Gerda Richards Crosby Explained

Gerda Richards Crosby
Birth Date:June 19, 1900
Birth Place:Fall River, Massachusetts, United States
Death Date:April 6, 1953
Death Place:Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Occupation:Writer, historian, college professor
Notable Works:Disarmament and peace in British politics, 1914-1919 (1957)
Relatives:William Otis Crosby (father-in-law)

Gerda Cornell Richards Crosby (June 19, 1900 – April 6, 1953) was an American historian, college professor, and writer. She was awarded the Caroline Wilby Prize at Radcliffe College in 1933, and she is the namesake of the Gerda Richards Crosby Prize, awarded annually by the Harvard University Department of Government.

Early life and education

Gerda Cornell Richards was born and raised in Fall River, Massachusetts, the daughter of John Bion Richards and Winifred May Cornell Richards.[1] She was a Mayflower descendant; Richard Warren was her Mayflower ancestor.[2] In 1921 she was a page at the annual convention of the Daughters of the American Revolution in Washington, D.C.[3]

Richards graduated from Smith College in 1922,[4] and earned her master's and doctoral degrees at Radcliffe College in 1923 and 1933, respectively.[5] Her dissertation, "The Transformation of the Tory Party after 1780: A Study in Eighteenth-Century Party Politics", won the Caroline Wilby Prize for 1933.[6]

Career

In 1934 Crosby was teaching at Dartmouth College, when she took leave to work in Washington with the Committee on Economic Security.[7] In the 1940s, Crosby taught at Wellesley College, Hunter College, and Radcliffe College. She reviewed academic monographs for The Yale Review,[8] and The American Historical Review.[9] [10] Although her output was cut short by her early death, two works by Crosby have remained relevant to historians:

Personal life and legacy

Gerda Richards married engineering geologist Irving Ballard Crosby in 1929.[15] [16] She died in 1953, aged 52 years, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, survived by her husband and both her parents. Harvard University's Department of Government awards an annual Gerda Richards Crosby Prize.[17] Recipients of the Gerda Richards Crosby Prize include lawyer Oona A. Hathaway and economist Amy Finkelstein.

Notes and References

  1. News: 1922-06-20 . Three Local Girls Win the Smith A.B. . 1 . Fall River Daily Evening News . 2021-12-29 . Newspapers.com.
  2. Book: Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants . The Mayflower Descendant 25 . 1923 . Heritage Books. 978-0-7884-0523-5 . 191 . en.
  3. News: 1921-03-04 . Honor for Local Girl . 9 . The Evening Herald . 2021-12-29 . Newspapers.com.
  4. Book: Smith College . Class of 1922 . 1922 . Smith College. Smith College Libraries . 85 . Internet Archive.
  5. 1954 . Historical News . The American Historical Review . 59 . 2 . 495–512 . 10.1086/548935 . 1843672 . 0002-8762.
  6. News: 1933-06-22 . Radcliffe Degrees are Awarded to 236 . 28 . The Boston Globe . 2021-12-29 . Newspapers.com.
  7. 1934 . Notes . The American Economic Review . 24 . 4 . 788–806 . 1808265 . 0002-8282.
  8. Web site: Volume XXVI (26) (1936-1937) . 2021-12-29 . The Yale Review . en.
  9. Crosby . Gerda R. . Barnes . Donald Grove . Roberts . Michael . July 1940 . George III and William Pitt, 1783-1806: A New Interpretation based upon a Study of their Unpublished Correspondence . The American Historical Review . 45 . 4 . 872 . 10.2307/1854476 . 1854476 . 0002-8762.
  10. Crosby . Gerda Richards . 1942-07-01 . Letters from George III to Lord Bute, 1756–1766. Edited with an Introduction by Romney Sedgwick, Formerly Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. [Studies in Modern History, General Editor, L. B. Namier, Professor of Modern History, University of Manchester.] (New York: Macmillan Company. 1939. Pp. lxviii, 277. $4.00.) and America s Last King: An Interpretation of the Madness of George III. By Manfred S. Guttmacher. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1941. Pp. xv, 426. $3.50.) ]. The American Historical Review . 47 . 4 . 847–849 . 10.1086/ahr/47.4.847 . 0002-8762.
  11. Book: Essays in Modern English History in Honor of Wilbur Cortez Abbott . 1941 . Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press . Duke University Libraries.
  12. Book: Hecht, J. Jean . Changing Views on British History: Essays on Historical Writing since 1939 . 1966 . Harvard University Press . 978-0-674-33293-5 . Furber . Elizabeth Chapin . 206–233 . en . The Reign of George III in Recent Historiography . 10.4159/harvard.9780674332935.c9.
  13. Book: Crosby, Gerda Richards . Disarmament and peace in British politics, 1914-1919. . 1957 . Harvard University Press . Harvard historical monographs 32 . Cambridge.
  14. [Henry R. Winkler|Winkler, Henry R.]
  15. Web site: Collection: Irving B. Crosby papers . 2021-12-29 . MIT ArchivesSpace.
  16. News: 1959-09-21 . Obituary for Irving B. Crosby (Aged 68) . 27 . The Boston Globe . 2021-12-29 . Newspapers.com.
  17. News: 1959-11-14 . Geologist Crosby Leaves $85,000 for Tech Lectures . 3 . The Boston Globe . 2021-12-29 . Newspapers.com.

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