IOWA WOMEN’S ARCHIVES
UNIVERSITY OF IOWA LIBRARIES
IOWA CITY, IOWA
DORA JANE HAMBLIN
(1920-1993)
PAPERS, 1937-1993
5.8 linear feet and audiovisual material
|
ACQUISITION: |
The papers (donor no. 144) were donated
by Mary Ovrom in 1993. |
|
ACCESS: |
The papers are open for research. |
|
AUDIOVISUAL: |
One
videocassette shelved in videocassette collection (V27). |
|
COPYRIGHT: |
Copyright
has been transferred to the University of Iowa. |
|
PHOTOGRAPHS: |
In box 14 |
|
PROCESSED
BY: |
Your name, year»George Mullally, 1994. |
Biography
Dora Jane Hamblin was born June 15, 1920 in Bedford, Iowa. Her father was the editor and publisher of
the Bedford Times-Press and
Dora--"Dodie" to her friends--was encouraged by her parents and her
teachers at Bedford High School to write.
She attended Coe College in Cedar Rapids where she became editor of the Coe College Cosmos and a member of the
Delta Delta Delta sorority. She
graduated "magna cum laude" in 1941 and then attended Northwestern
University in Evanston, Illinois, where she earned a master's degree from the
university's Medill School of Journalism in 1942.
For the next
two years she was employed as a reporter and photographer for the Cedar Rapids Gazette. In June of 1944 she resigned from the paper,
joined the American Red Cross and served in Australia, the Phillippines, the
Southwest Pacific, Japan, and Europe.
During this period she continued to contribute articles to the Cedar Rapids Gazette about her
experiences with the United States troops and the native populations she came
in contact with. She was eventually
named overseas staff correspondent for the Red Cross official publication, The Red Cross Courier, and contributed extensively
to that publication.
In mid-1948
Hamblin joined the staff of Life
magazine in New York as a researcher.
Within eighteen months she was named a correspondent in the Paris
office. There followed two years as
correspondent in London, two in Chicago, and four years, beginning in 1956, as
chief of the Life bureau in Rome,
Italy, where she directed Life's
coverage of the death of Pope Pius XII, the election and coronation of Pope
John XXIII, and the 1960 Olympic games.
In 1960
Hamblin was recalled to the New York office to serve as assistant editor,
associate editor, and finally as staff writer, one of only three women ever to
achieve that position on the magazine.
From February 1967 until December 1969, she was stationed one-third of
her time in Houston, Texas, to provide coverage of the space program and of the
astronauts and their families for Life. She conducted interviews with all of the
astronauts and did extensive research on technical details of this first manned
moon flight. During this period she,
along with Life's Gene Farmer, wrote First on the Moon (1970), an account of
the first moon landing by Apollo 11.
This work was officially approved by the three members of the crew, Neil
Armstrong, Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin, and Michael Collins. It was also during this period of time that Hamblin was bestowed
the honorary degree of Doctor of Literature by Coe College in Cedar Rapids.
In 1970 Hamblin resigned from the Life staff and retired to Trevignano, Italy, a lakeside resort near
Rome, to live and work as a free lance writer.
She continued to submit articles to Life
until the magazine folded at the end of 1972.
She also wrote on archaeological subjects for the Smithsonian as well as for Sports
Illustrated and World. Several of her Life articles were reprinted in Readers
Digest.
One of
Hamblin's major interests was archaeology and she wrote several works on the
subject: Pots and Robbers (1970), Buried Cities and Ancient Treasures
(1973), and The Appian Way, a Journey
(1974). She also wrote two volumes of
the Time-Life Books series entitled The
Emergence of Man, namely The First
Cities (1973) and The Etruscans
(1975), and wrote a section of the series' first volume, Life Before Man (1972).
During the
years 1973 to 1975, Hamblin worked with stage and screen star Mary Martin and
was, in effect, the "ghost-writer" of Martin's autobiography, My Heart Belongs, published in
1976. The year 1977 saw the publication
of That Was the Life,
Hamblin's collection of stories about the magazine she had worked for for
twenty-three years.
