| Description | Correspondence between the Elmhirsts and private secretary Kathleen (Kay) Starr. Correspondents include Ellen Cicely Wilkinson MP; and R W Postgate. Includes original minutes of a Sunday Evening Meeting, 23 Sep 1928, mentioning the Dartington Hall School and other departments and discussing religion and pacifism. Personal correspondence highlights the aims of the Elmhirsts in establishing Dartington Hall as an experiment, and their personalities, particularly when travelling. Letters in 1933 mention a visit to Dartington by Rolf Gardiner; fascism in Germany, and the possibility of war. There are also letters of Jack Cowan, and descriptions of bombing in London (Sep 1940). Other wartime correspondence mentions PEP and Michael Young, and travels in the United States in 1941. A letter (17 Nov 1941) details events in America, discussing Fight for Freedom rallies; President Roosevelt and labour leader John L Lewis. Later letters mention a visit to the White House on 7 Dec 1941; social engagements with Lord Halifax and Beatrice Straight and her wedding to Louis Dolivet in Des Moines (letter of 11 Mar 1942); The New Republic Magazine and a dinner for the tenth anniversary of the New Deal (also letter of 11 Mar 1942). Letters between Kay Starr and Leonard report on his activities in Bengal and India in 1944, and convey Dartington news. Letters after 1949 contain news of events at Dartington. |