Archives West Finding Aid
Table of Contents
Stella Hanau papers, 1904-1998
Overview of the Collection
- Creator
- Hanau, Stella, 1890-1972
- Title
- Stella Hanau papers
- Dates
- 1904-1998 (inclusive)19041998
- Quantity
- 3.5 cubic ft. (7 document boxes, 1 F17 box)
- Collection Number
- 06440
- Summary
- Papers of this scholar, writer, and advocate for reproductive rights of women, and the advancement of mental health programs from the community to federal level. Includes biographical information, photographs, correspondence, association and program notes, editing jobs, and drafts of a novel.
- Repository
-
American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming
American Heritage Center
University of Wyoming
1000 E. University Ave.
Dept. 3924
Laramie, WY
82071
Telephone: 3077663756
ahcref@uwyo.edu - Access Restrictions
-
Access Restrictions
There are no access restrictions on the materials for research purposes, and the collection is open to the public.
- Languages
- English
- Sponsor
- The creation of the EAD-version of this finding aid was made possible through a grant from the National Historic Publications and Records Commission.
Historical NoteReturn to Top
Stella Bloch was born July 24, 1890, in Manhattan, New York. Her parents moved from Alabama to New York to go into the silk business. After public school Stella Bloch went to Barnard College, class of 1911, where she majored in English literature. She also pursued her lifelong interest in plays and the theater. Shortly before college, Stella Bloch met Hella Bernays, niece of Sigmund Freud, who became and remained her best friend throughout life. Hella was the class of 1913 at Barnard.
Leo and Stella Hanau married in 1914. Leo Hanau was born in Germany and immigrated to the US in 1906. Their son Richard Hanau was born just as the United States entered World War I. After the war, the Bloch family set up a joint household with Hella Bernays’s family on East 124th Street. During the 1920s, Stella Bloch was active in the experimental theaters in lower Manhattan: The Neighborhood Playhouse on the East Grant Street, the Provincetown Playhouse off Washington Square, and the Playwrights Theater. As publicity agent for these theaters, Stella Hanau was in charge of program distribution, newspaper publicity, and dealing with theater critics. Her theater connections plus her left wing politics attracted Stella Hanau to poets, writers, and political activists. Leo and Stella Hanau separated in 1923 and were divorced in the early 1940s.
Stella Hanau and Hella Bernays were active in the women’s suffrage movement. Stella was also active in the American Birth Control League, the Works Progress Administration, and Planned Parenthood Federation of America. The two women also shared a common interest in psychiatry and fostering community mental health programs. By 1929 Stella Hanau ended her theater interests and concentrated fully on editing the Birth Control Review. In 1935 she went to Washington D.C. to undertake publicity for Margaret Sanger, a job she continued until 1949. Stella Hanau also edited organizational newsletters such as The National Birth Control News and the Birth Control Review.
In the1940s, Stella Hanau served as editor for the Works Progress Administration Writers Program and wrote publicity for the Department of Commerce and the War Production Board. In 1948, the Loyalty Board of the Department of Commerce investigated Stella Hanau. The board scrutinized her friends and acquaintances, affiliations with left wing politics, and her Jewish heritage. Stella Hanau was cleared of all charges in 1949. During the post-war years, Stella Hanau was self-employed doing editorial and rewrite work for professionals in the area of psychiatry and for the American Psychiatric Association.
Content DescriptionReturn to Top
The Stella Hanau papers, 1904-1998, include biographical information related to Stella Hanau’s involvement with experimental theater in New York; her editing of publications related to birth control and mental health programs; photographs of her early childhood and later days in New York; personal files on organizations and programs for mental health programs at the community, state, and national levels. Many biographical details are found in extensive personal correspondence, 1937 to 1957, between Stella Hanau and Robert A. Lesher, a close family friend and caretaker of the Hanau country home in Patterson, New York. A photocopy of a scrapbook of the Bloch Family History, 1750-1905, includes family photographs, individual histories, newspaper clippings, and letters. Richard Hanau’s correspondence related to the memory of his mother and his biographical writing on Stella Hanau are added to the biographical files. In addition, the collection holds personal files related to editing jobs from the late 1940s through the 1960s, plus three drafts of a manuscript entitled, Our Father Is Naked by Merle Colby, which was published under the title The Big Secret in 1959.
