Manuscripts Collection
The collection documents her personal life and career, including her childhood in Pennsylvania; study at Wellesley College, the University of Minnesota, the University of Chicago, and the University of Paris; her career at the University of Chicago (1905-1913, 1923-1926); her resignation in 1927 to travel, write, and lecture, while living with her brothers in Minneapolis; her work as an interpreter with the Rockefeller medical mission to France during World War I; and her many friends and acquaintances in the United States and abroad.
A photograph album and several letters (1909-1910) document her friendship with Mark
Twain, and other letters the publication of her
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota
Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics should
Elizabeth Wallace was born in Bogotá, Colombia, where her father, Thomas Freeman Wallace, was a missionary in charge of a chapel, a school, and for a time the embassy of the United States. However, she, together with her three brothers, James, William, and Thomas, Jr., was repatriated by her mother, who took the children to Pennsylvania. She was enrolled in a female seminary, and graduated from Wellesley College in 1886.
After graduation from Wellesley, Elizabeth re-joined her mother and brothers, who had moved to Minneapolis. For awhile Elizabeth taught at the Judson Institute and then began graduate work in history under Harry Pratt Judson at the University of Minnesota. Shortly thereafter she applied for a Rockefeller fellowship and entered the University of Chicago as a Fellow in History in the fall of 1892. Elizabeth Wallace remained at the University of Chicago until 1927. She traveled and studied extensively in France and from 1899 until 1905 she was an instructor in French literature, then an assistant professor, and finally a full professor in 1923--the first woman to attain this rank at the University of Chicago. She was twice a dean in the colleges of Arts, Literature, and Sciences (1905-1913; 1923-1926) and was supervisor of Foster Hall at the time of her resignation in 1927.
After leaving the University of Chicago , Elizabeth Wallace returned to Minneapolis to live with her two bachelor brothers, James and Thomas (retired president of the Farmers and Mechanics Savings Bank), at 124 Groveland Terrace and launched into a busy schedule of traveling, lecturing, writing, clubbing, and visiting with friends.
During the Second World War Elizabeth Wallace responded to a French crisis and was a
state leader in American relief work for France. For this contribution, and for her
valuable services to France during World War II, she was awarded membership in the
French Legion of Honor in 1946. She also received honorary degrees from Carleton College
in 1949 and from Macalester College in 1952, as well as acclaim for her autobiography,
Accession numbers: 11,196; 8801; 8784; 8871; 9153; 9255; 16,059.
Processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with a Basic Project grant
awarded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission
Catalog ID number: 001730871
Photocopies of these items can be found P2710 Box 1.
The correspondents are mainly from several generations of the intelligentsia of several countries, and many letters are in the Spanish and French languages. Numerous persons of eminence are represented as well as family, university colleagues, editors, and friends.
Copies of ten letters written by Mark Twain to Elizabeth Wallace.
Location of originals unknown.
Booklet published by the Committee on Cultural Relations with Latin America, Inc.
Booklet honoring Sister Elizabeth Kenny.
Publication of Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois.
Publication of Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota.
Programs, photos of a local festival at Bully, France.
Calendar printed as humorous souvenir in memory of the marriage of Albert Hastings-Crosby of Minneapolis and Monique Francois of France, who became acquainted through Elizabeth Wallace and Lily Gillet
Study of the Spanish writer, Fernan Caballero, 1796-1877.
Juvenile novel with a South American setting.
Study of the Mexican nun and poet, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, 1651-1695. Her Spanish version of this book was published in Mexico City in 1944 by the Xochitl Press.
Autobiography published by the University of Minnesota Press in 1952.
Four talks at the Hennepin Avenue Church, Minneapolis
Impressions, people, events at the Sorbonne, lecture plans, and notes.
Lecture notes (Gaston Paris) taken during study in Paris.
Duties of Elizabeth Wallace, activities, appointments, travels, notes, quotations, anecdotes, and addresses of friends.
A lecture by Henry James (1905); reading notes; letter extracts; thoughts;
writing ideas; attempts at poetic composition;
Appointments, activities, and travels.
Illustrated with photos and postcard cuttings.
Written in Paris with notes on plays and their performances; notes on lectures by Paul Gautier, Emile Faguet, Paul Passy; M. P. Rognon, Alfred Morel-Fatio.
People, topics, and events.
Travel in France: Mont St. Michel; L'Abbaye de Hambye; Amiens; Rodin's studio.
Elizabeth Wallace's friendship with Mark Twain at Bermuda. The illustrations include ten snapshots in which Mark Twain may be found.
Inscribed by Mark Twain. Introductory pages describe, in the third person, Elizabeth Wallace's arrival at Stormfield in November 1908.
San Telmo; Don Miguel Velarde; Dos Hermanas; the Duque de T'Serclaes; Manuela; Fernan's grave; the Conde de Osborne; the Marquesa de Castilleja.
Appointments, calls, philanthropies, flowers received.
Appointments, activities, brief diary entries.
Ink-doodling of Elizabeth Wallace's friends.
Addresses of people, appointments, activities.
Appointments and activities.
Travel to numerous small communities in France with Florence Lowden.
Menus; dinner guests; dinner invitations; Lafayette Club dinner, 1935.
Lecture plans; impressions of Paris; "the foreign invasion."
Social occasions in Pasadena, California; the Robert A. Millikans and other friends.
Notes, quotations, and autographs.
Includes entry regarding Elizabeth Wallace's reading of Robert A. Millikan's autobiography and her criticism of it.
Includes addresses, poems, and outlines.