ARCHIVE: Manuscripts.
THE JULIET BARRETT RUBLEE ARCHIVE
“The sun would go down upon my days if you ever went out of my life.”
(Margaret Sanger to Juliet Barrett Rublee, 1915)
Juliet Barrett Rublee (1875-1966) was vice president of the American Birth Control League, and a close friend and patron of Margaret Sanger for over fifty years, from 1914 until their respective deaths in 1966. Rublee served as vice-chairman of the First American Birth Control Conference in 1921 (where she was arrested along with Sanger) and provided a steady source of funding for the Birth Control Review as well as important social and political contacts among the New York and Washington, D.C. elites. Born in Chicago, she was heiress to a building company fortune, and her husband, George Rublee, worked for Dwight Morrow and served in both the Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt administrations.
Through Sanger she became friends with Havelock Ellis and (as the correspondence with Ellis here shows), inspired him to write his 1918 essay, “The Erotic Rights of Women.” In addition to her activism in the birth control movement, the archive contains numerous letters, documents and photographs about Rublee’s two other passions: deep-sea diving devices for a possible film concerning the search for the lost city of Atlantis; and her production of a silent film drama set entirely in Mexico, originally titled, “Flame of Mexico,” and later released as “Soul of
Mexico” (1932). A rich, and important archive about a significant but neglected figure in the history of American feminism. Sanger’s biographer, Ellen Chesler, said of Rublee, “More than any other figure in the country's social establishment, she would be responsible for subsequent changes in the orientation of the birth control movement.”
The archive comprises:
—Rubee’s incoming correspondence (approximately 100 letters) from prominent figures in the birth control movement, as well the political and social scene of the U.S., 1915-1937, including: Margaret Sanger, Havelock Ellis, Anne Kennedy, Thomas Lamont, Norman Angell, and others. —Juliet Barret Rublee’s correspondence with her mother (13 letters) from wartime England and France (1917-1918).
—Correspondence and documents concerning the National Committee on Federal Legislation for Birth Control (1928-1936) and the group’s efforts to lobby Washington lawmakers to decriminalize the dissemination of birth control information and literature (approximately 20 items).
—Letters and documents concerning Rublee’s interest in deep-sea diving technology (23 items).
—Letters, documents and photographs concerning the production of the film “Flame of Mexico” (1928-1932). Approximately 200 items.
1 Margaret Sanger Letters.
A group of twelve autograph letters and and cards signed (“Margaret”), 1915-1932. Together 39 pages, various sizes. In pencil and ink. A wide-ranging, intimate correspondence that reveals the strong bond between Sanger and Rublee, and contains Sanger’s thoughts about fund-raising and expanding the birth control movement; the publication of her book Woman and the New Race; her reflections on the after-life and spirit world, and even recommendations for dieting.
[April 11, 1915]: “Indeed the sun would go down upon my days if you ever went out of my life. I have never felt so close to the spirit of a human being (except my girl Peggy) as I have always felt toward you from the first night we talked together in Albany. I do not think we need that soul rendering experience. We have gone above it I am sure. Your darling love encircled my life a thousand fold, & your faith in good, your always finding beauty in people & your remarkable insight into characters—and last but by no means least, your fine loyalty to right & fairness too...I am getting things adjusted at the office. The Review is terribly in debt. J. N. [her husband] gave $800 for October to keep pay[ing] some of the obligations. I want to get that off my mind so we can start organizing in other States.” On a fund-raising event at Carnegie Hall: “The collection has to be thought out and I am inclined to believe we are spiritually wrong in asking for funds. We should ask for memberships. We have always failed in getting money & I believe there is a reason. I would not tell this to anyone but you. Think it over...I believe we will grow stronger on memberships than on worrying people to give. Later, privately, we will go to our best friends & get what they can give...There is a wonderful field for us now...” In a 1929 letter she also talks strategy about a fund-raiser: “I think I should be the Chairman of the dinner unless you have been able to get someone like Ruth McCormack & even then it will be queer to have a stranger to the clinical work introducing the rest of us...You see if I am to introduce several grateful patients & have them tell their stories of success since they came to the clinic, it seems that I should do that as part of my speech working up to an appeal for money...”
