494 Items Gift of Mary Roberts Coolidge

Dane Coolidge (1873-1940), field collector of mammals and reptiles, prolific writer of westerns, and serious student of the Southwest, was the husband of Mary Roberts Coolidge, who retired from Mills as Professor of Sociology in 1926. In 1945 she gave half of his papers to The Bancroft Library of the University of California and half to Mills.

The Coolidge Papers contain 372 business letters from 1911 to 1939 and the manuscripts of many of his books and short stories.

Mrs. Coolidge also split the photographic collection in half. In 1973 when it was discovered that the photographs were beginning to deteriorate, all prints and negatives (a total of 3760) were transferred to The Bancroft Library, where they could be properly preserved.