The Civil Rights History Project: Survey of Collections and Repositories

Gerson, Tove Gertrud Müller. Papers

Repository: Harvard University. Radcliffe Institute. Schlesinger Library

Collection Description (Extant): Biographical material, speeches, correspondence, etc., of Tove Gertrud Mueller Gerson, teacher, physical therapist, YWCA administrator, and activist for peace and civil rights.

Series I, Personal and biographical (#1-27), includes autobiographies written for college applications, six audiotapes on which TGG discusses her life with a German radio interviewer (in German) and an American friend, Lenore M. Dickinson (in English), immigration papers, considerable material relating to her education, some financial records, writings, and photographs.
The audiotapes and related notes afford very personal insights into TGG's family, childhood, the gymnastics school, anti-Semitism and what was known about concentration camps, and her experiences in Germany before she emigrated. She also talks about her reaction to the treatment of African Americans in the U.S., the Gersons, friends and social life, her speeches about Nazi Germany, her politics, how she is coping with her blindness, and why she returned to Germany.

Access Copy Note: Some of the recordings are in German.

Date(s): 1919-1993

Digital Status: No

Extent: 2+1/2 file boxes, 1 folio folder, 2 folio+ folders, 1 oversize folder, 8 photograph folders, 7 audiotapes

Finding Aid URL: http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/deepLink?_collection=oasis&uniqueId=sch00594

Language: English and German

Interviewees: Tove Gertrud Mueller Gerson

Rights (CRHP): Contact the repository which holds the collection for information on rights

Subjects:

African Americans--Relations with Jews
Civil rights--Religious aspects--Judaism
Discrimination in employment
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
National Urban League
Peace movements
Young Women's Christian Association of the U.S.A.

Genres:

Interviews
Manuscripts
Photographs
Sound recordings
Speeches