Writing from London in May 1920, she reports: “Am to lecture next Wednesday May 12. My first real meeting and I’m wishing all kinds of things as usual. Lovely evening with Havelock. Am to have tea and dinner tomorrow with the darling. Marie Stopes and her nice looking husband were both at the Malthusian meeting last Wednesday. She lost her baby. I don’t know how yet, but she whispered most tragically, ‘It was murdered.’” Sanger goes on to relay accounts she has heard about the dire situation in Central Europe. “Thousands are dying of hunger there.” She returns to her anxiety about her impending lecture: “It’s like an actress trying out a new play away from home...” Stopes is mentioned again (along with another prominent British feminist, Stella Browne) in an undated note: “Dr. Stopes wrote a criticism of my book saying it had changed my ideas since her book came out. Stella B. wrote quoting from Family Limitation published in 1914, & asked her to ‘correct’ her statement...Do you think we can use Stella B. on the B. C. R. [Birth Control Review]?” Marie Stopes (1880-1958) was a paleobotanist and the first woman admitted to the faculty of the University of Manchester. With her husband she opened the first birth control clinic in Britain, and was the author of Married Love (1918). Stella Browne (1880-1955) was socialist and birth control advocate who was active in the Abortion Law Reform Association.
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[January 21, 1920]. “Just came from a meeting in Yonkers where I spoke to The Central Council Committee of Women. Not more than seventy-five women but all enthusiastic for BC except two Catholic women...Interesting that The Medium should see the book so clearly. I wonder why we should have trouble about it. It must get into print soon. Every day at lectures or in private talks questions arise which are answered in the book better than one can do it hurriedly...” From Cleveland in April 1920, she writes with joy about news of the impending publication of her book. “The woman are cold here. There is a reason tho. But what do you think of Brentanos!! I’m just delighted. You lovely one did it all. That pleases me as much as having them publish it.” Sanger is likely referring to Woman and the New Race, which Brentano’s published in 1920. “Now for ‘testimonials’ I must work on it Monday night so it will be ready for the printer Tuesday. They insist that I take out some law breaking suggestions...It simply enrages me!” She speaks of meeting a wealthy member of the Federal Reserve bank who was “very glad to know of our movement. I’m hoping he will send us a big fat check to prove his gladness.” She closes with “Just a word of love. It’s ages since I saw you...”
Several letters open a window into Sanger’s emotional and spiritual life. Writing from Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy on August 27, 1932, she rejoices in the restorative powers of the trip, while dreading returning to her husband. “I am so peaceful & rested & strong. Of course I have a dread of going back to all J. N.’s negations, his cants & donts, but I shall try to bring the Light of my Wisdom to shine upon his negative thoughts & so keep him.” She discusses her traveling companion through Italy, Elizabeth. “She has been the very dearest of ‘pals.’ Not a thing to irritate since I told her I hate being fussed over & told I should not do this & that. When once I impressed her that I intended to treat her as an equal & as an intelligent person capable of using her mind & reason & judgm’t & expected the same consideration from her, that settled our relations & really now I am very fond of her & miss her terribly...” She offers her thoughts about the afterlife and spirits of the departed when she asks Rublee to send condolences to a mutual friend. “Tell him that his little Mother is near him all the time & only his grief & loneliness for her, holds her back from being radiantly happy!!!I know this has been true in my Peggy’s case [Sanger’s youngest child, who died at age five] & I ceased mourning as soon as I realized that that is possible. Do get him to see that Darling. Mourning & grief of loved ones keeps them who have gone tied to earth condition, which they hate & long to get away from but cannot because of the love they have for their children, or parents, or others left behind.” She closes with a series of questions about Rublee’s movie project, such as the opening date, “Why are you going to M[exico], have you sold other Rights?...”