Hamblin's
active, far-ranging life came to an end August 17, 1993, when the writer and
Iowa native died of a heart attack at her home in Trevignano, Italy. She was 73.
Scope and Content Note
The Dora Jane Hamblin papers date from 1937 to 1993 and
measure 5.8 linear feet. They are
organized in four series: Biographical material and oral history, Writings and
research, Family papers, and Photographs.
The first series, Biographical material and oral
history (1967-1993), is arranged in two subseries. The first subseries, Biographical material (1967-1993), contains a precis of Hamblin's
life written by her sister, Mary Ovrom; newspaper clippings about and a program
of the 1968
Coe College commencement at
which Hamblin was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Literature;
correspondence from Frank Paluka, Head of Special Collections, University of
Iowa, concerning the donation of manuscript and book draft materials to the
university; a copy of her obituary from
the Des Moines Register dated August 22, 1993; and a eulogy to Hamblin
by her sister, Mary Ovrom, from her column in the Van Buren County Register.
The second subseries, Oral
history, consists of a videocassette of Hamblin made on January 8, 1988 in which she discusses the
highlights of her professional career.
The cassette has been removed and shelved separately in the
Videocassette Collection (no. V27).
The second series, Writings and research
(1937-1981), is organized chronologically into seven subseries. The first subseries, Early writings (1937-1942) contains book reviews, term papers,
manuscripts submitted for publication to various women's magazines, and poetry
written while she was a student at Coe College. Also in this subseries is a photographic essay entitled Girl Scout Camping Trip, compiled while
she was at Northwestern University. The
second subseries, Cedar Rapids Gazette articles (1944-1947), contains articles
about United States troop conditions submitted by Hamblin while serving as an
American Red Cross staff assistant in Australia, the Phillippines, the
Southwest Pacific, Japan, and later in the European theater of war. The third subseries, Red Cross Courier articles
(1945-1948), contains articles submitted by Hamblin in her capacity as an
American Red Cross staff correspondent.
However, contributions to other periodicals and clippings from various
United States newspapers as well as photographs by Hamblin published in International Events are also included.
The fourth subseries, Life file (1948-1981), is
by far the most extensive portion of these papers. It contains Hamblin's original drafts and revisions of articles,
research and background material sent to Life
magazine for rewrite or development by senior staff editors and copies of
original articles published in Life
under her own by-line. It also includes
descriptions of photographs submitted to the editorial offices in New
York. A significant portion of this
subseries, indeed, of this entire collection of papers, is devoted to Hamblin's
assignment to Houston, Texas in 1969 to cover the Apollo 11 mission to the
moon. Contained herein is extensive
research material, scientific and personal, on man's first landing on the
moon. Of primary importance are her
interviews with all the major personnel associated with the flight, NASA
personnel included, but with special emphasis given to the three astronauts,
Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Mike Collins, and their families. All material in this extensive subseries is
arranged alphabetically by the author's own subject headings.
The fifth subseries, Miscellaneous articles (1968, 1982), contains
articles from the Coe College Courier
(July 1968) and the Smithsonian (July
1981). The sixth subseries, Reviews of Hamblin's books, contains
reviews of The Appian Way and That Was the Life from Iowa
newspapers. The seventh subseries
consists of a single, unpublished and undated manuscript (ca. 350 leaves) of
the life of film actress, Sophia Loren, entitled simply
"Sophia." The manuscript
covers Loren's life up to 1966.
The third series, Family papers (1939-1993), is
divided into three subseries. The
first, "Mrs. Hamblin's children ,"
consists of an autobiography by Mary Margaret Ovrom, Hamblin's sister, written
in 1975. The second subseries, "Around the bend," contains a
collection of columns by that title from the 1980s, written by Mary Ovrom for
the Van Buren County Register, the Des Moines Register, and the Ottumwa Courier. The column occasionally appeared under the
title "Mary-go-round". The
third subseries, "In our
town," contains a collection of columns by that title dated 1939 to
1963 from the Bedford Times-Press by
Allen W. Hamblin, the paper's editor and publisher for forty-one years. Of special note in this subseries is a
published letter from Dora Jane Hamblin describing her Mexico-Yucatan trip in
1955. It also contains a 1955 letter
from James McCutcheon of the Mount Vernon
Hawkeye-Record to A.W. Hamblin requesting information on the early history
of chautauqua performances in Bedford, Iowa, and a copy of a eulogy to A.W.
