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[Identification of item], Ruth Ann Hubbell Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University
The Ruth Ann Hubbell Papers were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library as a gift in 1980 and 1986.
Processed by Aaron Thornburg, April 2009
Encoded by Aaron Thornburg, April 2009
Accessions from 1980 and 1986 were merged into one collection, described in this finding aid.
Descriptive sources and standards used to create this inventory:
This finding aid is NCEAD compliant.
Ruth Ann Hubbell was born in Smyth County, Virginia and grew up in western Virginia and North Carolina. She attended high school in Elkin, North Carolina. She received a B.A. from Meredith College in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1919 and began teaching at the primary level. She returned to graduate study at Columbia University in New York, where she received a Master's in English in 1921. Then she studied psychology for a year at New York University. She taught briefly at Denton, Colorado; Appalchian State Teachers College, Boone, North Carolina; and Intermont, Virginia. She returned to New York and studied Library Science at New York City College, receiving a certificate in 1926. She then accepted a position in the Public Library in Washington, D.C. as Reference Assistant and Assistant Director of Adult Work. She remained there from 1926 to 1932, when she trasferred to the Northeast Branch as Reference Librarian. In 1939, she returned to the Central Library as Readers' Advisor in Literature where she worked for two years before going to the Georgetown Branch as Reference Librarian. At the time of her retirement in 1965, she was Reference Librarian and First Assistant in the Georgetown Branch. After retirement, she traveled extensively and was active in church and club work. She wrote a number of poems that were accepted for publication in numerous magazines. Copies of many of these poems were sent to her brother, Jay Broadus Hubbell, professor of literature at Duke University, and may be found in the biographical materials in the Jay B. Hubbell Papers in the Rubenstein Library at Duke.
The Ruth Ann Hubbell Papers span the years from 1905 to 1986, with the bulk dating from 1926 to 1972. The collection consists mainly of correspondence between Ruth Ann Hubbell, her brother Jay Broadus Hubbell, and other members of the Hubbell family, but there are also some materials on the establishment of the Hubbell Center at Duke University, and some photographs and writings of Ruth Ann Hubbell, Jay Broadus Hubbell, Paul Edgar Hubbell (their brother), and other individuals. The collection is divided into six series: Clippings, Correspondence, Jay B. Hubbell Center for American Literary Historiography, Miscellany, Photographs, and Writings. These series are described fully below.
These are searchable subject entries for this collection. Performing a search on these subjects in the Duke University Libraries online catalog will bring up other related research materials.
Folder containing clippings of book reviews written by Jay Broadus Hubbell, reviews of books written by Jay Broadus Hubbell, obituaries of Ruth Eller Hubbell (mother of Ruth Ann and Jay Broadus Hubbell), notices of exhibits of materials from the Jay B. Hubbell Center for American Literary Historiography displayed in Perkins Library, and other matters.
Contains mainly letters from Jay Broadus Hubbell to his sister Ruth Ann and their parents. Most of the parental letters are to Ruth Eller Hubbell, mother of Ruth Ann and her siblings, who after her husband's death in 1941 lived in Washington near Ruth Ann. Among the early letters are a few from Eller and Paul Hubbell, brothers of Ruth Ann and Jay Broadus, to Jay Broadus relating to their experiences and asking advice on courses to be taken as students at Fork Union Military Academy, Fork Union, Virginia. Letters from Ruth Ann to Jay Broadus are also present in the series. Although many of the letters discuss family concerns, Jay Broadus also tells of his writings, organizational work, and his teaching at Southern Methodist University, Duke University, Vienna, Athens, Columbia, Kentucky, Virginia, and Clemson universities. Jay Broadus discusses the differences between students in Vienna and Athens, comparing them to American students. Dispersed throughout the stationary letters are postcards and greetings cards. Clippings or photographs accompany some of the correspondence.
Comprised of a small number of items relating to the establishment of the Jay B. Hubbell Center. Included among these is a proposal for the Center; a copy of the February 6, 1976,
Comprised of a single folder of varied and most often undated materials. A large proportion of the materials in this series are printed materials. These printed materials include information pamphlets for historical sites, museums, a convalescent center, and other institutions in the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, North Carolina, area as well as for sites on Duke University and University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill campuses. Advertising and marketing pamphlets for books written by or produced in honor of Jay B. Hubbell as well as a marketing pamphlet for a collection of poetry written by John Hall Wheelock are included. An informational bulletin for the tenth session of The Writers' Conference held at the University of New Hamphire in 1947 and a 1978 informational newsletter advertising summer events at Duke University are also in the series. A 1925 Bulletin of Southern Methodist University announcing awards for the Fourth Annual Poetry Contest is also included. A business card for "Jay B. Hubbell, Ph.D., Professor of American Literature" completes the printed materials. A number of handwritten or hand-typed lists are also included in the series. Of potential research interest is a handwritten "List of Books by Jay B. Hubbell with others he owned or valued" and a typed list of "Graduate Students in English Department Duke University" including their dissertation topics, page length, advisors, and years. In addition, the series contains a few personl items, such as a book plate of Ruth Anne Hubbell (that bears the coat of arms of the Hubbell family), a Mu Sigma Rho banner from Richmond College, a "Prayer of St. Francis" bookmark, and other items.
Comprised of a single folder containing thirteen photographs of family, friends, acquaintances of Jay Broadus and/or Ruth Ann Hubbell. These include photographs of Ruth Eller Hubbell (Jay Broadus and Ruth Ann Hubbell's mother), David Shelton Hubbell (Jay Broadus and Ruth Ann Hubbell's father), two photographs of Jay Broadus Hubbell as a young man, a 1918 photograph of Jay Broadus Hubbell in military uniform, two group photographs from the Writers' Conference at the University of New Hampshire in 1949, a 1949 photograph of Robert Frost, a photograph of a quartet of friends of Jay Broadus Hubbell from Tulane University, and four photographs of an unidentified male.
Comprised of six folders containing the writings of Ruth Ann, Jay Broadus, and Paul Edgar Hubbell, as well as writings of miscellaneous other authors. The first folder in this series contains