Harriet Ritvo papers
Scope and Contents
The collection documents the activities of Harriet Ritvo who was a professor of history at MIT beginning in 1979. Materials in the collection, spanning 1965 - 2020, document her academic career. They consist of research materials, notes, and drafts of her writing, conference talks, essays, and course materials related to classes Ritvo taught at MIT.
Her papers are arranged in three series:
Series 1. Dawn of Green Research Files; Series 2. Writings and Talks; Series 3. Teaching Materials
Series 1 consists of background research done by Ritvo including her notes, and files of both published and primary documents (most are photocopies) contemporary to the 1879 city of Manchester England waterworks project involving the Thirlmere region, Lake District, Cumbria, England. The research files were created during the writing of her book The Dawn of Green: Manchester, Thirlmere, and modern environmentalism (Chicago University Press, 2009). Files are arranged in topical folders, and a subject card index is included referencing items in folders.
Series 2 documents a variety of essays, book reviews, and talks created by Ritvo from 1972-2020, including some background research and correspondence regarding her work at the Stanford Humanities Center and the American Academy of Sciences, as well as essays from authors submitted for inclusion in The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication (Johns Hopkins Press, 1998) and the book series Flows, Migrations, and Exchanges (University of North Carolina Press). Materials are roughly grouped together by category (reviews, essays/articles, and talks) and date, following the original order.
Teaching materials generated throughout Ritvo’s career are found in Series 3, including subject files, lecture notes, syllabi, and reading materials for various courses taught by Ritvo at MIT from 1979-2017. MIT courses documented in this series include Nature, Environment, and Empire; History of Ecology, Theories and Methods in the Study of History, People and Other Animals, The Royal Family, and Britain in the 18th and 19th Centuries. Materials in Series 3 are grouped by course number and date.
Dates
- 1870 - 2020
Creator
- Ritvo, Harriet (Person)
Language of Materials
Materials are primarily in English, with some articles in French.
Access note
Materials in this collection are open unless they are marked as restricted. Restrictions are noted in the container list.
Conditions Governing Use
Access to collections in the Department of Distinctive Collections is not authorization to publish. Please see the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy for permission information. Copyright of some items in this collection may be held by respective creators, not by the donor of the collection or MIT.
Biographical Note
Harriet Ritvo is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Arthur J. Conner Professor of History, Emeritus, and works in the fields of environmental history, the history of human-animal relations, British and British empire history, and the history of natural history. She holds a BA (1968) and PhD (1975) from Harvard University and is the author of Noble Cows and Hybrid Zebras: Essays on Animals and History (University of Virginia Press, 2010), The Dawn of Green: Manchester, Thirlmere, and Modern Environmentalism (ChicagoUniversity Press, 2009), The Platypus and the Mermaid, and Other Figments of the Classifying Imagination (Harvard University Press, 1997), and The Animal Estate: The English and Other Creatures in the Victorian Age (Harvard University Press, 1987). Ritvo is also the co-editor of Macropolitics of Nineteenth-Century Literature: Nationalism, Imperialism, Exoticism (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991) and the editor of Charles Darwin’s The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998). Her articles and reviews have appeared in a wide range of periodicals, including The Times Literary Supplement, The London Review of Books, Science, Psychology Today, The Nation, Technology Review, and The New York Review of Books, as well as in scholarly journals including American Historical Review, Annals of Science, Anthrozoos, and Victorian Studies.
“Harriet Ritvo,” History MIT School of Humanities Arts and Social Sciences, accessed May 4, 2020, https://history.mit.edu/people/harriet-ritvo.
Extent
21.3 Cubic Feet (21 record cartons, 1 manuscript box, 1 card box)
Abstract
The collection documents the activities of Harriet Ritvo who was a professor of history at MIT beginning in 1979. Materials in the collection, spanning 1965 - 2020, document her academic career. They consist of research materials, notes, and drafts of her writing, conference talks, essays, and course materials related to classes Ritvo taught at MIT.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged into three series:
Series 1. Dawn of Green Research Files; Series 2. Writings and Talks; Series 3. Teaching Materials
Digital files in the collection have been arranged intellectually with physical materials in topical series. When accessing the digital files they will reflect the original arrangement as presented on transfer.
Location
Materials are stored off-site. Advance notice is required for use.
Custodial History
Harriet Ritvo donated the materials to the Department of Distinctive Collections in 2009, 2010, and 2021.
Separated Materials
A collection of primary materials has been transferred to the MIT Rare Books collections.
Processing Information note
Some collection descriptions are based on legacy data and may be incomplete or contain inaccuracies. Description may change pending verification. Please contact the MIT Department of Distinctive Collections if you notice any errors or discrepancies.
Processing Information
A folder level inventory was conducted, and finding aid created by Thera Webb in March 2022. When existing, original folder titles have been retained and used in the collection description. Duplicate materials were identified and removed.
- Environmentalism Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Ritvo, Harriet
- Science -- History. Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Thirlmere, Lake (England) Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Water-supply Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
Creator
- Ritvo, Harriet (Person)
- Title
- Guide to the Harriet Ritvo papers
- Status
- In Progress
- Date
- 2022
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- English
Revision Statements
- 2020 May: Biographical note by Grace Johnson-DeBaufre added.
- 2021: Scope and Content note formatted by Lana Mason to comply with DACS single-level optimum requirements.
- 2022 May: Accrual processed and description updated by Thera Webb.
Repository Details
Part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Libraries. Department of Distinctive Collections Repository
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Libraries
Building 14N-118
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge MA 02139-4307 US
distinctive-collections@mit.edu