| Description | Mainly Dorothy Elmhirst's general correspondence revealing her many interests and connections in Britain and America. Outgoing correspondence includes letters dictated or drafted in pencil by Dorothy Elmhirst. Where these have been typed there are carbon copies. Handwritten letters were rarely copied. In some cases, reference copies of outgoing correspondence from Dartington Hall have been obtained from archives in Britain and America.
Correspondence is arranged alphabetically. Later letters, press cuttings and obituaries have been added to many of the files in the years since Dorothy Elmhirst's death in 1968. This practice has provided biographical information for many of the correspondents represented in the archive. Additionally there are 6 boxes of general subject files in the series including topics from religion to welfare (actually birth control).
The weekend guest is a recurrent theme in the series, with much correspondence generated by visitors to the Elmhirsts' home at Dartington Hall. There is also substantive correspondence with many literary and intellectual leaders of the day. Dorothy Elmhirst's American background gave her access to political leaders and officials on both sides of the Atlantic. There is therefore correspondence with Eleanor Roosevelt and Frances Perkins, US Secretary of Labor (Labour). Correspondence with British politicians includes letters from Stafford Cripps, Nancy Astor and Norman Angell. The biologist and writer, Julian Huxley was a close friend, visiting Dartington on many occasions. American sociologist Eduard Lindeman of the New York School for Social Work came as an early adviser to the Elmhirsts. Dorothy's lifelong friends are represented here by their letters, for instance those of Ethel Roosevelt Derby and Gretchen Green. Correspondence with Ruth Morgan, another old friend was transferred to America in 1972 and has for the time being
Other writers include liberal commentators such as H N Brailsford in England, and Herbert Croly in America. Agatha Christie visited, so did W H Auden, Frances Cornford, Arthur Waley, Felix Greene and H G Wells. Basil H Liddell Hart and his family came to stay near Dartington Hall during the early years of World War II. The Liddell Hart correspondence includes many typed articles (which may have been intended as radio scripts) on important aspects of the War.
Letters from poets often include manuscript poems, for instance 11 manuscript poems included with the letters of Robert Graves, and presumed to be by the poet. Artist correspondents include Clare Leighton, and painter/psychiatrist Dr Grace Pailthorpe. The Spanish composer and Republican general, Gustavo Duran, came to stay at Dartington Hall in 1939. House guests were often asked to contribute a Sunday evening talk to estate members and other guests, and in many cases these talks survive as manuscripts collected by Dorothy Elmhirst.
There is extensive metaphysical correspondence between Gerald Heard, Margaret Isherwood and Dorothy Elmhirst. Others interested in psychology and religion included Dr William Sheldon, who came to report on Dartington Hall School, and left to study with Jung in Zurich.
Michael Young was one of the first pupils at Dartington Hall School. His correspondence with Dorothy Elmhirst is highly descriptive, providing youthful perspective on student and worker demonstrations in London in 1933, social activities and social conditions; his early law studies; debt collection; Communists; political beliefs; and life at Toynbee Hall in London's East End. Young's letters from America recount visits to homestead camps, Pennsylvania steel mills, West Virginia coal mines, unionising work; and a description of the Tennessee Valley Authority.
Supplementary subject files include topics such as peace; the Peace Pledge Union, (Dorothy Elmhirst was a member); politics and elections; welfare and birth control (including a letter from Margaret Sanger); weaving, including letters from Elizabeth Peacock about the banners she designed and made for the Great Hall.
Letters from clergy include correspondence from Canon R A Edwards, rector of Dartington parish, discussing religion and the role of the Church in parish life, and the effect of changing social values in the village between 1940 and 1949. There is an extraordinary report about the Dartington Hall experiment written to the Bishop of Exeter by Canon Edwards about 1948.
Materials in the series include essays, speeches, interviews, and journals. One such journal, 'Notes in India', describes the Elmhirsts' visit to India in 1930, with descriptions of meetings with Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore.
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