Title: Frederick A. Blossom Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1885-1974

Creator:

• Blossom, F. A. (Frederick Augustus), b. 1878

Call Number: Mss 322

Quantity: 2.8 c.f. (7 archives boxes)

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Incomplete papers of Frederick A. Blossom, a social activist, translator, and librarian active in a variety of areas. Included is correspondence, mainly with his mother Sarah, two of his three wives, and his daughter Sidney; his mother's diaries; brief financial papers; notebooks; a scrapbook; and a subject file documenting his many-faceted career and interests. Also present are files on his translations of works by Marcel Proust and Maxence van der Meersch, and concerning his work at the Library of Congress and his support of Margaret Sanger's birth control campaign, the Industrial Workers of the World, and the Southern Conference Educational Fund. Also represented are Blossom's connections with Scott Nearing and suffrage leader Elizabeth Stuyvesant.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00322

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Frederick Blossom, social activist, translator, and librarian, was active in a wide variety of areas during his 96 years. He was born in New York City into the family of Frederick Augustus and Sarah (Hill) Blossom and was a direct descendant of Thomas Blossom, who arrived in America on the second voyage of the Mayflower. He had one brother, Harold, who was a noted landscape artist, and a sister, Katherine Eleanor. Blossom was married three times. His first marriage was to Alice Sidney Morrison who died in 1936. In 1937 he married Anna Williams from whom he was divorced in 1947. In 1953 he married Bertie Lee (Hunter) Hysong to whom he was married at the time of his death.

Blossom graduated from Amherst College with honors in 1898 and entered the business world. He worked as a salesman for the Dennison Manufacturing Company, as an assistant to the buyer at Macy's, and later as head of the European and South American divisions of the exporting firms of S. Hoffnung and Ladenas and Coe. In 1903 Blossom entered Johns Hopkins University for graduate studies in romance languages. From 1904 to 1909 he studied at the University of Grenoble. From 1909 to 1913 he taught French and Spanish at Bryn Mawr and Johns Hopkins. In 1914 he received his Ph.D. for a dissertation on Gustave Flaubert. Fluent in French and Spanish, he also had a reading knowledge of German and Italian.

After receiving his doctorate, Blossom went to work for Federated Charities of Baltimore as financial secretary and business manager. He continued in the same capacity for Federated Charities of Cleveland. After the death of his only daughter, Sidney, in 1916, Blossom became active in Margaret Sanger's birth control movement. He edited Birth Control Review and acted as manager of Sanger's New York offices for about a year before leaving after differing with her on policy. During this period he maintained an active interest in the suffrage movement through his relationship with Elizabeth Stuyvesant. He was also active in socialist politics and during World War I served as secretary of the Silk Worker's Union of Patterson, New Jersey during a long strike. The union was an affiliate of the Industrial Workers of the World. During the 1920s he organized relief work for members of the IWW who were in prison.

In 1925 Blossom entered the New York Public Library system as a student and reference assistant in the art department. He later worked in the Brooklyn Public Library and as librarian of the Explorers Club. In 1931 he went to work for A.C. Boni Publishers of New York as a translator and editor of Creative Arts magazine. During this period Blossom translated into English Marcel Proust's The Past Recaptured, Maxence van der Meersch's When the Looms Are Silent, and three novels by S.G. Collette.

Blossom worked for the Huntington Free Library from 1933 to 1937 when the Depression forced employee cut-backs at that institution. He then joined the Library of Congress, and served successively as a consultant in romance languages, assistant to the chief of classifications, and publications officer. After 1944 Blossom maintained a continuing interest in Scott Nearing's work and edited his newsletter World Events.

After retiring from the Library of Congress in 1948, Blossom moved to Clarkesville, Georgia and later to East Palatka, Florida where he ran a rest home with his third wife, Bertie Lee. They moved to Pleasant Hill, Tennessee in 1963 and lived there until his death. During his retirement Blossom was an active supporter of Carl Braden and the Southern Conference Educational Fund (SCEF). Blossom also served as secretary of the Appalachian Relief Committee which he and his wife had helped found. He died in 1974 after a series of strokes.

The papers consist of Blossom's correspondence, mainly with his mother, Sarah Blossom, two of his three wives, Alice Sidney Morrison Blossom and Bertie Lee Hunter Blossom, and his daughter Sidney; his mother's diaries; a folder of his financial papers; his notebooks; a scrapbook; and a subject file documenting his many-faceted career and interests. The general organization of the papers is chronological, but to simplify access, the six categories are grouped alphabetically by type of record in the contents list below, and the subject file is subdivided into a second alphabetical listing.

The collection does not form a complete record of any aspect of Blossom's long and varied life. It does, however, give some evidence about every part of his career. Perhaps most fully documented is his undergraduate career at Amherst (1894-1898). This period is represented by extensive correspondence with his mother, Sarah Blossom. His mother's diary for 1891 to 1892 and 1895 is also included in the collection.

Blossom's work as a translator is also fairly well documented. There are fragmentary notes from his translations of Proust and van der Meersch. In addition to translation notes for these books, there are copies of major reviews as well as correspondence relating to the translations and their reviews with A.C. Boni, the publisher, and Bennett Cerf, among others. Several of the letters contain Blossom's response to unfavorable reviews. The translation of van der Meersch and an exchange of published letters with Robert Cantwell after his review of Blossom's translation illustrate Blossom's continuing interest in the labor movement after he ended his connection with the IWW.

Also extensively documented is the period of Blossom's employment with the Library of Congress. From 1942 until his retirement in 1948, Blossom engaged in extended administrative disputes with the library over unfavorable job efficiency ratings and because of his radical past. Some of his notes; correspondence with lawyers, members of Congress, and other supporters; and typescripts of 1942 appeal hearings are included in the collection. There is also an extensive file of letters of recommendation for jobs at the Yale Club and the Huntington Free Library.

