Elizabeth (Bancroft) Schlesinger, 1886-1977

Elizabeth (Bancroft) Schlesinger, 1886-1977, civic worker and historian, was born in Columbus, Ohio, educated at public schools and graduated in 1910 from the Ohio State University in Columbus. EBS taught History and English in Central High School, Kalamazoo, Michigan, from 1910 until her marriage to Arthur Meier Schlesinger, whom she had met at the Ohio State University. Until 1919 they lived in Columbus, where AMS was instructor in history, moved to the State University of Iowa, 1919-1924, and settled in Cambridge with their two sons, Arthur Meier Jr. and Thomas Bancroft, when AMS was appointed Professor of History at Harvard. There they remained with occasional trips abroad: a world trip, 1933-1934, and a year at the University of Leyden, 1948-1949.

EBS had many civic interests. She served the Cambridge League of Women Voters as Chairman of the Committee on Education, because with her mid-western experience of fine public education she was particularly concerned about the low standards of public education in Cambridge. She was on the board of the American Association of University Women of Boston, served on the Cambridge Public Library Board, and was appointed by the U.S. Office of Education to a committee to interview teachers wishing to teach abroad. Her correspondence shows her strong opposition to racial discrimination. Active with the Radcliffe Women's Archives before it was renamed the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, she contributed papers to its informal seminars on women's history and served on its Advisory Board, EBS's articles on women's history were published in a number of historical periodicals. She also gave talks to a variety of forums and contributed papers to the Mothers' Study Club.