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Eleanora Davis Pim was born on August 15, 1918, in Akron, Ohio. She received her A.B. from Ohio Wesleyan University in Speech and Education. She also acquired an M.A. from Ohio Wesleyan University in Speech. Pim was a professional YWCA staff member from 1946 to 1978. She started her career serving in local YWCAs as an executive director, branch director, program director, and as a teen director. She attended YWCA National Conferences in 1952, 1958, 1961, and 1970.
From 1962 to 1968 Pim was the Advisory Secretary of the Girls Service Center in Istanbul, Turkey. She served as co-director of the YWCA of USA International Consultation in 1974 and participated in the Latin America/United States Exchange Project. She was the elected delegate representing the US at the World YWCA Council Meeting in Denmark in 1963. In 1976 she was the National Staff voting delegate. Pim was also active the YWCA Asian Program from 1977 to 1979, which included a study tour of the Philippines and Thailand in the spring of 1978. She retired in 1978.
The Eleanora Davis Pim Papers consist of five linear inches of biographical material, photographs, and correspondence to family members from the time of her service in Turkey, 1962 to 1968.
The nine photographs consist of people Pim met and befriended during her stay. Most of the correspondence is from Eleanora Pim to her mother and father. Her mother died in 1963, therefore all the letters written after that time were addressed only to her father Paul Davis. The last folder contains letters to Paul Davis from relatives and friends discussing Pim's career overseas.
In Eleanora's letters she explains Turkish social customs, such as weddings and New Year's Eve parties. She also writes of her trips to different parts of Turkey, Greece, and Europe. Pim offers her views on current political situations in the United States and the Middle East, such as the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and the 1963 attempted coup d'etat in Turkey. Most of her correspondence describes her work and social activities in Turkey and her concern for family and friends back home.
The papers are open to research according to the regulations of the Sophia Smith Collection.
Eleanora Davis Pim retains copyright ownership of her papers. Permission must be obtained to publish reproductions or quotations beyond "fair use." Permission to publish 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:
Eleanora Davis Pim Papers, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, Northampton, Mass.
Processed 1996.