Ruth Lee Kennedy Papers, 1900-1988 (bulk 1930-1988)
General International Standard for Archival Description
Smith College Archives Northampton, MA
Finding aid encoded in NoteTab Pro. Encoded by Deborah A. Richards. 2006-09-21
Encoded Archival Description
Encoded Archival Description (EAD) Version 2002
collection
Ruth Lee Kennedy Papers
Creation of Ruth Lee Kennedy Papers
Time of Creation of Ruth Lee Kennedy Papers
Kennedy, Ruth Lee, 1895-
Biographical History for: Ruth Lee Kennedy Papers
Biographical Note Ruth Lee Kennedy was born on October 15, 1895 in Centerville, Texas, the daughter of Oliver William Kennedy and Carrie Lee McWaters Kennedy. Professor Kennedy did her undergraduate and masters level education at the University of Texas in Austin (B.A., 1916; M.A., 1917) in Spanish language and literature. She did further graduate work at the University of California, Berkeley (1924-1925) before completing her Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania in 1931. Professor Kennedy began her teaching career as a teacher of Spanish in the San Benito, Texas (1917-1918) and Temple, Texas (1918-1919) high schools. She served as an instructor in the Oklahoma College for Women (1918-1919), at Sam Houston State Teacher's College (1920-1921), at the University of Puerto Rico (1921-1922), at Southwest Texas State Teacher's College (1922-1926) and at San Antonio Junior College (1926-1930). Professor Kennedy was appointed to the Spanish Department at Smith College in 1930 and taught there until her retirement in 1961. She was made full professor in 1944, served as chair of the department and as head of the Smith Junior Year in Spain (1956-1958) during her tenure at Smith College. Also during those years she also taught at various colleges and universities in the United States and lectured both here in the United States and in Spain, England and Germany. She was the first American woman to lecture at Oxford and Cambridge universities in England. She received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1951 that allowed her to further her studies in Spanish literature, as well as fellowships from the American Association of University Women and the Jusserant traveling fellowship of the University of Pennsylvania. After her retirement from Smith College in 1961, Professor Kennedy moved to Tucson, Arizona and assumed a professorship at the University of Arizona from which she retired in 1970. In 1979 Professor Kennedy was admitted to the Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Espanola, the American branch of the Real Academia Espanola. Among her other honors was the Festschrift published in 1977, Studies in Honor of Ruth Lee Kennedy edited by Vern G. Williamsen and A. F. Michael Atlee (Chapel Hill, N.C. and Madrid). In retirement, Professor Kennedy continued to do research and publish. In her lifetime Professor Kennedy was generally regarded as the world's foremost scholar of the 17th century Spanish dramatist Tirso de Molina, who was the topic of one of her books, Studies in Tirso (1974), and of numerous articles. In addition to her book study of Tirso, Professor Kennedy also published the book The Dramatic Art of Moreto (1932); she published nearly 50 articles in her long career. She was a mentor to numerous younger scholars, a fact evident in the collected correspondence of these papers. In retirement in Tucson, Professor Kennedy enjoyed gardening and was often cited for her gardens in Tucson publications. She died on February 4, 1988 at age 92 in Tucson. Her ashes were buried in the family plots in Houston, Texas. The Ruth Lee Kennedy Fellowship at the University of Arizona and at Rice University is given to students of the Golden Age literature. At the University of Texas at Austin Professor Kennedy established two fellowships in honor of her parents: the Carrie Lee Kennedy Fellowship (for graduate students or undergraduate students of exceptionally outstanding ability who are studying Golden Age of Spanish Literature) and the Oliver William Kennedy Fellowship (for a graduate student or a faculty member for travel to Spain or other European countries to do research in the Golden Age of Spanish Literature). The Ruth Lee Kennedy/Fulbright travel grant is co-sponsored by the International Institute in Spain and the Commission of Cultural, Educative and Scientific Interchange between Spain and the United States is granted to Spanish women, lawyers or doctors who wish to carry out investigation projects or extended studies in a university in the United States.
