Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
General material designation
Parallel title
Other title information
Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
Level of description
Reference code
Edition area
Edition statement
Edition statement of responsibility
Class of material specific details area
Statement of scale (cartographic)
Statement of projection (cartographic)
Statement of coordinates (cartographic)
Statement of scale (architectural)
Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
-
1893-198? (Creation)
Physical description area
Physical description
1 m of textual records and graphic material.
Publisher's series area
Title proper of publisher's series
Parallel titles of publisher's series
Other title information of publisher's series
Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series
Numbering within publisher's series
Note on publisher's series
Archival description area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Dora Russell, educator, author and social reformer, was born in 1894 at Thornton Heath to Sir Frederick Black and his wife, Sarah, and educated at Girton College, Cambridge. She married Bertrand Russell on 27 September 1921. The couple had two children. Together they founded and ran Beacon Hill school, where their children began their educations. After her separation in 1932 followed by divorce in 1935, Dora Russell continued to operate the school.
She was active in many causes. In 1924 she founded the Workers' Birth Control Group and ran as the Labour candidate for Chelsea in the general election. She was a founding member of the National Council for Civil Liberties. She was one of organizers of the Women's Caravan of Peace in 1958. Dora Russell was also the author of several books, beginning with The Prospects for Industrial Civilization (1923), written jointly with Bertrand Russell. She published a three volume autobiography, The Tamarisk Tree (1977-1985). She died in Cornwall on 31 May 1986.
Custodial history
Scope and content
The fonds consists of correspondence (including many letters from Bertrand to Dora Russell), Bertrand Russell's manuscripts and typescripts, photographs, printed materials including Beacon Hill prospectuses, membership cards and programs, and a syllabus. The fonds is supplemented by books which have been catalogued as part of Russell's library and periodicals which have not been catalogued.
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
Fonds was acquired from Dora Russell's estate in August 1987. The fonds was split and Beacon Hill School materials were acquired by the International Institiute for Social History in Amsterdam. See Katharine Tait, "Interim Report on the Beacon Hill School Materials," Russell: the journal of the Bertrand Russell Archives n.s. 7 (1987): 137-40.
Arrangement
Language of material
Script of material
Location of originals
Researchers should also consult Dora Russell's Papers at the Institute of Social History in Amsterdam. Her archives are split between there and McMaster.
Availability of other formats
Restrictions on access
The restriction on access to correspondence with Patricia Russell has expired. Correspondence with Katharine Tait (parts of box 2, or box 7.29) is closed until five years after Tait’s death.
Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
Finding aids
Associated materials
Researchers should also consult the Bertrand Russell fonds, including several recent acquisitions which contain Dora Russell materials. Access via BRACERS or index cards.
Accruals
Further accruals are not expected.
