Mary Elizabeth Rodhouse Creglow Papers, 1909-1963
| Oberlin College Archives
Administrative/Biographical History
Mary Elizabeth Rodhouse Creglow (1882-1970), a free-lance writer and librarian born in Wellington, Ohio, graduated from Oberlin College in 1905. She began work in library science at Western Reserve University and worked as a librarian in a wide variety of institutions and locations. Among them were the Schauffler Missionary Training School and Adelbert College in Cleveland and libraries at a number of military and veterans' hospitals in Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas and other states, as well as newspapers and the Veterans Administration. After her marriage in 1921 to Major Harold Creglow, the couple was stationed at numerous army posts. Mrs. Creglow spent her last years in Michigan.
Sources Consulted
Baumann, Roland M., ed. Guide to the Women's History Sources in the Oberlin College Archives. Oberlin, OH: Oberlin College, 1990.
Oberlin Alumni Records (RG 28).
Forms of Material (links to similar genres) Administrative Information
Mary Elizabeth Rodhouse Creglow's undated writings make up the bulk of the collection along with some correspondence and religious school lessons. Her numerous poems, stories, and plays for both children and adults are mostly moralistic or religious, though a few are adventures or detective stories. A 20-page essay titled "Optimism: Is It Rational?" and three articles from the 1930s on VA hospital libraries are also included in the collection. Some correspondence exists on her literary work, 1909-1963. Undated Sunday school lessons she prepared comprise the remaining files.
With the exception of one story, which the author gave to the Oberlin College Library in 1947, the papers were received from the Vanderbilt University in 1981.
SERIES DESCRIPTION
Series I. Writings (194p)
Consists primarily of Creglow's writings. This series is divided into five subseries. Subseries 1. Articles; Subseries 2. Plays (Manuscripts); Subseries 3. Poems (published and unpublished); Subseries 4. Short stories (manuscripts); and, Subseries 5. Sunday School lessons, Christmas service (typescripts).
Series II. Correspondence, 1909, 1943, 1962-63, n.d. (10p)
This series contains incoming and outgoing correspondence regarding publication of Creglow’s writings.
Series III. Miscellaneous, n.d. (17p)
Consists of poems written by Walter F. Rodhouse, Creglow's brother.
INVENTORY
Series I. Writings (12f)
Box 1
Subseries 1. Articles (4f)
The Use of Hospital Libraries
"Liberry Ann's Adventures" (8p)
"Optimism: Is It Rational?" (20p)
"This Question of Happiness"
(Original title-"Optimism, Is
It Rational?") (92p)
Subseries 2. Plays (Manuscripts)
"The Echoes" (6p)
"The Kind Faced Man" (7p)
Subseries 3. Poems (published and unpublished) (98p)
Subseries 4. Short Stories (manuscripts) (194p, 12f)
Outline for detective story (21p)
"Backwards Detection" (9p)
"A Collector's Cabinet" (74p)
"A Fairy Geography" (12p)
"The Fate Line" -synopsis (9p)
"Father Time's Children" (17p)
"The Fire Opal" (13p)
"The Sorry Brownie" (3p)
"The Merry Adventures of a Set
of False Teeth" (17p)
"The Story of Francis of Assisi" (6p)
"Trouble in the Apple Tree" (6p)
Subseries 5. Sunday School lessons, Christmas service (typescripts)
Series II. Correspondence, 1909, 1943, 1962-63, n.d.
Box 1 (cont.)
Incoming and outgoing re: publication
of her writings
Series III. Miscellaneous, n.d. (17p)
Box 1 (cont.)
Undated poems written by Walter F.
Rodhouse (brother)