Scope and Contents of the Collection The Ruth Lee Kennedy papers contain biographical materials, some items from her youth and early years as a teacher of Spanish literature and language and portraits and photographs of Kennedy and her family. There are extensive files of correspondence received by Professor Kennedy related to her professional activities among Spanish literature scholars in the United States and Europe as well as from other academicians. There are a few letters of Professor Kennedy's. Correspondents include, but are not limited to: Maria Araujo-Fernandez, Jamie Asensio, J. B. Avalle-Arce, Hannah E. Bergman, Alice H. Bushee, John Brooks, Courtney Bruerton, James A. Castaneda, Jill Ker Conway, J. P. Wickersham Crawford, William J. Entwistle, William L. Fichter, Robert A. Folchi, Otis H. Green, Guillermo Guastavino, John Hull, Lloyd Kasten, L. Klaiber, Irving A. Leonard, George E. McSpadden, G. Marañón, Thomas C. Mendenhall, Sylvanus Griswold Morley, Joaquina Navarro, Emilio Navarro Sanz, Tomas Navarro Tomas, Jack H. Parker, Manuel Penedo Rey, Agapito Rey, Miguel Romera Navarro, Nina Scott, Lesley B. Simpson, Gerald Wade, Bruce W. Wardropper, Margaret Wilson and Maria Eugenia Zornoga de Marques. The correspondence is arranged by date. The papers also include lecture and research notes. Professor Kennedy's notes are usually written in pencil in very small handwritten letters on small pieces of paper and assembled in small bundles-the back of an envelope, half sheets of letter sized paper or other small sheets. Often the content of a given group of papers is unclear; an anonymous individual has very helpfully identified many of the bundles of papers with precise notes as to the content of a particular bundle. The lecture and research notes are arranged in very broad subject topics that in no way limit the contents of the file. The papers are arranged in the following series: I. General BiographicalII. PhotographsIII. CorrespondenceIV. Publications
series
Series I: General
Biographical materials
Curriculum vita, lists of RLK's publications, etc.
Guggenheim application 1951
Transcripts and certificates 1920s
Addresses, etc.
University of Pennsylvania items 1930s-1970s
Smith College appointment papers 1931-1959
University of Arizona appointment papers 1961-1968
General miscellaneous 1930s-1980s
Valedictory address (high school), by RLK 1912
Poetry, by Steve 1920s
The Alamo (yearbook) - San Antonio Junior College 1928
Writings, by E. C. Kennedy (RLK's brother) 1970-1980s
Marta Antonio Estades Saez - Certificates 1940-1952
Passports and international certificates of vaccinations 1936-1966
European library cards, etc. 1937-1958
Award certificates, identifications, etc. 1940s-1980s
Grade book - San Benito High School, Texas 1917-1918
Series II: Photographs
Photographs of RLK Late 1900s-early 1910s (?)
Portrait of RLK 1918 or 1919
Portrait of RLK 1925
Portrait of RLK 1932 or 1933
Portrait of RLK 1936
Portrait of RLK 1951
Portraits of RLK n.d.
Photographs of Carrie Lee McWaters Kennedy and RLK
Photographs of RLK
Portrait of Ernest C. Kennedy and of RLK and her family
RLK at Smith College
San Jacinto Museum (Texas)
Photographs of friends
Photographs - Smith College in Spain
Photographs - Europe
Portraits - Unidentified individuals
Christmas greetings received (photographs) from various individuals
Photographs of RLK in formal dress (Kennedy Photo Service, Houston, Texas)
Series III: Correspondence
Correspondence to and from RLK's mother n.d.
Kennedy Chronicle - RLK's Christmas letters 1955-1988
Correspondence 1930-1937
Correspondence 1938-1939
Correspondence 1940-1941
Correspondence 1942-1944
Correspondence 1945
Correspondence 1946-1947
Correspondence 1948
Correspondence 1949
Correspondence 1950
Correspondence 1951
Correspondence 1952
Correspondence 1953-1955
Correspondence 1956-1958
Correspondence 1959
Correspondence 1960-1961
Correspondence 1962-1964
Correspondence 1965-1966
Correspondence 1967
Correspondence 1968-1969
Correspondence 1970-1971
Correspondence 1972
Correspondence 1973
Correspondence 1974
Correspondence 1975
Correspondence 1976
Correspondence 1977
Correspondence 1978
Correspondence 1979-1980
Correspondence 1981-1982
Correspondence 1983-1988
Correspondence - On Tirso manuscript 1972
Correspondence n.d.