Of particular note are the letters, citations, and court transcripts regarding the Loyalty Hearing and suspicions of Stella Hanau’s fitness for a government office in the Department of Commerce between 1948 and 1949.
Use of the CollectionReturn to Top
Restrictions on Use
Copyright InformationThe researcher assumes full responsibility for observing all copyright, property, and libel laws as they apply.
Preferred Citation
Preferred CitationItem Description, Box Number, Folder Number, Stella Hanau papers, 1904-1998, Collection Number 06440, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
Administrative InformationReturn to Top
Related Materials
Related MaterialsOther papers created by Stella Hanau are located at:
Sophia Smith Archives, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts New York Public Library, Theater SectionAcquisition Information
Acquisition InformationRichard Hanau, son of Stella Hanau, donated the Stella Hanau papers to the University of Wyoming in 1989, and the Bloch family scrapbook in 1991.
Processing Note
Processing InformationThe collection was processed by Melanie Francis in February 2003.
Detailed Description of the CollectionReturn to Top
Series I.: Personal/BiographicalReturn to Top
(arranged alphabetically)
Container(s) | Description | Dates | |
---|---|---|---|
Box | Folder | ||
1 | 1 | Address Books, Ledger (Katherine and Stella) |
undated |
1 | 2 | Biographical Information |
1967-1998 |
1 | 3 | Birth Control Review |
1933-1934 |
1 | 4 | Conklin, Groff and Lucy |
|
1 | 5 | Correspondence |
1972 |
1 | 6 | Documents (driver’s license, social security card, will, cremation certificate) |
1972 |
1 | 7 | Hanau, Richard Correspondence (upon the death of mother, Stella Hanau) |
1972-1973 |
Folders | |||
1 | 8-9 | Lesher, Robert A. Correspondence |
1937-1957 |
Folder | |||
2 | 1 | Loyalty Board Hearings (correspondence, citations, court transcripts) Text: To Secure These Rights, President’s Committee on Civil Rights, 1947
|
1948-1949 |
2 | 2 | Notes and Memorabilia |
1906-1911 |
2 | 3 | Photographs (childhood in Alabama, candid shots in New York apartment)
|
undated |
2 | 4 | Songs of the Civil War, manuscript by Stella Bloch |
1907 |
Series II.: Association and Training ProgramsReturn to Top
(arranged alphabetically)
Container(s) | Description | Dates | |
---|---|---|---|
Box | Folder | ||
2 | 5 | Administration of Training Programs |
1962-1965 |
2 | 6 | Aims of Training Programs |
1962-1965 |
2 | 7 | American Psychiatry Association (folder #1) |
1952-1957 |
2 | 8 | American Psychiatry Association (folder #2) Two texts by APA edited by Stella Hanau: Progress and Problems in Mental Health Hospitals, 1953; Psychiatry, the Press and the Public, 1956.
