Rauner Special Collections Finding Aids

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

TABLE OF FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS INTRODUCTION

The Dartmouth College Library received the Cornelia Meigs papers in 1982, the gift of Meigs' niece, Ellen W. Burgess. The collection fits in well with other Library holdings; as a woman writer and a forerunner in the field of children's books, Cornelia Meigs had a significant influence on American literature.

Cornelia Lynde Meigs, the fifth of six sisters, was born December 6, 1884, in Rock Island, Illinois. She followed several older sisters to Bryn Mawr College, where she received her A.B. degree in 1908. Storyteller to a host of nieces and nephews, she published her first book, The Kingdom of the Winding Road, in 1915, and followed it with more than twenty-five other books for young people. Later in life she wrote several books for adults, among them The Violent Men, in 1949, and in 1953 she was part author and editor of a comprehensive critique of children's books, A Critical History of Children's Literature.

Perhaps best remembered for her biography of Louisa May Alcott, Invincible Louisa, for which she won the Newbery Award Medal in 1934, few people realize that Meigs was also a teacher. She joined the faculty of Bryn Mawr College in 1932 as an English instructor, and later was promoted to full professor. After her retirement from Bryn Mawr in 1950, Meigs taught writing for a time at the New School of Social Research in New York City.

The Cornelia Meigs Collection occupies 30 boxes, or approximately 72.5 linear feet of shelf space. The collection includes manuscripts of books and stories, family materials, correspondence, Bryn Mawr class and course information, financial data, and a wealth of pamphlets and research material concerning the United Nations. The family materials are particularly interesting; the Meigs sisters wrote voluminous letters describing their experiences both at home and abroad. Sister Mary, for example, married a mining engineer whose work took them to South America in 1908; sister Grace studied medicine in Austria and Germany in 1911-1912; sister Alice, who married a young diplomat, was in Paris during World War I.

Meigs collected the United Nations material as part of the research for her book, The Great Design, published in 1964. The pamphlets and notes she assembled present a comprehensive picture of world events during the 1950's. Several of the pamphlets and letters in this section focus on the case of Povl Bangs-Jensen, who was dismissed from his post at the U.N. and later died under mysterious circumstances.

There are no restrictions on any of the materials in the Meigs collection. However, photocopying of certain items will be done only at the discretion of Special Collections staff.