Doris Hastings Darnell Collection

The Doris Hastings Darnell (class of 1939) papers consist primarily of Darnell's correspondence. Throughout her life, Darnell maintained a voluminous correspondence with her husband, family, friends, and professional contacts. Much of the correspondence dates from her time with the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), which includes the controversial final years of the Vietnam War.

An additional highlight of the collection is Darnell's correspondence with her classmate and life-long friend, May Chow. Chow was a Chinese student who returned to China after graduation to take up work as an English professor. Darnell and Chow's communication spans the entirety of their acquaintance including the years of the Cultural Revolution in China. For additional description about this aspect of Darnell's collection, see Series III: Correspondence: May Chow.

Darnell kept in regular correspondence with much of her graduating class. Other correspondents include Katharine Hepburn, the actress Elizabeth Franz, the author Peggy Anderson, Robert Dyson, the former director of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Jim Fowler, the host of the television show "Wild Kingdom," Dr. Frank Hastings, one of the pioneers of the artificial heart, and former Bryn Mawr College president Pat McPherson.

Boxes 1-7 of the Darnell Collection are concerned primarily with Darnell family materials. They include a number of early letters, photographs, scrapbooks and the like, from Mrs. Darnell's childhood through college, her wedding, and the early years of her marriage, as well as some correspondence with her children.

Boxes 8-16 contain the first series of her correspondence, from the mid-1930s to 1990; these letters are arrange alphabetically by correspondent. As with other sections of the collection, the bulk of the material consists of letters to Mrs. Darnell. In only a few rare instances, such as her correspondence with May Chow or with the Greek and Latin professor Gabriel McCulloch, was she able to recollect letters she sent; when her letters are present this is noted in the catalogue.

Box 17 contains Mrs. Darnell's daily letters to her husband during their engagement (1937-8); his daily replies are contained in box 38.

Box 18 contains the majority of the materials related to the AFSC, including carbon copies of official correspondence, committee meeting minutes, official reports and other such materials. Mrs. Darnell kept in touch with many of her fellow AFSC members after her retirement; this correspondence is spread through the normal correspondence series with notes indicating AFSC affiliation for the individuals concerned. Box 19 contains materials related to the Westtown Friends School.

Boxes 20-22 contain Mrs. Darnell's correspondence with May Chow, as well as some correspondence with other members of Ms. Chow's family, including her uncle Fred in Hong Kong.

Boxes 23-30 contain the second series of alphabetical correspondence, which begins in the 1980s but covers primarily the period from 1990 to Mrs. Darnell's death in 2006; many of the same correspondents have folders in both series, and it is therefore recommended that researchers attempting to locate all materials related to specific individuals refer to the alphabetical list of correspondents below.

Boxes 31 and 32 contain materials related to Mrs. Darnell's period clothing collection, including notes on individual pieces of clothing, press releases, brochures, fliers, etc.

Boxes 31-42 are largely unsorted (with the exception of Howard Darnell's daily letters in box 38); they contain some additional correspondence, materials related to cruising and travel, materials related to the Darnell's retirement home, Foxdale village, travel diaries, calendars, and some clothing show materials.

Mrs. Darnell's period clothing collection is housed at l'Ecole Supérieure des Arts et techniques de la Mode in Sydney, Australia, under the care of her goddaughter, Charlotte Smith (www.esmod.com).