A February 1924 letter mentions her lover, Hugh de Sélincourt. “I thought you would like to read Hugh’s letter. He is so lovely. It’s good to pass on such radiant letters isn’t it? There is so little in the world of love & free, frank loveliness that I worship it when I see it...I am trying to write but oh my darling--how can one create when there is the pulling of a Cause--financial--moral-- political. The burden gets too big.” In an undated note she offers dietary and digestive advice: “Salts--yes, every night--don’t rinse off. Do you eat starch? Don’t while bathing. I believe it necessary to diet while you use the salts. Then eat all you wish after the desired weight has been
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attained. I also found two pastilles at night for ten days reglated me so I need nothing now (after two months) but to answer the call each day.”
Havelock Ellis Letters. A group of 18 autograph letters signed (“Havelock Ellis” or “H. Ellis”) and one autograph postcard signed (“H. Ellis”), 1918-1919. Together 28 pages, 4to and 12mo This correspondence documents Rublee’s introduction to Ellis, and her role in suggesting, editing and (via Margaret Sanger’s Birth Control Review) publishing his 1918 essay, “The Erotic Rights of Women.” Ellis frequently refers to Sanger. March 13, 1918: “I have been hoping to hear from you as Margaret told me you were arriving in England. If you would come to my den here I should be very pleased...I have lately begun writing a little paper (which I believe you suggested to Margaret for my inspiration) on what I am calling for the persent ‘The Erotic Rights of Women.’” March 16, 1918: “You mentioned that you are not familiar with London. If there is anything you want to see that I can show you or tell you about I shall be very pleased—though so many places are now shut-up & so many things hidden away. You mentioned libraries; the British Museum Reading Room is accessible after a few formalities...I go there once or twice a week; Margaret almost lived there...I meant to ask you...if you know anything of the new proposed International Women’s Question Magazine. You probably do, as some of the committee would be friends of yours. I have just been asked (by Miss Rita Hollingsworth) to contribute an article.” March 19, 1918: On sponsoring Rublee’s admission to the famous Reading Room of the British Museum. “This morning I was at the Museum & took the opportunity to see about your admission. I enclose the Regulations, & also a recommendation I have written [not included], which will, I hope, prove sufficient (one never knows!)...” March 28, 1918: “I am sending the enclosed paper (which I call ‘The Erotic Rights of Women,’ though I am not sure if that is a good title) for you to read in the first place, as it was you who suggested the idea of it. I should be glad to know what you think of it; and then I am preparing to send it to Margaret...”
March 31, 1918: “I am pleased to hear you have the Reader’s Ticket without further trouble...I will be in the Entrance Hall of the Museum. The policeman at the gate will probably try to bar your way, but will be helpless when you tell him you have a Reader’s Ticket. I sent you ‘The Erotic Rights of Women’ a few days ago, & am wondering whether you like it.” April 1, 1918: “I am pleased you like the paper...When we meet...you must tell me the parts you don’t like. I have no wish to introduce any contentious points in the paper. A letter from Margaret this morning who was anxious to know that you have arrived safely...”
On April 6, 1918 he reports “I have sent off the paper to Margaret (from whom I heard this morning, still anxious of news of you) & hope she will like it as well as you do. You said you wished you had a few carbon copies to send to friends in America. I can get these done, if you will have no trouble in sending them. They cannot go by post in the ordinary way, as the regulations allow letters, business papers, & nothing else to go through. I wonder how you would propose to send them. I made the alterations which we agreed upon.” He closes by asking if Rublee knows anything about “a new proposed Harper’s ‘Encyclopedia of the Science of Women’ in 6 volumes. The editor, Dr. Isidor Singer, asked Ellis “to be the representative of the British Empire on the Advisory Board! I don’t know anything about it.” April 10, 1918: “I will
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write to Dr. Singer to agree to his proposal, though I know nothing about him..I shall be able to send you 3 or 4 copies of my paper in the course of a few days...” April 13, 1918: “Here are 3 copies of my paper, in its revised condition...”
