Manuscript Collection
Files
Download Finding Aid (259 KB)
Identifier
Accession 1748
Inclusive Dates
1926-1931
Restrictions
Open under the rules and regulations of the Louise Pettus Archives and Special Collections
Collection Size
.25 linear feet, 500 pieces
Language
English;
Scope and Content Note
The Helen Ruth Chambers Papers document the undergraduate experience of Helen Ruth Chambers Wren (1909–1985) during her years as a student at Winthrop College, from the late 1920s through her graduation in 1931 with a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences. Helen was one of three sisters that graduated from Winthrop including Ella Margaret Chambers (Class of 1929) and Dorothy Chambers (Class of 1935). The collection consists primarily of student publications, academic work, and ephemera reflecting campus life, student organizations, and intellectual culture during this period.
Materials include a Winthrop College commencement announcement and program from 1929; student handbooks published by the Young Women’s Christian Association during Chambers’s sophomore and senior years; and an English course paper written in 1928 addressing campus policies affecting student life. Also present is a 1928 issue of The Council Fire, a Girl Scouts newsletter that includes reports on an international conference in Hungary, with some content written in French, reflecting broader social and cultural interests of the era.
The collection further contains programs from a variety of Winthrop College events—including athletic contests, religious services, theatrical performances, and musical recitals—dating from approximately 1928 to 1931. Student newspapers and literary publications form a significant portion of the papers, including issues of The Johnsonian and The Winthrop Journal, the latter featuring a poem authored by Chambers. Two issues of The Tiger, the student newspaper of Clemson College, mailed to Chambers during her enrollment at Winthrop, are also included. The collection concludes with a copy of the 1926 Tatler, the Winthrop College yearbook.
Together, these materials provide insight into Chambers’s academic work, extracurricular interests, and the broader student experience at Winthrop College in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
Provenance
The Helen Ruth Chambers Papers were donated to the Louise Pettus Archives and Special Collections by Betsy Wren Smith.
Copyright
For information concerning copyright please contact the Louise Pettus Archives and Special Collections at Winthrop University.
Finding Aid Citation
Louise Pettus Archives and Special Collections, Winthrop University, "Helen Ruth Chambers Papers - Accession 1748". Finding Aid 1573.
https://digitalcommons.winthrop.edu/manuscriptcollection_findingaids/1573