Contents
Collection Overview
Biographical Note
Scope and Contents of the Collection
Organization of the Collection
Search Terms
SERIES I. PERSONAL
SERIES II. PROFESSIONAL
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Virginia Heim George Papers, 1925-1981
Finding AidFinding aid prepared by Susan Boone.Encoding funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.2003
| | | | | Creator: | George, Virginia Heim, 1908- | | Title: | Virginia Heim George Papers | | Dates: | 1925-1981 | | Abstract: | YWCA executive, YWCA overseas secretary, and USO official. Most material in the George papers pertains to her foreign secretary work in South America and Czechoslovakia and her USO work in the Caribbean. Personal letters and travel diaries include descriptions of life in Brazil and the Caribbean and in post-war Czechoslovakia and West Germany. Material also includes speeches, clippings and photographs.
| | Extent: | 2 boxes(1 linear ft.) | | Language: | English. | | Identification: | 221 |
| | | | 1908 | Born in St. Joseph, Missouri | | 1929 | University of Wisconsin, major in economics | | 1929-40 | | | 1937 | Carnegie Institute of Technology, graduate study in group work | | 1940-43 | Executive Director, YWCA, Rio de Janiero, Brazil | | 1943-45 | Regional Assistant Director of USO, Brazil, Caribbean Area | | 1946-48 | Program Consultant, YWCA, Czechoslovakia, with two-week special | | 1948-51 | National staff, YWCA, Community Division, working with business | | 1951-53 | Group work and recreational director, YWCA, Oakland, California | | 1953-56 | Executive Director, YWCA, Yakima, Washington | | 1956-66 | Executive Director, YWCA, Utica, New York | | 1962-64 | Advisor, YWCA, Taipei, Taiwan | | 1966-71 | Advisor, YWCA, Colombia, with three short periods in Lima, Peru | | 1971 | Executive Director, YWCA, Omaha, Nebraska | | 2003? | Virginia Heim George died circa 2003 |
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Virginia Heim (right) and others in
Bogota, Columbia, circa 1966-71The Virginia Heim George Papers consist of one linear foot of correspondence, diaries, clippings, and photographs. The inclusive dates are 1925 to 1981, but the major portion of the material dates from 1940 to 1948, related to her foreign secretary work for the YWCA in South America and Czechoslovakia and her USO work in the Caribbean. The papers are divided into two series, PERSONAL and PROFESSIONAL. The PERSONAL material contains correspondence and diaries, both ranging from 1940 to 1981. The correspondence consists of letters to her family, mostly to her mother, with a small amount of incoming correspondence from family and friends, 1945-50. The nine diaries consist of six written between 1940 and 1948, plus three travel accounts from 1953, 1965, and 1981. Both the letters and diaries provide a detailed description of George's life while working for the YWCA and the USO. She was an eager and enthusiastic participant in her work and also took advantage of the opportunities it provided to travel extensively. She was a keen observer of the countries she visited and the people she met. Her wartime letters as well and those from postwar Czechoslovakia reflect the mail censorship of the times. As a result the diaries and the occasional letters that she was able to write freely are more candid. The diaries written from her two trips to Czechoslovakia in 1965 and 1981 contain particularly interesting accounts of life there, and the 1965 account reports earlier arrests and trials, particularly an incident involving the YWCA in 1948. The PROFESSIONAL material consist of clippings and articles about George and her work, 1925-1975, three reports from her Czechoslovakia and Germany experiences, 1948, and a nine-page speech on the USO, ca. 1945. In this series are also fifteen photographs, five of the USO, six related to the YWCA, and four of women in Puerto Rico. Return to the Table of Contents
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This collection is organized into two series: Return to the Table of Contents
SERIES I. PERSONAL
Box |
Folder |
| | 2 | 13 | Mildred Heim Gumm (sister),
1945-50 |
Box |
Folder |
| | 2 | 16 |
Jul-Nov 1940 (Brazil) |
| 17 |
Jan-Feb 1943 (Brazil-San Francisco River trip) |
|
|
1945-46 (Puerto Rico, Czechoslovakia) |
| 18 |
1946-47 (Czechoslovakia) |
|
|
1947-48 (Scandinavia, Czechoslovakia, Switzerland) |
| 19 |
1959? (U.S. trip itinerary) |
SERIES II. PROFESSIONAL
Box |
Folder |
| | 2 | 20 | Clippings, articles,
1925-75 |
| 21 | Reports, speech,
1945, 1948 |
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