The Ward M. Canaday Center for Special Collections The University of Toledo Finding Aid Ella P. Stewart Papers, 1922-1987 MSS-052
|
Size: 2 linear feet
Provenance: received from Ella P. Stewart in 1987 and 1988.
Access: Open
Copyright: The literary rights to this collection are assumed to rest with the person(s) responsible for the production of the particular items within the collection, or with their heirs or assigns. Researchers bear full legal responsibility for the acquisition to publish from any part of said collection per Title 17, United States Code. The Ward M. Canaday Center for Special Collections may reserve the right to intervene as intermediary at its own discretion.
Completed by: April S. Dougal, 1990
Introduction
The Ella P. Stewart collection includes scrapbooks and other papers dating from 1922 to 1987. The material relates to Mrs. Stewart’s activity as a civic leader in Toledo. She was involved in many social welfare clubs both locally and nationally, and served as a representative of the United States to the United Nations. This collection documents some of the honors and activities of Mrs. Stewart while she lived in Toledo.
There are no restrictions on the use of the Ella P. Stewart Collection.
Biographical Sketch
Ella Nora Phillips Stewart was born March 6, 1893 in Berryville, Virginia. She attended grade school there and went on to attend Storer College near Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. Mrs. Stewart was the first African-American woman to graduate from the University of Pittsburgh’s College of Pharmacy.
After her second marriage, to William Wyatt (“Doc”) Stewart (also a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh), the couple moved to Toledo, Ohio and opened a pharmacy on Indiana Avenue. Mrs. Stewart became active in such community-service organizations as the League of Women Voters, Red Cross, Community Chest, The Toledo Museum of Art, and the Young Women’s Christian Association. Her work with the Indiana Avenue Day Nursery and the Pan-pacific and South East Asia Women’s Association is briefly documented in this collection.
In 1948, Ella Stewart was elected president of the National Association of Colored Women and served a four-year term as head of the organization. Other national assignments and honors included: an appointment to the Women’s Advisory Committee on Defense Manpower by the U.S. Department of Labor (1951), selection as a delegate to the International Conference of Women of the World by the National Council of Women of the U.S.A. (1952), a grant from the International Education Exchange Service of the State Department of the U.S. for a four month goodwill tour in the Far East (19540, the dedication of the “Ella P. Stewart School” (1961), and an appointment to the United States Commission of UNESCO, along with many other honors and awards.
Mrs. Stewart died in November 1987 in Toledo.
Scope and Content Note
The material in the Ella P. Stewart Collection documents her activities in civic and social welfare groups on the local, national, and international levels. Most of the material in the collection consists of scrapbooks created by Mrs. Stewart throughout her lifetime.
The collection is separated into four series: correspondence, club materials, literary productions, and scrapbooks. The series containing correspondence is by far the weakest, having little content and consisting primarily of greeting cards. The loosely described “club materials” series includes pamphlets and some notes on the Berea in Korea Foundation, the Pan-Pacific and South East Asia Women’s Association (PPSEAWA), and other clubs in which Mrs. Stewart was involved. Literary productions in the collection include pamphlets on Ohio women of distinction, and exhibition honoring Mrs. Stewart, a series of pamphlets on famous figures in African-American history, and two excerpts on slavery.
Scrapbooks comprise the bulk of this collection. Many were contained in non-archival scrapbooks, and were removed from that media. The materials retain their original order within the folders. Mrs. Stewart created scrapbooks about the Stewart Pharmacy and the Indiana Avenue Nursery project, which was carried out through cooperation between the Works Progress Administration and the Delta Sigma Theta sorority. Other scrapbooks contain memorabilia about Stewart’s participation in the Pan-Pacific and South East Asia Women’s Association, and her contacts with the Ward M. Canaday Center. Two scrapbooks are oversized, and are boxed separately.
Folder List
Box |
Folder |
Series |
Item |
1 |
1 |
Correspondence |
Greeting cards, 25 January 1965, n.d. |
|
2 |
Club Materials |
Berea in Korea Foundation, [1955?] |
|
3 |
Club Materials |
PPSEAWA, 1961-1987, n.d. |
|
4 |
Club Materials |
Miscellaneous Club Materials, July 1946, Nov 1956, n.d. |
|
5 |
Literary |
“Ohio Women,” Women’s Services Division, Ohio Bureau |
|
6 |
Literary |
“Black Women Against the Odds,” A Salute to Ella P. |
|
7 |
Literary |
“Black History,” vols.. I, III, and IV, 1984-1987 |
|
8 |
Literary |
“Remarks on the Slavery Question, in a Letter to Johnathan |
|
9 |
Literary |
“Town Hall of Geneva: History of the Plow and Pruning- |
|
10 |
Literary |
Ohio Senior citizens Hall of Fame (program), n.d. |
|
11 |
Literary |
Religious/Inspirational pamphlets (includes program for |
|
12 |
Scrapbooks |
“Ella P. Stewart, Stewart’s Pharmacy Special Book,” |
|
13 |
Scrapbooks |
“Indiana [Avenue] Nursery W.P.A. Project, in name of |
|
14 |
Scrapbooks |
“Ella P. Stewart - Personal,” 1945-1985 |
|
15 |
Scrapbooks |
“Ella P. Stewart at Pan-Pacific Conference, Manila, Philippines,” 1955 |
|
16 |
Scrapbooks |
“Toledo Universary [sic] Ward Canaday Center Private |
|
17 |
Scrapbooks |
Exhibit photos from Women’s History Month 2009 honoring |
3 |
^ |
Scrapbooks |
“Around the World With Ella P. Stewart,” 1951-1986 |
2 |
2^ |
Scrapbooks |
Exhibition display screen containing photos, news clippings, |