Catalogue description Strachey Family Papers

The archive consists of the papers of Mary Berenson, her daughter Ray Strachey and her grandaughter Barbara Strachey Halpern. It comprises letters and correspondence mainly concerned with personal and family news, typescripts and manuscript notes, press cuttings mainy relating to suffrage and equal pay activities, photographs of Ray Strachey and other members of the Strachey family, and some material relating to Ray's grandmother, Hannah Whitall Smith. Also a manuscript recipe book owned by members of the Strachey family and a file of material relating to Kathleen Halpin.

The collection was divided into four major sections across five series: one each for the papers of Mary Berenson and Barbara Halpern, two accession of Ray Strachey's papers and 1 series of Strachey photographs. Acc 2000/11 and 2005/10's sections have been arranged into series which reflected the major activities of the creator eg. Family letters, writings and publications etc. Original order has been maintained for correspondence. The papers of a file entitled 'miscellaneous' were distributed to the most appropriate series. Acc 1987/02 was moved from 7PHS as these papers related to Ray Strachey and other family members, were added as an additional series of Ray's papers, a sub-series of Mary Berenson's papers and a series of photographs. Sub-series were arranged according to the major activites of the creator but original files have remained intact.

Berenson, Mary, nee Whitall, 1864-1945

Halpern Strachey, Barbara, 1912-1999, radio producer and writer

Strachey, Rachel, 1887-1940Strachey family

This collection is available for research. Readers are advised to contact The Women's Library in advance of their first visit.

The collection was given to The Women's Library by Corinne Richards, as a gift, on 14 Mar 2000. The recipe book was located amongst Fawcett Library mixed papers of unknown provenance in 2005. The additional papers of Ray and the photographs were part of a deposit made by Barbara Strachey Halpern in 1987

This collection consists of papers from four provenances. One of these creators, Barbara Strachey Halpern, acquired the papers of her mother and grandmother. In May 2007 further papers relating to Ray were moved from 7PHS into this fonds. The recipe book is of unknown provenance, because it is unclear to which 'Miss Strachey' it belonged, it was added to the Strachey Family Papers archive in May 2006. 20 books donated with this collection were passed to TWL Printed Collections.

Mary Berenson (1864-1945) was born in 1864 to Hannah Whitall (1832-1911) and Robert Pearsall Smith (d. 1899). Both were evangelical preachers in New Jersey and Philadelphia. In 1885, Mary married Francis Benjamin Conn Costelloe, a barrister, in London. They had two daughters, Ray (b. 1887) and Karin (c. 1889). After the death of Benjamin in 1899, Mary moved to Italy to marry the art historian Bernard Berenson in 1900 and Hannah, who had moved to London in 1888, took care of Ray and Karin in London. Later, Ray was to marry Oliver Strachey.

Rachel Strachey (1887-1940) was born in 1887 to Mary Pearsall Smith (later Berenson) and Benjamin Francis Conn Costelloe. Mary Pearsall Smith was the daughtert of Hannah Whitall Smith, the American evangelist and religious writer. Rachel's sister was Karin Conn Costelloe (c.1889). After the death of her husband in 1899, Mary moved to Italy to marry Bernard Berenson in 1900 and her mother Hannah, who had moved to London in 1888, took care of Ray and Karin in London. Ray was educated at Kensington High School and then read Mathematics at Newnham College Cambridge (1905-1908). Her cousin, Ellie Rendel (1885-1942), daughter of Elinor Rendel, oldest sister of Oliver Strachey, was a close friend during her school and college days, and particularly when they became involved in the early suffrage activities. In 1909, Ray and Ellie went to Bryn Mawr College in Philadelphia where M Carey Thomas, Ray's second cousin, was President. Ellie later worked for the National Union of Women's Suffrage Society (1909-1912) and for the Scottish Women's Hospital Unit in the Balkans (c.1916-1917). In 1911, Ray married Oliver Strachey, a civil servant. This was his second marriage. They had two children Barbara (1912-1999) and Christopher (1916-1975), who later became a computer scientist. Ray was a tireless campaigner for women's rights. She was a close friend of Millicent Fawcett, the leader of the law-abiding suffragists. In 1915, she was a Parliamentary secretary for the London Society for Women's Suffrage. During World War One, she was a Chair for the Women's Service Bureau and fought for women to be allowed to do all types of war work. From 1930-1939, Ray was the first Chair of the Cambridge University Women's Employment Board and also helped to found the Women's Employment Federation in 1935. She was editor of the feminist newspaper The Common Cause. Ray also stood for Parliament as an Independent candidate in 1915, 1922 and 1923, but was unsuccessful. She was the political private secretary to Viscountess Nancy Astor MP (1929-34). Ray had many publications including: The World at Eighteen (1907); Frances Willard. Her Life and Work (1913); The Cause, (1928); Millicent Garrett Fawcett (1931); Careers and Openings for Women (1935). She died on 16 Jul 1940.

Barbara Halpern Strachey (1912-1999) was born in 1912 to Ray and Oliver Strachey. Her brother Christopher (1916-1975) was a computer scientist. Barbara's education began at St Felix School in Southwold, followed by a period in Vienna during 1928-1929. She read Modern History at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford from 1930-1933. Whilst on a voyage to Australia in 1933, she met her first husband, Toby Hullit, a Finnish purser, and married him when they reached Adelaide. They settled in England and, in the following year, their son, Roger Sven Allen, was born. This marriage ended in divorce in 1935 and Barbara then married Wolf Halpern. Unfortunately, he was killed in an airplane crash in 1943. Barbara worked as a radio producer for the BBC for over forty years. She wrote articles and books including: 'Remarkable relations : the story of the Pearsall Smith family' (London : Gollancz, 1980); 'Ray Strachey - a memoir' in W Chapman and JM Manson, eds., Women in the Milieu of Leonard and Virginia Woolf: Peace, Politics and Education (1998). She died in 1999.

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