Title: Elizabeth F. Corbett Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1883-1981

Creator:

• Corbett, Elizabeth Frances, 1887-1981

Call Number: Local History Manuscript Collection 8

Quantity: 7 cubic ft. (20 boxes)

Repository:

Milwaukee Public Library, Frank P. Zeidler Room

Archival Location:

Milwaukee Public Library (Map)

Abstract:

Elizabeth F. Corbett was an author, poet, suffragist and speaker who grew up on the grounds of the National Soldiers’ Home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where her father worked. The collection consists of correspondence, business papers, draft manuscripts and poetry, clippings, ephemera, scrapbooks and photographs.

Note:

To request materials from this collection, create/login to your Special Collections Account.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.mwpl-lhmc0008

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Elizabeth Frances Corbett (EFC), daughter of Major Richard W. and Isabelle Adkins Corbett, was born on Sept. 30, 1887, in Aurora, Illinois, where Major Corbett edited the Aurora Daily News. The family moved to the Milwaukee area in 1888 when the latter accepted the position of Chief Clerk of the Northwestern Branch of the National Soldiers’ Home, at the site of the present Veterans Administration Facilities. Elizabeth’s brother, Richard, and sister, Gertrude (“Gay”) were born in the Chief Clerk’s quarters on the Home grounds where the family lived for 25 yrs. Here she played on the spacious, garden-like grounds and talked to the old soldiers, later claiming she was brought up by Union veterans.

The Corbett children were driven by veterans in a horse-drawn buggy to the Model Department of the Milwaukee State Normal School and later to West Division High School. When she attended the State University in Madison, she was the Assistant Editor of the Wisconsin Literary Magazine and contributed stories and articles to various other university publications. During her junior year at the University, she was the only girl to receive a prize in the annual Badger contest, winning the fifth of six available literary prizes. In her senior year she was elected to the local Phi Beta Kappa chapter.

A member of the Alpha Gamma Delta Sorority, she headed that social society’s Committee on Professional Opportunities for Women, 1909-1910, urging that women should prepare for careers of real interest to them, rather than automatically choose teaching. From 1913-1917, she served as Editor-In-Chief of the Alpha Gamma Delta Quarterly.

Back in Milwaukee, Elizabeth lectured for the Vocational Opportunities Committee of the Milwaukee Association of Collegiate Alumnae and for ten years worked actively for Women’s Suffrage, serving as Press Chairman of the Milwaukee County Association. She urged political party membership for women as well as men. In 1919, at the request of women in her neighborhood, she conducted a citizenship class focusing on civics, current events and politics. At the same time, she was developing ideas for books and contributed articles and short stories to magazines. By 1920, she successfully published three novels. Her parents had strongly encouraged her writing, providing financial and moral support. When her father died in 1925, Elizabeth moved to New York City to be in closer contact with publishers.

From 1927-1956, she had many plays, novels and series published. One of her most successful was The Young Mrs. Meigs. Published in 1931, the work established her as a successful novelist. Set in Milwaukee, the story of an independent woman of great warmth and charm, who at the age of eighty-three, insisted on enjoying life and would not be dominated by her children, was an widely reviewed success. Elizabeth, in response to the demand, brought out other novels centered on this delightful lady. In 1941, Out at the Soldiers’ Home, a nostalgic book of memoirs of her childhood with the disabled Civil War veterans elicited memory-laden correspondence from many, who retained memories of the times, people, and places she described.

From the mid-thirties to the late 1950s, she was much sought after to appear with major publishers’ book fairs and on radio and, later, television talk shows, to talk about herself and her books. Although the market for her writing declined after the late 1950s, her last published novel was Sunday at Six (1971). She lived until the age of ninety-three in the Greenwich Village apartment that she occupied since the 1930s. Elizabeth Frances Corbett died January 24, 1981 at home in New York City, NY.

