Martha Stifler Waller Papers, 1941-1945

Finding Aid

Finding aid prepared by Crystal L. Johnson.

© 2005


Collection Overview
	Creator:	Waller, Martha Stifler, 1920-
	Title:	Martha Stifler Waller Papers
	Dates:	1941-1945
	Abstract:	Waller, Martha Huntington Stifler, 1920- ; Mount Holyoke College graduate, 1941. Papers contain correspondence, newspaper clippings, and photographs primarily documenting her professional and personal life during World War II when she worked in the Office of the Chief Signal Officer in the War Department.
	Extent:	1 box(0.2 linear ft.)
	Language:	English.
	Identification:	MS 0833, LD 7096.6

Biographical Note

Martha Huntington Stifler Waller, an alumna of Mount Holyoke College and a professor of English, was born on June 27, 1920 in Peking, China to William Warren Stifler, a physics professor, and Susan Martha Reed, a 1907 graduate of Mount Holyoke College. She attended Amherst, Massachusetts High School from 1933-1935 and Washington Hall of Brussels Belgium from 1935-1937. She graduated from Mount Holyoke summa cum laude with a B.A. in English Literature in 1941. She was a recipient of the Sarah Williston Prize in 1939 and 1940 and became a member of Phi Beta Kappa in 1940. She attended Columbia University from 1941-1942, receiving a M.A. in English. In August of 1942, Waller began working in Washington, D.C. for the Office of the Chief Signal Officer in the War Department, doing research and data analysis. On October 16, 1943 she married Ensign George MacGregor Waller who worked as a supply officer and an outfitter. She resigned from the War Department on August 17, 1944 and moved to New York with her husband. The Wallers had three daughters and two sons. In 1962, she co-authored a book titled Cloak and Cipher. She returned to school in 1968 and obtained a Ph.D. in English from Indiana University in 1973. Her dissertation work was supported by the Mary E. Woolley Fellowship. Her book, Chaucer and the History of Rome was published in 1973. She taught at Indiana Central College and Butler University, where her husband also taught history. She retired from Butler as the Demia Butler Professor of English in 1985, the year that her book Peace and Patience at the Temple of Venus: Chaucers Parlement of Fowls was published.

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Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Martha Stifler Waller Papers, 1941-1945, contain correspondence, newspaper clippings, and photographs. Most of the collection consists of letters that she wrote to her parents while working at the War Department in Washington, D.C. from 1942-1944. She discusses taking an oath of confidentiality, the demanding hours, her rate of pay, and some of her colleagues. She also discusses her living arrangements, movies and concerts that she attended as well as her relationship with George Macgregor Waller and the early months of her marriage. Newspaper clippings in the collection concern her engagement in 1943, while photographs (including a formal portrait) date from her senior year at Mount Holyoke, 1941.

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