Hamblin by his daughter, Mary Ovrom, from the Cedar Rapids Gazette, dated May 5, 1974.
The fourth series, Photographs
(1937-1969) consists of contact sheets, negatives and, less frequently, prints
of personal trips taken by Hamblin and photographs of locations and persons
associated with her many assignments for Life
magazine. The first subseries, Personal and family (1937-1961), is
arranged chronologically. The second subseries,
Life
articles (1951-1969), is arranged alphabetically by Hamblin's subject
headings.
Box no. Description
Box 1
Biographical material and oral history, 1967-1993
Biographical material,
1967-1993 (photographs in box 14)
Oral history, Jan. 8, 1988
(VHS, 1 hour, 50 minutes) [shelved in videocassette collection: V27]
Writings and research, 1937-1981
Early writings, 1937-1942
Coe College, 1937-1941
Book reviews and term papers
Stories submitted to women's magazines
Unsubmitted stories
Poetry
Northwestern University, 1942 (Girl
Scout Camping Trip: photographic essay)
Cedar Rapids
Gazette
articles, 1944-1947
Red Cross
Courier
articles, 1945-1948
Life file, 1948-1981
Accademia Chigiana and Count Chigi, 1956-1961
Adventure, 1957-1960
Africa trip, 1960
Alpine bears--Italian Dolomites, 1959-1960
Alto Adige, Italy, 1957
American liberals, 1949
Box 2
Americans abroad, 1957
Animal-vegetable oddities, 1954
Apollo 11 mission, 1969
Apollo program (general) and space history
Apollo 10
Apollo 11
General
First person interviews
Geology (2 folders)
Astronauts' wives
Apollo 12
General
Astronauts' wives
Box 3
Astronauts' widows
Bedford (Iowa)
Times-Press
article
Book (First on
the Moon)
Correspondence and memoranda
Editorial revisions
Interviews (2 folders)
Photograph descriptions
Contract with Life
magazine
Enos the chimp, Gordon Cooper, Deke Slayton
Eric's Pub
Exercise class
Flagstaff operation
Freeman and Freeman Library
Good works
Box 4
Health--Dr. Berry
Landing sites
Life support systems
Lunar receiving lab
Manned Space Center, Houston
Moon names controversy
Moon probes
Music in space
Names and patches
Navigation
Personnel
Aldrin, Edwin (Buzz) (2 folders)
Anders, William
Box 5
Armstrong, Neil
Armstrong, Mrs. Steven
Bean, Alan
Borman, Frank
Carpenter, Scott
Cate, Ben
Cernan, Gene
Charlesworth, Cliff
Collins, Mike (2 folders)
Conrad, Charles (Pete)
Cooper, Gordon
Cunningham, Walt
Duke, Charlie
Box 6
Eisele, Donn
Evans, Ron
Garriott, Owen
Gibson, Edward
Gilruth, Bob
Glenn, John
Gordon, Dick
Grimwood, Jim
Grissom, Virgil (Gus)
Haise, Fred
Kerwin, Joseph
Lind, Don
Llewellyn, John A.
Lovell, Jim
Mathews, Charles
McCandless, Bruce
McDivitt, James (photograph in box 14)
McDonnell, Frank Morgan
Michel, Curt
Morse, Ralph
O'Hara, Dee
Phillips, Samuel
Pogue, Bill
Schirra, Wally
Schmitt, Harrison (Jack)
Schweikart, Russell (Rusty)
Box 7
Scott, David
Shea, Joseph
Shepard, Alan
Slayton, Donald (Deke)
Stafford, Tom
Williams, Clifton
Worden, Alfred
Young, John
Religion
Rescue in space
Scientist astronauts
Soviet--United States space statistics
Space-ese acronyms
Spacemobiles
"To the moon and back" [special edition of
Life]
Training
Architects and architecture, Italian, 1957-1960
Army housing scandal, 1949
Art frauds, 1959
Artists, 1951-1960
Atomic energy program--Oppenheimer, 1954
Avery, Sewell, and Montgomery Ward, 1955
British public figures (Makins, Bevan), 1952
Brussels Exposition, 1958
Box 8
Busch family--St. Louis, 1954
Callas, Maria, 1955-1960
Cardinals of the Church, 1957-1960
Churches--Relevance in American religious life [1968?]