This collection consists of correspondence, business papers, manuscripts and drafts, newspaper clippings, photographs and books. It is arranged into three series Correspondence, Personal, and Writings.

Scope and content notes of each series are provided in the contents list.

The collection is arranged into the following series:

1. Correspondence, 1898-1979
2. Personal, 1883-1981
3. Writings, 1902-1980

The series are arranged alphabetically. Within each series, folders are arranged alphabetically and then chronologically within each folder.

Corbett, Elizabeth F., Papers, 1883-1981, Collection 8. Local History Manuscript Collections, Milwaukee Public Library, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Charley Manning

The Head of Apollo

Our Mrs. Meigs : a novel

Out at the Soldiers' home : a memory book

Out at the Soldiers' home : a memory book (Expanded ed.)

Walt; the Good Gray Poet Speaks for Himself

Access Restrictions

There are no access restrictions on the materials. The collection is open to all in accordance with state law. The public may view Local History Manuscript Collections by appointment at the Central Library. To request an in-person appointment, create/login to your Special Collections Account. If you have any questions, please contact the Archives and Special Collections Department at mplarchives@milwaukee.gov.

Use Restrictions

The researcher assumes full responsibility for conforming with the laws of libel, privacy, and copyright which may be involved in the use of this collection (Wisconsin Statutes 19.21-19.39).

Acquisition Information

Records indicate some materials were donated by Elizabeth Corbett herself prior to her death. The bulk was donated in 1981 and in 1984 by Tom Corbett, her great-nephew. Additional materials were located and reunited with the collection in 2017. Materials are accessioned as Local History Manuscripts.

Processing Information

Processed by Wilma Pfeifer, 1980. Additional materials processed by Helen Vaeth, 1989. Final processing by Casey Lapworth, 2019.