May 17, 1918: Sanger “is evidently using my article for the Review, & I am pleased she finds it suitable. Have the recent numbers of Review reached you? If not, I have duplicate copies of the Feb.-March (as well as Jan.) numbers.” [No date, ca. 1918] “Margaret has received my little paper in Erotic Rights & is quite enthusiastic about it.”
On June 29, 1918: Ellis reports that Sanger “has been ill” and “has had to have operation on jaw. But she has been able to bring out the June B. C. Review in which my paper appears.” November 8, 1918: “I find, with your letter, another, after a long silence, from Margaret. She seems cheerful & busy, but is troubled by a gland in the neck which is rebellious to treatment, & there will probably have to be an operation. I expect to be visiting Dr. Stopes shortly. I have been investigating her doctrine of the ‘fundamental pulse,’ & I think confirming it.” May 30, 1919: “A little book such as you propose seems quite possible. But at present the papers are but few. We must wait till there are more of them. You must tell me more of your idea of the ‘very radical essay’, & I will see if it can be worked in.”
Several letters arrange a visit by Rublee to Ellis’s home in Brixton, and he suggests she come by “proletarian methods” by tram or bus. In one letter he points out that buses from Oxford Circus or Marble Arch “stop a few yards from me (‘Gresham Road’). I am opposite the Police Station, & just over the Head Quarters of the Special Constables!”
Anne Kennedy Letters. Kennedy (1885-1966) served as Executive Secretary of the American Birth Control League, and was founder of the San Francisco Birth Control Committee. Eight autograph letters signed and 3 typed letters signed, most undated, ca. 1926-1930. Together 36pp., 4to and 8vo. February 11, 1926: “Your love has given me wings that will carry me where I can’t be hurt. I have really built something that no one can tear down, and I will stand bravely by that and go on until I feel it is completed--my work--and the who knows. Please forgive this outburst...” February 1, 1926: Thanks for Barrett Rublee’s telegram “and that magic word Understood--really, Juliet, you are marvelous. Your comprehension of human feeling and emotion is almost magical...” She mentions the possibility of Margaret Sanger publishing a piece in the Atlantic Monthly and mentions Eugene O’Neil and Noel Coward, and Marie Stopes’s hopes to stage a play with Coward on the theme of birth control. On lobbying: “I loathe the job of pursuing Senators to get an opinion from them. It requires the greatest tact and perseverance and dignity...” June 25, 1928: “I am back in New York again. A strenuous trip and I was tired from dashing about, Chicago, Madison, Detroit, and Toronto, besides Minneapolis, was quite a jaunt in twelve days. I haven’t seen Margaret since my return, so I don’t know what happened at the Director’s meeting...” Several letters recount dreams that included Barrett Rublee. June 18, n.y.: “You and I were sitting in a forest of beautiful trees and below us ran a clear and sparkling stream. Our companion said, Your life should be like that water, beautiful and clear, it flows from
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a perfect source, remove every obstruction, every small deceit, every jealousy. You asked this person, a man, who he was, and he said I’m love, the friend of those seeking a perfect life...”
National Committee on Federal Legislation for Birth Control. A group of correspondence, printed matter and ephemera concerning the NCFLBC. Approximately 20 items. This includes: a typed memorandum titled, “Magistrates Before Whom Mrs. Sanger came,” listing each of the judges Sanger encountered as a result of her arrests, starting the Special Sessions Magistrate’s Court in Brooklyn and New York City in 1917, and reaching up to the State’s appellate courts and the U.S. Supreme Court. The memorandum lists the marital and parental status of each of the judges: “Louis Brandeis...Married 1891--No children mentioned.” Also included are press releases and statements issued by the National Committee on Federal Legislation for Birth Control, and a report of Sanger’s visit to India in 1936. The NCFLBC was dedicated to pressuring lawmakers into removing criminal statutes that banned the dissemination of information and literature concerning birth control.
