This collection is available for use by appointment in the Department of Drawings & Archives, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University. For further information, please email avery-drawings@library.columbia.edu.
The Edith Elmer Wood Collection covers a short but important period in the housing field. The bulk of the collection spans from 1917-1943. Papers consist primarily of correspondence, architectural drawings and blueprints, manuscripts, maps, photographs, clippings, pamphlets, press releases, reports, notebooks, legal documents, and miscellaneous documents are also included.
The collection documents, among other things, Wood's involvement as member, officer, or consultant with the U.S. government housing agencies, and national, regional, state, city, and international housing organizations. Organizations include United States Public Works Administration, 1930s-1940s; U.S. Housing Authority, 1930s-1940s; President's Conference on House Building and Home Ownership, 1930s; U.S. Dept. of Commerce, 1920s-1940s; New Jersey State Housing Authority, 1930s-1940s; National Association of Housing Officials, 1930s-1940s; National Housing Association, 1910s-1930s; National Public Housing Conference, 1930s-1940s; International Housing Association, 1920s-1940s; organizations in California, Massachusetts, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., and particularly New York and New Jersey. Wood's correspondence, circa 1900s-1930s, with housing groups in Belgium, Italy, France, Germany, Holland, Norway, Spain, and particularly Great Britain, is included.
The collection also includes correspondence (with related legal documents, clippings, and reports) relating to housing legislation in the U.S., New York, New Jersey (including the Wagner-Ellenbogen bill); course outlines, reading lists, examinations, correspondence, notes, and other instructional material from courses Wood taught at Teachers College, Columbia University, and the Dept. of Home Economics at Iowa State College; manuscripts of lectures and speeches with related correspondence; and photographs, biographical essays, and miscellaneous documents.
When the collection was donated to Avery Library descriptive labels were on the manuscript boxes. It was discovered though that the labels did not necessarily correspond to the contents of the boxes. More concise identifying labels were needed. In some instances, attempts had been made to organize material within the boxes. When possible, the original arrangement was used. When several pieces of correspondence were found clamped together or enclosed in the same envelope, they were usually left that way. This was due to the assumption that Dr. Wood or her secretary had arranged them in that manner because of some kind of relationship between the pieces of material. If the date was lacking on the correspondence, the postmarked date from the envelope was bracketed on the letter in pencil.
This collection is available for use by appointment in the Department of Drawings & Archives, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University. For further information, please email avery-drawings@library.columbia.edu.
Columbia University is providing access to the materials in the Library's collections solely for noncommercial educational and research purposes. The unauthorized use, including, but not limited to, publication of the materials without the prior written permission of Columbia University is strictly prohibited. All inquiries regarding permission to publish should be submitted in writing to the Director, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University. For additional guidance, see Columbia University Libraries' publication policy.
In addition to permission from Columbia University, permission of the copyright owner (if not Columbia University) and/or any holder of other rights (such as publicity and/or privacy rights) may also be required for reproduction, publication, distributions, and other uses. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of any item and securing any necessary permissions rests with the persons desiring to publish the item. Columbia University makes no warranties as to the accuracy of the materials or their fitness for a particular purpose.
Edith Elmer Wood papers. Dept. of Drawings & Archives, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York, N.Y.
The Edith Elmer Wood papers were donated by her sons in 1947 (accession number 1947.003).
Columbia University Libraries, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library
Inventory arranged and finding aid written by Mattye Laverne Brandon in 1973. Shelley Hayreh (Avery Archivist) edited and published the finding aid for the collection in 2011.
2009-06-25 File created.
2019-05-20 EAD was imported spring 2019 as part of the ArchivesSpace Phase II migration.
Edith Elmer Wood, born in Portmouth, New Hampshire, on September 24, 1871, was the daughter of U.S. Navy Commander Horace and Adele (Wiley) Elmer. She received her Bachelor's degree from Smith College in 1890 and was awarded the M.A. degree and the Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1917, 1919, respectively. She also graduated from the New York School of Social Work in 1917.
Edith Elmer was married to U.S. Navy Lt. Albert Norton Wood on June 24, 1893. He died in 1933. Two of their sons, Horace Elmer and Thurston Elmer also died during Dr. Wood's lifetime. The remaining two, Horace Elmer II and Albert Elmer succeeded her.
Dr. Wood was considered a professional writer as of 1890. Activities for which she is known today began in 1906 when she founded and presided over the Anti-Tuberculosis League of Puerto Rico in 1906, 1907, 1909. She became the honorary president of the League in 1908 and was also a delegate to the International Tuberculosis Congress during that year.
She was chairman of the National Committee on Housing of the American Association of University Women from 1917-1929. She was in charge of courses on housing at the Columbia University extension from 1926-1930, 1936, 1937. She was a consultant to the Housing Division of the Public Works Administration from 1933-1937; a consultant of the United State Housing Authority from 1934-1937; Vice-president of the National Public Housing Conference from 1932-1936 and a director from 1936-1945; a member of the executive committee of the International Housing Association from 1931-1937, and she belonged to academic fraternities including the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society.
Publications Dr. Wood authored are: Her Provincial Cousin, 1983, Shoulder Straps and Sunbonnets, 1901, The Spirit of the Service, 1903, An Oberland Chalet, 1910, The Housing of the Unskilled Wage Earner, 1919, Housing Progress in Western Europe, 1923, Recent Trends in American Housing, 1931, Slums and Blighted Areas in the United States, (P.W.A. Housing Division Bulletin), 1935 and Introduction to Housing Facts and Principles, 1939. She also contributed material to magazines and newspapers.
Although Dr. Wood traveled extensively, she considered her permanent home to be Cape May Court House, New Jersey. She died on April 29, 1945 and was buried in the U.S. Naval Academy Cemetery in Annapolis, Maryland.
(Information taken from the January, 1947 issue of International Who's Who.)
The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches for other collections at Columbia University, through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, and through ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.
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