	Series: 1: Correspondence , 1898-1979 Scope and Content Note: The Correspondence series, 1898-1979, contains both personal and business correspondence of Elizabeth F. Corbett’s (EFC). Included are letters from her father, Major R. W. Corbett, letters to and from her publishers and agents on a variety of subjects regarding her writings including inquiries concerning film and television serialization and letters from and to readers of her autobiographical work, Out at the Soldier’s Home. There is correspondence with Laurence J. Corbett of Berkeley, California, and with Mr. Wilmer Baatz from Milwaukee Public Library. There are also a number of letters, some accompanied by poems which she wrote as morale boosters to service men in the Korean conflict. The correspondence ranges from 1898-1979.
Box   1 Folder   1-21	1898-1933
Box   2 Folder   1-9	1934-1938
Box   3 Folder   1-13	1938-1949
Box   4 Folder   1-8	1950-1976
	Series: 2: Personal , 1883-1981 Scope and Content Note: The Personal series contains journals, photographs, family history information and memorabilia and ephemera. There are several types of journals. They are titled book registers, common place books and menus and memorabilia. The book registers are a record of books she read, the common place books are filled with quotes or phrases she wanted to remember and the menus and memorabilia volumes include a variety of notes on meals she ate and cooked. Photographs mainly seem related to family however many are not identified or dated. Embosser is a hand held device that imprints Elizabeth Corbett.	⇧
	“Book registers”
Box   4 Folder   9-10	1903-1945
Box   5 Folder   1-2	1945-1979
	Clippings
Box   5 Folder   3-20	1909-1946
Box   6 Folder   1-4	1948-1980
Box   6 Folder   5	“Common place books” , undated
Box   18	Embosser, Undated
Box   6 Folder   6	Family history, 1981, undated
Box   6 Folder   7-8	Memorabilia, 1898-1937
Box   6 Folder   9-10	“Menus and Memorabilia”, 1937-1978
Box   7 Folder   1	A Nice Long Evening with Note to Kathleen Wright, 1933
	Photographs
Box   19 Folder   1	EFC, 1932, 1934
Box   7 Folder   2	EFC, 1914, undated
Box   7 Folder   3	EFC – University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1910
Box   7 Folder   4	Family, 1924-1950, undated
Box   7 Folder   5-7	Framed, undated
Box   8 Folder   1	Miscellaneous, 1903, undated
Box   8 Folder   2	Mrs. E. Purdon Wright, 1938, undated
Box   8 Folder   3	Soldiers Home, 1890-1900, undated
Box   8 Folder   4	Walt Whitman, 1914-1931, undated
	Scrapbooks
Box   19 Folder   1 vol	1910-1957
Box   20 Folder   1 vol	1957
Box   8 Folder   5	“Aunt Mamie’s”, Mary Frances Corbett, 1883-1914
	Series: 3: Writings , 1902-1980 Scope and Content Note: The Writing series contains materials related to the EFC’s writings. It mainly consists of drafts of her manuscripts and poems. There are newspaper and magazine clippings and typewritten drafts of articles she authored, her Bachelor’s thesis, early writings, draft plot ideas and revision notes on her works. Also included are miscellaneous items such as publisher and promotional related materials for her books, a scrapbook of ephemera related to The Young Mrs. Meigs and then essays titled “book notes” on materials she read.	⇧
	Articles
Box   8 Folder   6	Clippings, 1927-1931, undated
Box   9 Folder   1	Clippings, 1931-1962
Box   9 Folder   2	Clippings – Alpha Gamma Delta, 1909-1942, undated
Box   9 Folder   3	Typewritten, 1927-1957
	Manuscripts
Box   9 Folder   4	Bachelors Thesis, UW-Madison, 1910
Box   9 Folder   5-6	Early writings, 1908-1931, undated
Box   9 Folder   7-8	Plot ideas / synopsis’, 1930-1980, undated
Box   9 Folder   9	Reviews and Revisions, 1916-1935, undated
	Drafts
Box   10 Folder   1-4	Anniversary, 1964
Box   9 Folder   10	My Autobiography, Circa 1940
Box   9 Folder   11	Charley Manning (working script by J.E. Kirkham), play, undated
Box   11 Folder   1	The Head of Apollo, 1956
Box   11 Folder   2-3	Immortal Helen, 1947
Box   11 Folder   4	Miscellaneous story scripts, 1969-1974
Box   11 Folder   5-7	In Miss Armstrong’s Room, 1953
Box   10 Folder   5	Out at the Soldiers Home, 1941
Box   12 Folder   1	Portrait of Isabelle, 1951
Box   12 Folder   2-3	The Richer Harvest, 1952
Box   12 Folder   4	Robert E. Lee, undated
Box   12 Folder   5	Short stories, 1971-1972
Box   12 Folder   6	Spider Mother, 1970-1971
Box   13 Folder   1	Spider Mother, 1970-1971
Box   13 Folder   2-3	A Token Of Friendship, 1945
Box   13 Folder   4	The Verdict of Posterity, undated
Box   13 Folder   5	The Young Mrs. Meigs, A Play In Three Acts, 1933
	Miscellaneous
Box   13 Folder   6	Book notes – Euclid and Then Some, undated
Box   13 Folder   7	Book notes – Morals and Literature, undated
Box   13 Folder   8	Book notes - Of Titles and Titling, undated
Box   13 Folder   9	Printer sample pages, 1902-1939, undated
Box   13 Folder   10	Promotional materials, 1918-1953
Box   13 Folder   11-12	Publishers catalogs and lists, 1916-19343
Box   14 Folder   1	Scrapbook - The Young Mrs. Meigs, 1933
Box   14 Folder   2	Speeches and interviews, 1930-1956, undated
Box   14 Folder   3	Theater programs – The Young Mrs. Meigs, 1933
	Poems
Box   14 Folder   4-7	1919-1962
Box   15 Folder   1-7	1963-1973
Box   16 Folder   1-3	1974-1975
	Drafts
Box   16 Folder   4-8	1970-1976
Box   17 Folder   1-4	1976-1980