There is one folder of letters from Blossom's first wife, Alice Sidney Blossom, most written from France after their estrangement, and shortly before her death in 1936. Included in the same file is correspondence between Blossom, his wife's lawyer, and the American Consul in Nice, France relating to Blossom's recovery of her personal effects after her death.

There are small groups of other personal papers from various parts of Blossom's life. Many are fragmentary and difficult to date or reconstruct. There are a few letters from his daughter dating from shortly before her death in 1916, and samples of her school work. There are a few financial papers dealing with his investments and stock holdings dating from 1909 to the 1930's. There is a folder of notes and letters to and from Elizabeth Stuyvesant in the 1920's, and a folder of notes that document Blossom's arguments with his second wife in the mid-1940's. The largest selection of personal papers includes the clippings and correspondence of his third wife, Bertie Lee Blossom, as well as his letters to her in the 1950s. A variety of letters from the 1960s and 1970s are with friends and acquaintances.

There is very little material on Blossom's activities with Margaret Sanger and the birth control movement. The most important article in this area is a photocopy of pages from her autobiography in which she criticizes Blossom's activities. He has typed his refutation of the points she makes on the photocopy. Blossom's IWW activities are also poorly represented. The most important document in this area is a defense, written by Pierce C. Wetter, of Blossom's conduct in release and relief work for IWW prisoners. The charges Wetter refutes were made by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn among others.

Blossom's activities after 1948 are illustrated more fully than his connection with the IWW, but not in great detail. There are clippings dealing with his relationship with Scott Nearing and World Events. A fairly complete file of the newsletter was transferred to the library. There are comments on Nearing's writing by several people including Upton Sinclair.

There is no correspondence relating to the Appalachian Relief Committee and very little on the Southern Conference Educational Fund. The most important items in this area are mimeographed copies of a defense by Anne Braden of her resignation from SCEF and her account of the controversy in Louisville, Kentucky over relations between SCEF and the Black Panther Party in 1973.

It is possible to outline Blossom's career through vitae prepared by Blossom, and obituaries and correspondence with Blossom's friends collected by Carl Braden after Blossom's death. Also included are drafts of a biography prepared by Braden.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Carl and Anne Braden, Louisville, Kentucky, July, September, and November, 1974. Accession Number: M74-335, M74-394, M74-494

Processing Information

Processed by A. P. Cannon (Intern) and Joanne Hohler, December 16, 1974.

	Series: Correspondence
	Blossom to Sarah Blossom
Box   1 Folder   1	1885-1894
Box   1 Folder   4-5	1895
Box   2 Folder   2-3	1896
Box   2 Folder   5	1897
Box   3 Folder   1	1897, continued
Box   3 Folder   3	1898-1901; 1903
	Sarah Blossom to Blossom
Box   1 Folder   3	1893-1894
Box   1 Folder   6	1895
Box   2 Folder   1	1895, continued
Box   2 Folder   4	1896
Box   3 Folder   2	1897
Box   3 Folder   4	1898-1899; 1903
Box   3 Folder   5	Between Sarah Blossom and Blossom, undated
	General
Box   4 Folder   1	1894-1903
Box   4 Folder   7	1917-1918
Box   4 Folder   4	Letters of recommendation, vitae, job related correspondence
Box   4 Folder   5	With Sidney Blossom (re: her school work)
Box   4 Folder   8	Miscellaneous correspondence and clippings, 1917-1974
Box   4 Folder   11	Alice Blossom, letters from and relating to her death and her estate, 1917; 1931-1936
	Of Bertie Lee Blossom
Box   6 Folder   3	, 1884-1974 (with clippings and miscellaneous)
Box   6 Folder   4	1933-1953
Box   6 Folder   5	1954-1974
Box   1 Folder   2	Series: Diary Of Sarah Blossom, 1891-1892; 1895; 1897 - Aug. 1899 Physical Description: 2 volumes	⇧
Box   4 Folder   3	Series: Financial Records, Miscellaneous, 1909-1937	⇧
Box   4 Folder   2	Series: Notebooks, 1895; 1898; 1903; 1905; 1947; 1958	⇧
Box   7 Folder   1	Series: Scrapbook	⇧
	Series: Subject File	⇧
Box   6 Folder   6	Biographical information and correspondence, and obituary notices, collected by Carl Braden
Box   4 Folder   6	Birth Control movement, 1916-1917
Box   4 Folder   10	Explorers Club, 1931
Box   4 Folder   9	Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), clippings and defense of Blossom by Wetter, 1923
	Library of Congress
Box   5 Folder   3	Notes and correspondence on appeal of job efficiency rating, 1942-1948
Box   5 Folder   4	Typescripts of hearing on appeal of job efficiency rating, 1942
Box   5 Folder   7	Nearing, Scott, correspondence, articles, and clippings relating to Nearing and World Events, 1946-1971
	Notes
Box   5 Folder   5	Lecture, circa 1940
Box   5 Folder   6	On relationship with Blossom's second wife, Anna Williams, 1944
Box   5 Folder   1	Proust translation--Notes, correspondence, and reviews relating to Blossom's translation of Marcel Proust's The Past Recaptured, 1931-1935
Box   6 Folder   1	Southern Conference Educational Fund (SCEF), clippings and articles, including mimeograph articles by Anne Braden, 1958-1973
Box   5 Folder   2	van der Meersch translation--notes, correspondence, and reviews relating to Blossom's translation of Maxence van der Meersch's When the Looms Are Silent, 1933-1934
Box   6 Folder   2	Miscellaneous clippings and memorabilia, 1878-1974