What might an entomologist and her collegiate daughter correspond about in the late 1940's? Doris Holmes Blake (1892-1978) continued her study of beetles at the United States National Museum despite government regulations that prevented her employment at the Smithsonian. Her husband, Sidney F. Blake, was a botanist with the Museum's Division of Botany, and only one family member could work for the federal government. However, recognizing her passion for entomological study, Secretary Alexander Wetmore arranged to give her lab space in the museum. Now we have this opportunity to read and transcribe Blake's often daily correspondence with her daughter, also named Doris, who was attending Radcliffe College in Boston. Will you join other Transcription Center volunteers in this effort? Funding for the digitization of Blake's correspondence, & its inclusion into the Transcription Center, was provided by the Smithsonian Women's Committee.
What might an entomologist and her collegiate daughter correspond about in the late 1940's? Doris Holmes Blake (1892-1978) continued her study of beetles at the United States National Museum despite government regulations that prevented her employment at the Smithsonian. Her husband, Sidney F. Blake, was a botanist with the Museum's Division of Botany, and only one family member could work for the federal government. However, recognizing her passion for entomological study, Secretary Alexander Wetmore arranged to give her lab space in the museum. Now we have this opportunity to read and transcribe Blake's often daily correspondence with her daughter, also named Doris, who was attending Radcliffe College in Boston. Will you join other Transcription Center volunteers in this effort? Funding for the digitization of Blake's correspondence, & its inclusion into the Transcription Center, was provided by the Smithsonian Women's Committee.
For more information about Doris Holmes Blake's collection of personal papers, take a look at the finding aid created by the staff of the Smithsonian Institution Archives.