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Dorothy Olcott Elsmith was born June 20, 1891 in Bessmer, Michigan to William James Olcott and Fannie Bailey where her father was an engineer at the Chapin Mine in Iron Mountain, Michigan. Mr. Olcott then went to the Missabe Iron Range of north Minnesota. The family lived in Duluth. She came east in 1909 to attend Smith College and graduated in the Class of 1913. In 1917 she received an M.A. from Columbia University.
On September 11, 1917 she married Frederick Gates (Yale University, A.B., 1909; Johns Hopkins, M.D., 1913) in Duluth. Dr. Gates was a researcher at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, and they lived first in New York City and later in Pelham, New York. In 1928 he went to Harvard University where died unexpectedly on June 17, 1933. Their children were Olcott (b. March 191, 1919), Barbara (b. Jan. 17, 1921), Frederick Taylor (b. Feb. 14, 1923), Dorothy (b. June 27, 1924) and Deborah (b. March 27, 1927). After the death of Dr. Gates, Ms. Olcott married Leonard Elsmith (Harvard, A.B., 1912; New York University, Ph.D., 1919).
In 1926 the Gates family purchased a home in Woods Hole, Massachusetts that became the "home base" for the family. Ms. Elsmith lived in this home (referred to as Olcottage and Herb Cottage) until 1957 when she built another home in Woods Hole she named Ros Marinus.
Ms. Elsmith was a worldwide traveler. Her specially printed Christmas cards and the books and pamphlets she authored and had printed told of her travels and family celebrations. In addition, she was active in church (Church of the Messiah, Woods Hole, Mass.) and community affairs and was an avid gardener. Ms. Elsmith died on January 29, 1984.
The memorabilia scrapbook that Ms. Elsmith kept during her student days at Smith College, 1909-1913 contains programs of concerts, plays, church services and other campus activities. Also included in the scrapbook are invitations, letters and notes from classmates and friends and other keepsakes of her student years. There are photographs from her student days to the 1950s. Ms. Elsmith wrote extensively of her worldwide travels in prose and poetry and had these writings printed as Christmas cards, books and pamphlets. In addition, there are typescripts of other travel writings and family gatherings.
The papers are open for research according to the regulations of the Smith College Archives without any additional restrictions.
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish material from the documents must be requested from the Smith College Archives. Smith College owns copyright to any published material relating to college events and activities. Provenance and copyright ownership of other materials is unknown and researchers are responsible for determining any question of copyright.
Please use the following format when citing materials from this collection:
Dorothy Olcott Elsmith, Papers, Box #, Smith College Archives.
The papers of Dorothy Olcott Elsmith (Class of 1913) were donated over a period of time to the Smith College Archives from a variety of sources.
80.