Address:
Esther Newton Papers, 1866-2018 (majority within 1963-2014)
Using These Materials
- Restrictions:
- The collection is open for research.
Summary
- Creator:
- Newton, Esther
- Abstract:
- This collection documents the activities of Esther Newton (1940-), a professor, cultural anthropologist, and author who is a founder and prominent scholar of LGBTQ studies. The collection contains correspondence; research files; drafts and manuscripts of Newton's published and unpublished writings; coursework, notes, course syllabi, exams, and bibliographies from Newton's time as both a student and professor; presentations, speeches, lecture notes, and programs from conferences and public appearances; newsletters and meeting minutes from professional organizations; genealogical research and photographs of Newton's relatives; and photographs documenting Newton's life and research.
- Extent:
-
20 Linear Feet
35 manuscript boxes and 2 oversized boxes. - Authors:
- Finding aid created by Lauren Paljusaj using ArchivesSpace, June 13, 2022.
Background
- Scope and Content:
-
This collection documents the activities of Esther Newton, a professor, cultural anthropologist, and author who is a founder and prominent scholar of LGBTQ studies. The collection contains both personal and professional correspondence; research notes and files; drafts and manuscripts of Newton's published and unpublished writings including essays, books, articles, and journal entries; contracts, reprint permissions, reader's reports, reviews, and correspondence with literary agents and editors; coursework and notes from Newton's undergraduate and graduate student career; course syllabi, quizzes and exams, and bibliographies from Newton's career as a professor; lectures and speeches, paper presentations and proposals, and event programs from academic and professional organization conferences and other public appearances; newsletters and meeting minutes from professional organizations, recommendation letters, proposal reviews, and exhibition planning materials; and personal materials such as summer camp publications, academic transcripts, real estate records, publicity, and interviews.
The collection also contains genealogical materials including family trees and charts; photographs of Newton's family members dating back to the late-1800s; correspondence belonging to Newton's mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother; scrapbooks and photograph albums depicting the Bash family, Newton's mother and maternal grandparents; newspaper articles written in the late-1800s by Newton's maternal great-grandmother Lucia Gilbert Runkle; and research and correspondence relating to Newton's father, Saul Newton.
The collection contains photographs depicting the life of Esther Newton, including photographs of Newton's childhood, friends, romantic partners, and events such as birthdays and vacations. Other photographs depict places, events, and people related to Newton's research, particularly Cherry Grove, New York and drag queen performers in the 1960s. Titles denoted in quotes in the finding aid are transcribed from Newton's original titles of folders and envelopes.
Series 2, Research, contains files of Newton's research relating to her studies, career, and writing. The folders contain scholarly articles, journals, newspaper and magazine articles, book chapters, and written and typescript notes. The files are arranged alphabetically by the author's last name, and by topic if publications are mixed.
Series 3, Writings, contains drafts, manuscripts, and research material relating to the books and articles Cherry Grove, Fire Island; The Future of Gender; A Hard Left Fist; Margaret Mead Made Me Gay; Mother Camp; My Butch Career; The Mythic Mannish Lesbian; Sex and Sensibility; Too Queer for College; Womenfriends; and the unpublished Alice-Hunting; as well as various other essays and articles.
- Biographical / Historical:
-
Esther Newton was born in 1940 in New York City, New York. She spent her childhood in New York City and Palo Alto, California, moving to Stockbridge, Massachusetts during high school to attend the progressive Stockbridge School. Newton was raised by her mother, Virginia Bash Newton, and adoptive father, Saul Newton. Virginia Bash was the daughter of Major General Louis H. Bash and Bertha Runkle Bash, and Saul Newton was the son of Jewish immigrants, an organizer for the Communist Party, a soldier in the Spanish Civil War and World War II, and later became a therapist.
Newton later attended the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where she graduated with a bachelor's degree in history in 1962. She went on to study anthropology at the University of Chicago, where she met cultural anthropologist and mentor David M. Schneider. Newton obtained her Ph.D in 1968 with the dissertation "The Drag Queens: A Study in Urban Anthropology," which became the basis of her first book, Mother Camp: Female Impersonators in America, published in 1972.
Newton went on to pursue a career in academia, first becoming an assistant professor at Queens College, City University of New York. After being denied tenure at Queens College, Newton began teaching at Purchase College, State University of New York (SUNY), where she would become a tenured professor of anthropology, and eventually earn a full professorship. She played a role in the founding of the Lesbian and Gay Studies program at Purchase College. Newton returned to her alma mater in the late 2000s as a lecturer in women's and gender studies and American culture at the University of Michigan. Newton is now retired as Term Professor of American Culture and Women's and Gender Studies at the University of Michigan, and Professor of Anthropology and Kempner Distinguished Professor Emerita at Purchase College, SUNY.
In the late 1980s, Newton began a project documenting the history of Cherry Grove, an LGBT summer enclave located on Fire Island, south of Long Island, New York. This project became the book Cherry Grove, Fire Island: Sixty Years in America's First Gay and Lesbian Summer Town, published in 1993. Newton is also the author of Margaret Mead Made Me Gay: Personal Essays, Public Ideas, and the memoir My Butch Career. Newton also co-authored and co-edited other volumes during her career, along with writing numerous articles and essays.
As of 2022, Esther Newton resides in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Sources: Newton, Esther. My Butch Career. 2018. "Esther Newton." University of Michigan. Accessed June 29, 2022. https://lsa.umich.edu/wgs/people/emeriti/enewt.html. "About." Esther Newton. Accessed June 29, 2022. https://www.esther-newton.com/about.
- Acquisition Information:
- Gift of Esther Newton, 2020.
- Processing information:
-
In June 2022, Lauren Paljusaj re-housed the materials, arranged the series, and described the collection in ArchivesSpace. All materials have been re-housed in new folders, and the contents within them remain in original order; if a file's title is in quotation marks, this designates the original folder label written by the creator.
- Arrangement:
-
The Esther Newton Papers are arranged in nine series: 1. Correspondence, 1957-2011. 2. Research, 1948-2005. 3. Writings, 1956-2014. 4. Courses, 1960-2014. 5. Events, 1970-2019. 6. Organizations and service, 1971-2017. 7. Personal, 1956-2010. 8. Genealogy, 1866-2003. 9. Photographs, 1930-2017. Series 1, Correspondence, is arranged chronologically in the original order in which it was received. Correspondence found in other locations throughout the collection during processing are arranged in alphabetical order at the end of the series. Series 3, Writings, is arranged alphabetically by the title of major works, with the remaining files arranged chronologically. The remaining series are arranged chronologically.
- Rules or Conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Contents
Using These Materials
- RESTRICTIONS:
-
The collection is open for research.
- USE & PERMISSIONS:
-
Copyright has not been transferred to the Regents of the University of Michigan. Permission to publish must be obtained from the copyright holder(s).
- PREFERRED CITATION:
-
Esther Newton Papers, University of Michigan Library (Special Collections Research Center)