|
1904-1965 |
2 | 9 | American Psychiatry Association (folder #3) |
1951-1954 |
Folders | |||
3 | 1-2 | Community Psychiatry (folders #1 and #2) |
1963-1966 |
Folder | |||
3 | 3 | Community, Socio-economic Aspects of |
1963-1964 |
3 | 4 | Encyclopedia of Mental Health |
1962 |
3 | 5 | History of Training Programs (Finances) |
|
Folders | |||
3 | 6-8 | Johns Hopkins Medical School (folders #1, #2, and #3) |
1963-1968 |
Folder | |||
3 | 9 | Maryland Training Program in Community Psychiatry |
1964-1967 |
Folders | |||
3 | 10-12 | Maryland Training Program, Demonstration Project, Chapters I, II, III, IV, and V |
1963-1968 |
Folder | |||
3 | 13 | National Association of Social Workers |
1960-1961 |
3 | 14 | Public Health and Mental Health Programs |
1962-1964 |
3 | 15 | Reason for Demonstration Project |
1963-1964 |
4 | 1 | Resident Relations with Clergy |
1963-1964 |
4 | 2 | Resident Relations with Courts and Law |
1966 |
4 | 3 | Resident Relations with General Practitioners |
1963-1965 |
4 | 4 | Resident Relations with Health Officers |
1963-1966 |
4 | 5 | Resident Relations with Other Groups |
1955-1966 |
4 | 6 | Resident Relations with Public Health Nurses |
1963-1967 |
4 | 7 | Resident Relations with Schools |
1963-1964 |
4 | 8 | Resident Relations with Social Workers |
1964-1966 |
4 | 9 | War Production Board |
1943-1946 |
Series III.: Editing JobsReturn to Top
(arranged alphabetically)
Container(s) | Description | ||
---|---|---|---|
Colby, Merle: |
|||
Box | Folder | ||
4 | 10 | Author of Our Father is Naked, published as The Big Secret in 1959 |
|
Folders | |||
4 | 11-13 | Our Father Is Naked, Draft 1 (folders #1, #2, and #3) |
undated |
5 | 1-2 | Our Father Is Naked, Draft 2 (folders #1 and #2) |
undated |
Folder | |||
5 | 3 | Our Father Is Naked, Final Manuscript, (folder #1) |
undated |
5 | 4 | Our Father Is Naked, Final Manuscript, revisions of Part 2, (folder #2) |
undated |
5 | Two copies of published texts: The Big Secret by Merle Colby |
1949 | |
Box | Folder | ||
5 | 5 | De Tata, Juan Carlos, M.D. |
1966-1969 |
6 | 1 | Gayle, R. Finley Jr. |
|
6 | 2 | Geismar, Ludwig L. |
1962-1963 |
6 | 3 | Gottlieb, Bernhardt S. |
1953-1962 |
6 | 4 | Grisso, Paul |
1963-1964 |
6 | 5 | King, C.H. |
1969 |
6 | 6 | Michelson, S. J. |
1957-1960 |
6 | 7 | Miscellaneous Correspondence for Editing |
1951-1966 |
Folders | |||
6 | 8-9 | PICA in Children (folders #1 and #2) |
1964-1965 |
Folder | |||
7 | 1 | Robson, Bill |
1966-1970 |
7 | 2 | Sareyan, Alex |
1961 |
7 | 3 | Sauren, Arnold |
1959-1961 |
7 | 4 | Schaller, Robert Clark |
undated |
7 | 5 | Seidenberg, Roderick |
1949-1955 |
7 | 6 | Snyder, Evelyn K. |
1961 |
7 | 7 | Terhune, William B., M.D. |
1960 |
7 | 8 | Thomas Y. Cromwell Company |
1949-1953 |
7 | 9 | Waldman, Herman |
1962 |
7 | 10 | Wengraf, Fritz, Dr. Text edited by Stella Hanau: Psychosomatic Approach to Gynecology and Obstetrics, 1953
|
1951-1953 |
Series IV.: The Bloch Family Scrapbook, (1750-1905)Return to Top
Container(s) | Description | Dates |
---|---|---|
Box | ||
8 | Family History (photocopy of scrapbook)
|
Names and SubjectsReturn to Top
Subject Terms
- Birth control--United States--20th century.
- Experimental theater--United States--20th century.
- Mental health--United States--20th century.
- Psychiatry--United States--20th century.
- Women editors--United States--20th century.
Personal Names
- Bernays, Hella Freud, 1893-1994.
- Hanau, Leo.
- Hanau, Richard.
- Lesher, Robert A.
Corporate Names
- American Psychiatry Association.
- United States. Dept. of Commerce.
Family Names
- Bloch family.
Form or Genre Terms
- Photographs.
- Scrapbooks.
Other Creators
-
Personal Names
- Colby, Merle, 1902-1969.