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© 2003 Smith College. All rights reserved.
Flyer for the First International Book Exhibit assembled
for the International Conclave of Women Writers, 1933
Grace Gallatin was born in Sacramento, California on January 28, 1872. In 1888 she began writing articles for San Francisco newspapers under the pen name of Dorothy Dodge, and in 1892 graduated from Packer Collegiate Institute, in Brooklyn, NY. She married Ernest Thompson Seton in 1896, a founder of the Boy Scouts of America. Their daughter Ann (known as 'Anya') was born in 1904. Active for women's rights, Grace Seton served as vice president and president of the Connecticut Woman's Suffrage Association (1910-20), was president of Pen and Brush (1898-1939), and with her husband, helped to organize the Girl Pioneers (later the Camp Fire Girls) in 1910. During World War I, she organized and directed a women's motor unit to aid soldiers in France. She was President of the National League of Pen Women from 1926 to 1928 and from 1930 to 1932. She helped organize an international conference of women writers at the Century of Progress Exposition in 1933 and arranged an exhibit of 3,000 books by women, which later became the core of the Biblioteca Femina at Northwestern University. In the 1920s and 1930s Seton visited Japan, China, Indochina, Hawaii, Egypt and Latin American and later wrote books about her travels, including A Woman Tenderfoot (1900) and A Woman Tenderfoot in Egypt (1923), Chinese Lanterns (1924), Yes, Lady Saheb (1925). Seton divorced in 1935. In the 1940s she followed Yogananda, traveling to his ashrams. She died in Palm Beach, Florida, March 19, 1959.
The collection includes biographical articles and clippings, correspondence, published writings and typescripts, memorabilia, notes, photographs, and organization files. Correspondence (1903-40) pertains to her travels, publications, and involvement in feminist and social organizations. Organizational files include minutes, agendas and reports relating to the International Council of Women (1915-26),the National Council of Women, and the Montessori Education Association of New York. Her work for the International Writers Conclave (Chicago, 1933) brought occasional correspondence from women authors around the world. Typescripts of articles and addresses including an essay on Chinese medicine and information on Dr. Mary Stone, medical missionary, China (n.d.). Material related to her world travels includes writings, correspondence, travel literature, maps and notes. Individuals represented include May Wright Sewall, Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman, Lena Madesin Phillips, and Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin.
The papers are open to research according to the regulations of the Sophia Smith Collection.
The copyright owner of this collection is unknown. It is the responsibility of the researcher to identify and satisfy the holders of all copyrights. Permission to publish reproductions or quotations beyond "fair use" must also be obtained from the Sophia Smith Collection as owners of the physical property.
Please use the following format when citing materials from this collection:
Grace Thompson Seton Papers, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, Northampton, Mass.
Grace Seton-Thompson donated her papers to the Sophia Smith Collection from 1948 to 1950.
Finding aid revised in 2002 by Gayla Spaulding, intern.
Additional papers are located at Boston University; Northwestern University (the Biblioteca Femina Collection); and the Schlesinger and Houghton Libraries at Harvard University. Most of Seton-Thompson's suffrage material went to Connecticut College.