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A. O. H. Grier letter to Blanche J. Swayne

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Held at: University of Delaware Library Special Collections [Contact Us]181 South College Avenue, Newark, DE 19717-5267

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Overview and metadata sections

Delaware journalist and local historian A. O. H. Grier (1867-1953) worked sixty years for the

News Journal papers, retiring on June 30, 1945.

On the occasion of his retirement, his book

This Was Wilmington : a veteran journalist's recollections of the "good old days," was published by the News-Journal Company. The volume is a collection of reminiscences based on Grier's observations of Wilmington since 1875. The articles, which appeared regularly in the Every Evening, were written from 1935 to 1945.

Born on March 4, 1867, in Milford, Delaware, Albert Oliver Herman Grier was a graduate of Wilmington High School. He worked his way from printer's apprentice on the Wilmington

Every Evening to become editor of the paper in 1934.

Grier, A. O. H.This Was Wilmington : a veteran journalist's recollections of the "good old days."Wilmington, Del. : News-Journal, 1945.Marquis, Albert Nelson (ed.)Who's Who In Delaware. Volume 1 (1939). Chicago: The A. N. Marquis Company, 1939. p. 342.Rebecca Button, "Oral History Interview with Miss Blanche Swayne, Friend of Artists of the Howard Pyle School, September 9, 1976," MSS 179, Robert H. Richards, Jr., Delaware Oral History collection (Box 10 F186).

Wilmington native Blanche J. Swayne was a friend to several of Howard Pyle's students, particularly Stanley Arthurs, N. C. Wyeth, and Frank Schoonover.

In a 1976 interview, Swayne mentioned that she had posed for both Frank Schoonover and Stanley Arthurs. She posed as several of the women in Stanley Arthurs's mural, "Colonel Hazlett Leaving Dover Green."

During much of her life, Swayne was drawn to social work, especially settlement work. She worked at several settlement houses and at one point, "took observation" under Jane Adams in Chicago. Later she was a state investigator with the Children's Bureau. She also worked for fourteen years for Wilmington's legendary Greenwood Book Shop.

Rebecca Button, "Oral History Interview with Miss Blanche Swayne, Friend of Artists of the Howard Pyle School, September 9, 1976," MSS 179, Robert H. Richards, Jr., Delaware Oral History collection (Box 10 F186).

Delaware historian and journalist A. O. H. Grier (1867-1953) wrote to thank Wilmington native Blanche J. Swayne for her note congratulating him on the publication of his 1945 book,

This was Wilmington : a veteran journalist's recollections of the "good old days" .

Written on July 5, 1945, Grier also thanked Swayne for her help with his study of "Old King's Road," on which he hoped to do more work.

  1. Box 8, F0191: Shelved in SPEC MSS 0098 manuscript boxes

Gift of Robert D. and Millie Fleck, May 2012

Processed and encoded by Anita Wellner, November 2013. Further encoded by George Apodaca, March 2015.

Publisher
University of Delaware Library Special Collections
Finding Aid Author
University of Delaware Library, Special Collections
Finding Aid Date
2013 November 18
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Collection Inventory

A. O. H. Grier letter to Blanche J. Swayne, 1945 July 5.
Box 8 Folder F0191
Physical Description

1 item (1 p.)

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