Elizabeth Wentworth Dodge was born August 10, 1884, to Cleveland H. and Grace Parish Dodge, at Greyston, the Dodge family summer home in Riverdale, New York. The wealthy Dodge family had a strong tradition of philanthropic and evangelical activity and her aunt, the philanthropist Grace Hoadley Dodge, became the first president of the YWCA of the U.S.A. when that organization formed in 1906.
Elizabeth's early schooling took place at home, then she attended the Brearley School, graduating in 1903. Soon after, Grace Dodge got Elizabeth involved with the YWCA, asking her to assume the post of treasurer of the Territorial Committee for New York and New Jersey. Though she was an enthusiastic amateur painter, Elizabeth soon found that her YWCA duties left no time for that hobby. But the YWCA took advantage of her interest, convincing her to help organize a Studio Club for art, dance, and music students in New York City.
Through her father's service as President of the Board of Trustees of Robert College in Constantinople, Turkey, Elizabeth met her first husband, George H. Huntington, who was on the faculty of the College's preparatory Academy. They were married on July 27, 1916.
The Huntingtons lived in Constantinople where Elizabeth was involved in Robert College, American College for Girls, the YWCA, and its Istanbul Service Center for young women. George contracted polio in the fall of 1933, and the couple returned to the U.S. so that George could get treatment. Two years later, he resigned his position as Vice President of the College. The Huntingtons returned to Turkey in 1938. From a wheelchair, George participated in College activities as much as possible, but the challenges of negotiating the steep hills of the campus ultimately proved too great and they returned to the U.S. just before World War II.
Elizabeth served on many YWCA committees through the 1940s and 1950s. After George's death in 1953, she married her long-time friend, Dumont Clarke, in 1955. In the 1950s and 1960s, Elizabeth served on the Board of Robert College and the American Hospital in Istanbul and continued her involvement with the YWCA. She received an honorary degree from Western College for Women in 1963.
Dumont Clarke died in 1960. Elizabeth Dodge Huntington Clarke died on January 9, 1976 in Bronx, New York.
The Elizabeth Dodge Huntington Clarke Papers consist of .5 linear ft. and are primarily related to her work on behalf of the YWCA in the U.S. and around the world, particularly in the Middle East. Materials include correspondence, newspaper clippings, publications, a published volume of memoirs, speech texts and notes, and reports. The bulk of the materials date from 1915 to 1966.
Clarke's memoir
The correspondence contains small amounts of correspondence with U.S. and World YWCA leaders such as Ruth Rouse, Emma Bailey Speer, Doris Boss, Anna Rice, Theresa Wilbur Paist, Ruth Woodsmall, and Marion Robinson. Among the YWCA materials are various minutes, reports, clippings, and publications. The bulk of these deal with Foreign Division and World Service Council, though there is also a small amount about the Archives Committee. Materials related to the Eastern Mediterranean Federation of YWCAs include extensive proceedings of a federation conference in Jerusalem in 1926. Also included are memorial tributes Clarke wrote about her aunt, Grace Hoadley Dodge, and Emma Bailey Speer.
The papers are open to research according to the regulations of the Sophia Smith Collection without any additional restrictions.
Permission must be obtained to publish reproductions or quotations beyond "fair use." Copyright ownership of Elizabeth Dodge Huntington Clarke's writings is unknown. Copyright to materials authored by persons other than Elizabeth Dodge Huntington Clarke may be owned by those individuals or their heirs or assigns. 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:
Elizabeth Dodge Huntington Clarke Papers, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, Northampton, Mass.
The Elizabeth Dodge Huntington Clarke Papers came to the Sophia Smith Collection with the Records of the YWCA of the U.S.A. in 2002. The YWCA received them from Clarke's brother, Cleveland Dodge in 1977.
Processed by Maida Goodwin, 2008
Related materials are in the