JBR letters to her mother and World War I manuscripts. Thirteen autograph letters signed, 1918-1919 when Barrett served as a nurse in a Red Cross field hospital in France. She recounts some of the shocking wounds she witnessed as well as some of the startling things she learned about her fellow Americans. June 25, 1918: “One boy is from Memphis, Tennessee, & told me yesterday about helping to burn a negro at the stake, because he had killed a man. He said, ‘That’s the way we do things in Memphis...’” November 7, 1918: “But the war news is wonderful, isn’t it, though I suppose the Germans will boast that their army was not defeated. They have managed a masterly retreat, they say...” November 10, 1918: “Isn’t it amazing the things are happening in Germany? And today at last the Kaiser actually abdicated--an undreamed of possibility I suppose for him.” November 12: “The news came to us yesterday morning--and London slowly began to go wild. I was in Bond Street and had gone into a shop to buy some cigarets. Just as I asked the girl for them she jumped away from me, crying, ‘It is the Armistice, the Armistice.’...By that time everyone had the news & everyone was on the street, nobody knowing exactly what to do...The most enthusiasm & the most feeling, was in the working people...” She drove with friends into Piccadilly Circus where the car was mobbed and immobilized by the celebrating throng. “I hope & trust that a new era will really begin, free from war forever...” Also with: Berthe Tieleman. Autograph manuscript signed, n.d. 17 pages, 8vo. Her account (in French) of a German massacre in Belgium which she witnessed in August 1914. With original autograph envelope addressed to Rublee. With Rublee’s autograph manuscript, May 7, 1915. 9 pages, 4to, in pencil. Her account of her interview with Mme. Tieleman; and an 11 page typescript of Rublee’s article “The Murder of the Mayor of Aerschot,” and a copy of the May 1918 issue of The Red Cross Magazine in which it appeared.
General Correspondence, 1910-1936. 49 letters. Notable correspondents include: Thomas W. Lamont. Three typed letter signed (“T. W. Lamont”), October 26, 1920, November 1, 1920, and July 23, 1923. Together 4pp., 8vo on 23 Wall Street stationery (Tiffany & Co. watermark). “I think you exaggerate my influence in Washington,” Lamont tells Rublee, but he is willing to do what he can “to elect the proper candidate for President...Confidentially, the trouble in tackling
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Mr. Wilson is that not being altogether one hundred percent well, he is apt to go off a little at a tangent and one doesn’t know just where to find him. If I were to take up with him the question of Article X, I might strike him at just a moment when it would spoil the whole thing. He is very touchy on Article X, and I think that the risk of spoiling the situation is greater than the advantage to be gained...” Six days later Lamont writes: “Gay attended the conference with President Wilson and he said the scene was pathetic. He seems to believe that Mr. Wilson’s statement was really his swan-song...” Article 10 of the League of Nations Covenant, called for member states to aid any other member state who was militarily attacked. U.S. Senators objected to the provision as likely to involve the U.S. in future European wars and refused to ratify the Treaty as a result. The issue of the League was central to the 1920 presidential campaign which saw the voters reject Wilson’s internationalism and select Warren Harding as president, on a pledge to return the U. S. to “normalcy.” Norman Angell (1872-1967). British politican and peace activist. Two autograph letters signed, January 3 [n.y.] and August 16, [1916]. In the 1916 letter he writes, “Public temper could hardly be worse. The kind of thing that has been happening to Bertrand Russell is merely typical. We have drifted towards Prussianism at a rate which I should not have thought possible two years ago. It is true of course that we may drift back again, but it is hard to believe...You are all I suppose very much wrapped up in the Election just now. For the first time since