Retirement, University of Arizona - Program, speeches, letters of appreciation received 1970
Retirement, University of Arizona - Guest signature book 1970
Series IV: Publications
Attacks on Lope and His Theatre in 1617-1621
Certain Phases of the Sumptuary Decrees of 1623 and their Relation to Tirso's Theatre 1942
The Close Friendship of Gabriel Tellez and Perez de Montalvan: its Possible Significance for the "Segunda parte of Tirso -- and Addenda 1972-1975, (1975-1976)
"El condenado por desconfiado": 1st Ambient and its Date of Composition 1974
"El condenado por desconfiado": Various Reasons for Questioning its Authenticity in Tirso's Theatre 1976
"El condenado por desconfiado": Yet Further Reasons for Questioning its Authenticity in Tirso's Theatre 1976
Concerning Seven Manuscripts Linked with Moreto's Name 1935
Contemporary Satire Against Ruiz de Alarcon as Lover 1945
The Date, Significance and Organic Unity of Mira's Dyptich on Ruy de Avalos and Don Alvaro de Luna
The Date of El "Amor medico" and "Escarmientos para el cuerdo" : Tirso's supposed trip to Portugal in 1619
Did Tirso Send to Press a Primera parte of Madrid (1626) which Contained El condenado por desconfiado
Escarraman and Glimpses of the Spanish Court in 1637-38 1941
"La estrella de Sevilla", Reinterpreted
Estudios sobre Tirso, 1 1983
La gala del nadar-date and authorship
Has Tirso Satirized the Conde-Duque de Olivares in Nineucio of Tanto es lo de mas como lo de menos? 1980
Literary and Political Satire in Tirso's "La fingida Arcadia" 1964
The Madrid of 1617-25: Certain Aspects of Social, Moral, and Educational Reform
Las mangas cortas in Lope's Theatre (1611-1616): Their Importance as a Tentative Norm for Chronology 1962
Moretiana: A Source for El caballero 1939
El mundo literario de Madrid, en una comedia de Tirso 1979-1980
Notes on Two Interrelated Plays of Tirso: El amor y el amistad and Ventura te de Dios, hijo 1960
On the Draft of Five Plays by Tirso de Molina 1942
Pantaleon de Ribera, "Sirene," Castillo y Solorzano, and the Academia de Madrid in Early 1625
La perspectiva politica de Tirso en "Privar contra su gusto", de 1621, y la de sus comedias politicas posteriors 1981
Philip IV's Advocacy of San Blas on February 3, 1623: Its Reflection in the Blas-Menga "Romancero" and the Works of Gabriel Tellez 1976-1977, (1978)
"La prudencia en la jujer" y el ambiente quella produjo 1949
A Reappraisal of Tirso's Relations to Lope and his Theatre 1965-1966
La renegada de Valladolid 1937
Sin honra no hay valentina 1939-1940
Sobre la relacion de Tirso con Cervantes 1979
The Sources of La fuerza del natural 1936
Studies for the Chronology of Tirso's Theatre 1943
The Theme of "Stratonice" in the Drama of the Spanish Peninsula 1940
Tirso's Desde Toledo a Madrid: its Date and Place of Composition 1971
Tirso's "El mayor desengano": Its Date of Composition, Its Ambient, and Its Interpretation 1976
Tirso's No hay peor sordo: Its Date and Place of Composition
Tirso's "La republica al reves" Its Debt to Mira's "La rueda de la fortuna": Its Date of Composition, and Its Importance 1973
Tirso's "La venturea con el nombre": Its Source and Date of Composition 1969
Tirso's La vida y muerte de Herodes: Its Date, Its Importance, and Its Debt to Mira's Theatre
Tirso's Satire of Ruiz de Alarcon 1964
Varia: Moreto's Span of Dramatic Activity
RLK's book reviews on other writers
Book reviews on RLK's publications
Series V: Lecture and Research Notes, including related teaching activities
Smith College Junior Year in Spain and other Spanish language and literature activities at Smith College 1950s-1960
University of Arizona Ph.D. requirements in Spanish 1960s
Grade books - University of Arizona 1961-1970
Course introduction
Introductory notes, course assignments, test questions
Introductory materials on Spanish literature - Research notes, lectures and bibliographies
Spanish literature through the 15th century - Lecture notes and course outline
Smith College - Spanish language and literature - Miscellaneous
Drama of the Golden Age of Spanish literature - lecture notes for professionals and a slide presentation (no slides)
Lecture notes - Various topics
Notes to "Majiganga"
Cervantes - Don Quixote - research and lecture notes
Cervantes - general research notes and lectures
Course notes and exams for University of Arizona Spanish 399 - Drama of the "Siglo del Oro" - Lope de Vega
Research notes on Lope de Vega - life and works
Research and lecture notes on Tirso de Molina - life and works
Research notes for and drafts of RLK's article - "La prudencia en la jujer" y el ambiente quella produjo 1940s
Research notes - various topics
Miscellaneous items