Kate Crane Gartz Collection

Collection

Identifier: SPC-2018-004

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This collection contains correspondence, poems, clippings and other documents related to communism and political activism, photographs, and a rough draft of Crane Gartz's travel diary.

Dates

1929-1954

Creator

Crane-Gartz, Kate (Person)

Biographical / Historical

Kate Crane Gartz was born Katherine Elizabeth Crane in 1865 to the wealthy Crane family, who made their fortune in ironworks. Crane Gartz grew up in Chicago, where she became familiar with Jane Addams' Hull House, to which her father donated money. Early exposure to the contrast of her own affluence with the poverty of those in Chicago's tenement district led Crane Gartz to dedicate much of her life to philanthropy and communism. She moved to Altadena, California, in 1907, where she lived until her death in 1949. Crane Gartz hosted weekly salons for leftist and intellectual discussions in her Altadena home, The Cloisters. She wrote extensively and published several books.

Extent

2 boxes

.5 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

The Kate Crane Gartz Collection contains a wide array of personal papers including correspondence, poems, clippings, activism ephemera, drafts and information related to her published travel diary "Around the World with Kate Crane Gartz," and photographs. The materials were collected by her friend and colleague, John Weatherwax. This collection is now part of the

Related Materials

The CSU Dominguez Hills Department of Archives and Special Collections also contains several published works by Kate Crane Gartz: The Parlor Provocateur or From Salon to Soap-Box: The Letters of Kate Crane Gartz (1923), A Woman and War (1928), Around the World with Kate Crane Gartz (1929), Seventh Book (circa 1930s), Realistic Rhythms (1942), Letters of Protest (no date), and More Letters (no date).