I can remember I have found a real anti-Americanism in England...it’s all sickening in its stupidity.” George Rublee. Eleven autograph letters signed, 1919-1934. Together 36pp., 4to and 8vo. Letters from Rublee’s husband, mainly from Washington where Rublee was a member of the firm Covington, Burling & Rublee, passing along social news, reports about their stock investments; one letter mentions efforts to induce Margaret Sanger to visit Juliet Rublee in Mexico. Also with two letters to Rublee from Louis Dow, and one from Judge Learned Hand. Hugh de Sélincourt. Eight autograph letters signed (“Hugh”), to Rublee, and to Margaret Sanger, 1924-1926. Together 23 pages, 8vo, many on Sand Pit stationery. Some letters with address and signature blotted out. Love letters from the man who was also the lover of Margaret Sanger and Havelock Ellis’s wife, Marguerite. [Undated]: “When you put your arms round my neck and kissed me so simply and so dearly and so beautifully. It was absolutely perfect, perfect...Our love for Margaret is the begetter of that moment.” [Undated]: “My heart is entirely open to you because I saw your love for Margaret...Margaret appears to me as a God-sent storm that shook the accumulated rubbish of my life to ruins and allowed me to emerge from the dusty heap...” The January 21, 1924 letter to Sanger closes with, “I kiss your beautiful hands—yours with love always...”
Oceanic Exploration.
Twenty-three letters and documents, 1925-1928, concerning deep sea explortion, including: correspondence from Hans Hartman concerning his invention of an “apparatus for taking submarine motion pictures,” a 1928 blueprint for a diving bell by Emilio F. Nolte; also correspondence from scientists at Johns Hopkins, the Royal Geographical Society, and Scientific American magazine; a 30-page typescript (incomplete) titled “Personal Experience Under Sea on a Deep Sea Work.”
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“Flame of Mexico” (later released as “Soul of Mexico”) motion picture, 1928-1937.
A collection of approximately 200 letters, documents and photographs regarding the making of Barrett Rublee’s film, “Flame of Mexico” (later changed to “The Heart of Mexico” and finally released as “The Soul of Mexico”). Included are two typescripts of the film treatment, “In Old Mexico,” by Juliet Barrett Rublee, adapted by David Kirkland (the film’s director); an April 12, 1937 typed letter signed from the film’s star, Alicia Ortiz; copies of two Mexican film magazines featuring Ortiz; a May 13, 1932 typed letter signed from the Mexican ambassador to the U.S.; a June 3, 1929 typed letter signed from Hollywood agent, Ivan Kahn; the original piano score for the (silent) film; and some 40 additional letters from friends Rublee made during her time in Mexico.
Photographs and Miscellaneous items. The collection includes approximately 150 photographs and negatives, including two fine prints of photographic portraits of Margaret Sanger, and photos from the Rublee’s travels in Russia, Egypt, and Mexico. But most of the photographs consist of still shots from the film “Flame of Mexico” (and bear that title stamp on the verso), as well as photos of the actors and actresses in the film. Also with: Autograph manuscript titled, “C. of
L.” (possibly “City of Light”), n.d.. 22 pages, 4to. In pencil. The story of a young woman in Paris married to a wealthy older man who dies without providing for her maintenance, forcing the woman to make her own way in the world. With a folder of approximately 60 pages of typescript and manuscript notes comprising drafts of story ideas (many drawn from newspaper stories clipped and included with the manuscript material). Further items include a collection of printed ephemera and manuscript notes on spiritual and occult subjects: Sharing, by J. P. Thornton-Duesbery. An Oxford Group publication; flyers for a “Master Course” conducted by A. K. Mozumdar, with a signed photo of Mozumdar; an astrological chart. Autograph manuscript notes, in pencil, on travel experiences, approx. 35 pages, 4to and 8vo. JRB’s 1927 U.S. Passport.
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