Churchill's [Winston] funeral, [1965]
Civil War--Albert Woolson, Duluth, Minnesota, 1954
Coal--Great Britain, 1952
Communism and American efforts against, 1951, 1958
Communism--France, 1950
Communists--United States--Trial, 1949
Confederate Air Force, 1964-1968 (2 folders)
Crosby, Caresse, 1954-1966 (photographs in box 14)
Denmark, 1952, 1957
Depression--Charles City, Iowa, 1954-1955
Devil's Advocate--Vatican official [1966]
Displaced persons--Lithuania, Germany, 1948-1949
Box 9
Dolci, Danilo, 1957-1960
East-West Conference, 1965 (photographs in box 14)
Eisenhower [Dwight] in Rome, 1959
Etna, Mount--Geology, 1960
Evarts, Kentucky--Police chiefs, 1948
Fads, American, [1964?]
Fangio, 1957
Farm story--Bruene family, Iowa, 1954
Farms--National Farmers Organization, 1956
Fashion, 1951-1959
Festivals, Italian, 1957-1958
Finney, Albert, undated
Fort Wayne, Indiana, poorhouse, 1949
Fullerettes, 1948
Gilbert and Sullivan, 1952
Grand Duchess Olga, 1960
Greek theater, 1950 (photographs in box 14)
Hilton hotels, [1963?]
Holland, 1950 (photographs in box 14)
Home to Iowa: the loving Christmas ritual of a journey into childhood,
1972 [reprint: Coe College, 1993?]
Household gadgets--France, 1950
Humor, 1953-1957
Hunt, James V., 1949
International crime--Italy, 1958-1960
Iowa reapportionment, 1964
Italy--Natural beauty, 1958-1960
Japanese-Americans, 1956
Josie, Edith, 1963-1964
Box 10
Kennedy [John F.] gun, 1965
Key clubs--Chicago, 1955
Kidd, James, 1964-1967
Khrushchev's [Nikita] clothes, 1957
Levittown, Long Island--Housing discrimination, 1949
Liquor--Iowa, 1964
Louisiana story, 1969
McCarthy [Joseph] background, 1954
McKenny, Roth, 1957
Mad vicars and religious customs, 1951-1966
Mark (Ye) (the) Twain, 1964
Mexico trip--Yucatan, 1955 [original letter to her parents and as
republished in the Bedford (Iowa)
Times-Press] (photographs in box 14)
Movies and movie reviews, 1952-1968 (2 folders)
Murder cases--Rome, London, Paris, 1951-1957
Mussolini and fascism, 1952 (photographs in box 14)
Naples, Italy, 1958
Box 11
Nilsson, Birgit, 1964-1965
Odd sites and sights--Italy, 1958
Olympics and Nervi, 1952-1960
Opera and singers, 1959-1969
Palio horse race--Siena, Italy, 1959-1960
Perryopolis, Pennsylvania--Inheritance, 1948
Phillips, John, undated
Pignatari, "Baby", 1958
Police--Rome, undated
Pucci, Emilio, 1969
Queen Mary (Ocean liner), 1967
Rand, Ayn, 1957-1967
Ravenna, Italy, 1957
Religious art, 1958
Robinson, Sugar Ray, 1951 (photographs in box 14)
Russian athletes--1950 Olympics, 1950-1952
Russian dignitaries in Iowa, 1955
Sahara expedition (Mori), 1959
Box 12
Schmidt, Lars, 1964 (photographs in box 14)
Scholl, Dr.--Feet, 1954-1968
Sculpture and sculptors, 1953-1957
SETAF, 1956-1957
SHAPE [Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe]-NATO-Ike-Baghdad
pact, 1950-l959
Sharif, Omar, 1966
Ships, 1957-1960
Sicily and Mafia, 1957-1959
Sioux City, Iowa, 1967
Smith, William Russell--inventor, 1949
Somalia, 1963-1964
Southern Illinois, 1955
Stamps--Royal Philatelic Collection, 1952-1959
