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Elizabeth Dodge Clarke Collection of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern Postcards and Photographs
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Held at: Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division [Contact Us]
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
Elizabeth Dodge Clarke was involved in several organizations in Istanbul, Turkey before World War II: Robert College, the American College for Girls, and the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA). Elizabeth Wentworth Dodge was born August 10, 1884 in Riverdale, New York. After graduating from the Brearley School in Manhattan in 1903, Elizabeth Dodge became involved in the YWCA through her aunt, Grace Hoadley Dodge, a philanthropist who was active in the formation of the YWCA.
Elizabeth Dodge's father was President of the Board of Trustees of Robert College, a private American high school in Istanbul founded in 1863. In 1916, she married George H. Huntington, a teacher at Robert College. They lived in Istanbul until 1933 when they returned to the United States to seek treatment for Huntington's polio. They returned to Istanbul in 1938, still active in positions at Robert College, but then left again before World War II. Huntington died in 1953.
Throughout this time, Clarke was active on the board of Robert College; worked with the American College for Girls, a school for Christian Turkish women in Istanbul; and participated in the YWCA's Istanbul Service Center.
Clarke married her friend Dumont Clarke in 1955. She received an honorary degree from the Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio in 1963. She died January 9, 1976 in Riverdale, New York.
Consists of postcard correspondence, photographs, blank postcards, and some ephemera and small paintings collected and received by Elizabeth Dodge Clarke during her time in Istanbul, Turkey in the early 1900s and after her return to the United States before World War II.
The bulk of the collection is made up of photographs and blank postcards, many of which depict places, institutions, or subjects in Turkey. Other locations represented in this collection include Cyprus, Lebanon, Greece, Palestine and Israel, Syria, Jordan, and Italy; some of the images depicted are unidentified. Photographs may have been taken during trips Clarke went on while living in Istanbul, or they could have been bought or collected from friends. Postcards include commercially produced postcards, as well as photographic postcards.
The correspondence includes notes from friends, colleagues, and former students in Turkey.
As no original order was discernible, materials were arranged by subject or place.
Gift of Elizabeth Dodge Clarke in 1970. AM 2020-3.
For preservation reasons, original analog and digital media may not be read or played back in the reading room. Users may visually inspect physical media but may not remove it from its enclosure. All analog audiovisual media must be digitized to preservation-quality standards prior to use. Audiovisual digitization requests are processed by an approved third-party vendor. Please note, the transfer time required can be as little as several weeks to as long as several months and there may be financial costs associated with the process. Requests should be directed through the Ask Us Form.
This collection was processed by Alice Griffin in July 2019. Finding aid written by Alice Griffin in July 2019.
No materials were removed from the collection during 2019 processing beyond routine appraisal practices.
People
- Fisher, Edgar J. (Edgar Jacob) (1919-2005)
- Huntington, George S. (George Sumner) (1861-1927)
- Kreider, Herman H.
Organization
- American College for Girls (Istanbul, Turkey)
- Robert College (Istanbul, Turkey)
- Near East Relief (Organization)
Subject
- Women--Education (Higher)--Turkey--Istanbul--History. -- 20th century
- Christian education--Turkey--History. -- 20th century
- Clothing and dress--Turkey
- Street vendors--Turkey--Istanbul. -- 20th century
Place
- Istanbul (Turkey)--Building, structures, etc. -- 20th century
- Izmir (Turkey)--Building, structures, etc. -- 20th century
- Adapazarı (Turkey)--Building, structures, etc. -- 20th century
- Bursa (Turkey)--Building, structures, etc. -- 20th century
- Göreme (Turkey)--Building, structures, etc. -- 20th century
- Amasya (Amasya İli, Turkey)--Building, structures, etc. -- 20th century
- Üçhisar (Turkey)--Building, structures, etc. -- 20th century
- Nevşehir (Turkey)--Landscapes -- 20th century
- Ürgüp (Turkey)--Landscapes -- 20th century
- Ankara (Turkey)--Building, structures, etc. -- 20th century
- Cyprus--Landscapes -- 20th century
- Lebanon--Landscapes -- 20th century
- Greece--Landscapes -- 20th century
- Palestine--Landscapes -- 20th century
- Israel--Landscapes -- 20th century
- Syria--Landscapes -- 20th century
- Jordan--Landscapes -- 20th century
- Italy--Landscapes -- 20th century
- Publisher
- Manuscripts Division
- Finding Aid Author
- Alice Griffin
- Finding Aid Date
- 2019
- Access Restrictions
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Open for research.
- Use Restrictions
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Collection Inventory
This material is arranged chronologically.
Consists of postcards and cards sent to Elizabeth Dodge Clarke from Turkey and the Middle East. Many of the cards are Christmas and New Year's greetings. Others discuss reminiscences of Clarke's time in Istanbul or updates on the correspondents' lives. Some postcards feature photos of the correspondents and about half of the cards are undated.
Physical Description3 folders
1 folder
Consists of postcards, photographs, and some ephemera depicting or related to locations, institutions, and subjects in Turkey. Many of the photographs have handwritten notes on the verso and the bulk of the materials cover Istanbul and Robert College. American photographer Herman Kreider took or may have taken several of the photographs related to Istanbul, Robert College, and the American College for Girls. Some of the postcards and photographs are grouped together in small scrapbooks, such as the collection of postcards depicting Turkish dress and a collection of photographs depicting Istanbul street vendors.
Physical Description3 boxes
Consists of photographs of the Robert College campus and students. Also includes a program from the 1943 Alumni Banquet and a group of postcards depicting Istanbul that were used for a "Guessing Contest."
Physical Description3 folders
1 folder
1 folder
1 folder
Photographs, postcards, and a scrapbook depicting sites, landscapes, and people of Istanbul. The scrapbook contains photographs of street vendors in Istanbul and the musical notation of their chants; it was compiled by Edgar Fisher, Jr., the son of the dean of Robert College. Also includes a 1956 pamphlet about the Kariye Mosque, of which there are several photographs, and a small, signed handpainted card of a view of Istanbul.
Physical Description4 folders
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1 folder
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Photographs and postcards depicting unidentified locations. Also includes a small, signed painting presented to George Huntington in September 1916.
Physical Description1 folder