TABLE OF CONTENTS
Descriptive Summary of the Collection
Biographies of Dora E. Yates and Alfred E. Hamill
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Inventory of the Dora E. Yates Correspondence, 1856-1951, bulk 1936-1946
Machine-readable finding aid encoded by Lisa Janssen, 2004. ©2004. |
Descriptive Summary of the Collection |
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| Creator | Yates, Dora Esther, b. 1879 |
| Title | Dora E. Yates Correspondence |
| Dates | 1856-1951, |
| Dates | bulk 1936-1946 |
| Extent | 1.5 cubic ft. (2 boxes and 1 oversize box) |
| Abstract | Primarily letters of University of Liverpool librarian and secretary of the Gypsy Lore Society, Dora E. Yates, to Alfred E. Hamill of Lake Forest, Illinois, 1936-1946. Also a few snapshots of Yates and Gypsy caravans, and other miscellany. |
| Language | Materials are in English. |
| Repository | Newberry Library, Roger and Julie Baskes Department of Special Collections |
| Collection Call Number | Midwest MS Yates |
| Collection Stack Location | 3a 44 3 |
Administrative Information
Cite As
Dora E. Yates Correspondence, Midwest Manuscript Collection, The Newberry Library, Chicago.
Provenance
Gift of Alfred E. Hamill, ca. 1951.
Processed by
Karyn Goldstein, 2003.
Access
The Dora E. Yates Correspondence is open for research in the Special Collections Reading Room; 1 box at a time (Priority III).
Ownership and Literary Rights
The Dora E. Yates Correspondence is the physical property of the Newberry Library. Copyright may belong to the authors or their legal heirs or assigns. For permission to publish or reproduce any materials from this collection, contact the Roger and Julie Baskes Department of Special Collections.
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Biographies of Dora E. Yates and Alfred E. Hamill
Dora Esther Yates
English librarian and scholar; author and editor of numerous articles, books, and catalogues.
Born on November 26, 1879 to Jewish parents, Dora Esther Yates was the seventh of eight children. She received a graduate degree in English and taught early in her career. For forty-eight years she was employed at the University of Liverpool, retiring in 1945 as Lecturer in Bibliography, Supervisor of Class Libraries in the Faculty of Arts, and Curator of Special Collections.
In 1903 her colleague John Sampson, a Gypsy scholar, introduced Yates to his Gypsy friends and the Romani language. Until the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Yates assisted Scott Macfie in editing and publishing the Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society and assisted him again after 1932 when she had been assistant secretary for three years. Although she edited the journal starting in 1935 when she was appointed honorary secretary of the society, she did not become editor in name until 1955.
Soon after her official retirement from the University of Liverpool, Yates was appointed curator of the Scott Macfie Collection of books on Gypsy lore. In 1963 the university recognized Yates' scholarly achievements with an honorary Litt.D. Yates continued to write and to support the Gypsy Lore Society until her death in 1974 at the age of ninety-five.
Alfred E. Hamill
Chicago and Lake Forest investment banker, philanthropist, and president of the Newberry Library Board of Trustees, 1929-1953.
Alfred Ernest Hamill was born in Chicago in 1883. He graduated from Yale University in 1905, and resided in Lake Forest, Illinois. His business career began at the Northern Trust Company and ended at Goldman, Sachs, and Company. A trustee of the Presbyterian Hospital and the Chicago child Care Society, vice-president of the Chicago Art Institute, and president of the Lake Forest Public Library and the Newberry Library boards of trustees, Hamill's philanthropic activities were wide-ranging.
Hamill never met Dora Yates; their ten-year correspondence began with his support and contributions to the Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, and blossomed when Yates expressed her gratitude. At his death in 1953, Hamill's own Gypsy collection went to the Newberry Library.
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Scope and Content of the Collection
Primarily letters written by Dora Yates to Alfred E. Hamill, 1936-1937, together with a few photographs of Yates, her retreat in Yorkshire, and Gypsy caravans.
Yates' letters deal largely with Gypsy Lore Society news, library matters at the University of Liverpool, book collecting, her personal affairs, and the activities and well-being of Hamill. There is also a good deal concerning war politics in the United States and the progress of the war, war-time conditions in Liverpool (including constant air raids), British treatment of German refugees during the war, and Hitler's attempts to exterminate Gypsies and Jews. Several of Yates' letters have been censored.
There are also letters from Edward E. Harvey to Hamill (with diagrams and a printed article) regarding the carving of gateposts in the Gypsy manner for Hamill and other matters, and from F. J. W. Kilpatrick to Yates regarding type styles for the Jubilee Number of the Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society.
Other materials include notes by Hamill concerning his relationship with Yates, the proof of a letter by Hamill submitted to the Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, and an 1856 article on Gypsies from Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature.
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Arrangement
The papers are organized by type of material, with correspondence arranged alphabetically by author and then chronologically, followed by notes, photographs, and publications.
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Selected Search Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Newberry Library's public catalog. Researchers desiring additional materials on a particular topic should search the catalog using these headings.
Names
- Gypsy Lore Society
- Hamill, Alfred E. (Alfred Ernest), 1883-1953
- University of Liverpool
- Yates, Dora Esther, b. 1879
- Yates, Dora Esther, b. 1879 - Portraits
Subjects
- Correspondence - England - 1936-1946
- Librarians - England - Liverpool - Correspondence
- Man-woman relationships
- Manuscripts, English
- Photographs - England - 1936-1937
- Romanies - Europe
- Romanies - Nazi persecution
- World War, 1939-1945 - England - Personal narratives
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Container List |
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| Box | Folder | Contents | |||||||||
| 1 | 1 | Harvey, Edward E. to Alfred E. Hamill (includes printed diagrams of Gypsy caravan decorations), 1938 | |||||||||
| 1 | 2 | Kilpatrick, F.J.W. to Dora Yates, 1938 | |||||||||
| 1 | 3 | Yates, Dora E. to Alfred E. Hamill, 1936 | |||||||||
| 1 | 4 | Yates, Dora E. to Alfred E. Hamill, 1937 | |||||||||
| 1 | 5 | Yates, Dora E. to Alfred E. Hamill, 1938 | |||||||||
| 1 | 6 | Yates, Dora E. to Alfred E. Hamill, 1939 | |||||||||
| 1 | 7 | Yates, Dora E. to Alfred E. Hamill, 1940 | |||||||||
| 1 | 8 | Yates, Dora E. to Alfred E. Hamill, 1941 | |||||||||
| 1 | 9 | Yates, Dora E. to Alfred E. Hamill, 1942 | |||||||||
| 1 | 10 | Yates, Dora E. to Alfred E. Hamill, 1943 | |||||||||
| 2 | 11 | Yates, Dora E. to Alfred E. Hamill, 1944 | |||||||||
| 2 | 12 | Yates, Dora E. to Alfred E. Hamill, 1945 | |||||||||
| 2 | 13 | Yates, Dora E. to Alfred E. Hamill, 1946 | |||||||||
| 2 | 14 | Notes by Alfred E. Hamill re Dora E. Yates | |||||||||
| 2 | 15 | Photographs - Gypsy Caravans, 1936-1937 | |||||||||
| 2 | 16 | Photographs - "Shaws", Sedbergh, Yorkshire, 1939 | |||||||||
| 2 | 17 | Photographs - Yates, Dora E., 1936-1951 | |||||||||
| 2 | 18 | Published Articles and Letters re Gypsies, 1856, 1937 | |||||||||
| 3 | Original Storage Boxes with Romany Emblems Made by or for Hamill | ||||||||||