Stout, Juanita Kidd, Judge, [after 1964]
Supermarkets abroad, 1957-1958
Swindlers, 1960
Tourists in Europe, 1949, 1959
Tourists, Italian, and other, 1968
Toys, 1958-1959
Box 13
Traffic, Automobile--Rome, Paris, London, 1951-1960
Trastevere (Rome, Italy), 1959-1963
Tree houses, 1955
Truman, Harry S., 1955
Truman's [Harry S.] civil rights program, 1949
Truman's [Harry S.] Russian A-bomb announcement--United Nations
reaction, 1949
Twins and Jonathan Goldberg, undated
United Electrical Workers, 1949
Ustinov, Peter, 1952-1953
Venice, Italy, 1958
Villas, palaces, resorts, gardens, 1957-1959
War brides and other brides, 1947-1958
War stories--World War II, 1951-1958
Miscellaneous articles, 1968,1981
"The space program will change our lives" (Coe College Courier, 1968)
"At RAGBRAI time in Iowa, everybody puffs to Keokuk" (Smithsonian, 1981)
Reviews of Hamblin's books, 1975-1977
"Sophia" [unpublished manuscript], [ca.
1966]
Chapter I-VI
Chapter VII-XIII
Chapter XIV-XX
Box 14
Family papers, 1939-1993
"Mrs. Hamblin's children", 1975, by Mary
Ovrom
"Around the bend": a collection of
articles from the 1980's, by Mary Ovrom
"In our town": a collection of columns,
1939-1963, by Allen W. Hamblin, compiled by Mary H. Ovrom
Photographs, 1937-1969
Personal and family, 1937-1961
Formal portraits (2) undated; passport picture, 1954 (negative);
Hamblin with her niece, undated (4 negatives)
Coe College, 1937-1941 (140 negatives)
Girl Scout Camping Trip: photographic essay
prepared at Northwestern University, 1942 (housed in box 1)
Hamblin with Alfred Eisenstadt, New York, 1949 (1 color negative)
Middle East trip, 1950 (24 contact sheets, 11 negatives, 32 prints)
Germany and Switzerland trip, 1950
Contact sheets (10)
Negatives (75)
Switzerland--General (10)
Berchtesgaden (6)
Berne and Interlaken (7)
Murren (35)
Oberammergau (17)
France, 1950-1951
Contact sheets (15)
Negatives (81)
France--General (10)
Barbizon (6)
Fontainebleau (9)
Mont St. Michel (6)
Nice and Riviera (11)
Paris (34)
Provins (5)
European trip with parents, 1951 (6 contact sheets, 1 negative)
Spain trip, 1952 (9 negatives)
Snowstorm scenes at Chicago apartment, 1955-1956 (1 contact sheet, 4
negatives)
Italy, 1956-1960 (folder 1)
Views of Hamblin's office, apartment, street scenes,
etc., 1956-1960 (24 contact sheets, 44 negatives)
Italy, 1956-1960 (folder 2)
Agrigento, 1959 (1 contact sheet, 3 negatives)
Gloria Lane party, 1960 (6 negatives)
Palio, Siena, 1960 (2 contact sheets, 4 negatives)
Ravenna--Gold Medal, 1960 (2 negatives)
Renata di Renzo, 1960 (5 negatives)
Coe College alumni award, 1961 (4 contact sheets, 19 negatives)
Life articles, 1951-1969
Crosby, Caresse, 1954-1966 (1 print, 1 negative)
East-West Conference, 1965 (9 prints)
Greek theater, 1950 (4 contact sheets, 13 negatives)
Holland, 1950 (4 contact sheets, 2 negatives)
McDivitt, James, 1968 (1 color print)
Mexico trip--Yucatan, 1955 (2 contact sheets, 7 negatives)
Mussolini and fascism, 1952 (8 prints)
Robinson, Sugar Ray, 1951 (1 negative)
Schmidt, Lars, 1964 (3 contact sheets)