century (10 folders)
Box 7 Miscellaneous (1 folder)
Miscellany:
Box 7 Unidentified (2 folders)
Memorabilia
Box 8 Clippings (miscellaneous)
Box 8 Financial material
Box 8 Photographs
Box 8 Writings of others (3 folders)

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