Jane Ruby Papers

Collection

Identifier: MC-055

Staff Only

Scope and Content

These papers document the life of Jane Eleanor Ruby, who was a history professor at Wheaton College from 1954 to 1978, including her education and employment before Wheaton and her activities after her retirement until she died in 1992. The materials of the collection are organized chronologically. There are many gaps within the collection due to the lack of material for each series. The strengths of the collection are found in her writing material and periodicals that provide a insight into Ruby’s life. The collection is divided up into four series, EDUCATION, PROFESSIONAL LIFE, WRITINGS, and PERSONAL LIFE.

The EDUCATION series cover the years from 1925 to 1979 covering from Ruby’s high school education at U.S Grant High School in Portland Oregon to her time at Reed College. The materials of the series are organized chronologically. The series includes scans of Ruby’s High School year book of her senior year, Memoirs, along with newspaper clippings of her time there and her 50th High school reunion. The series also includes her yearbook, The Griffin from Reed College in 1931 in addition to her alumni register from 1955.

The PROFESSIONAL life series documents the years from 1939 to 1963. The series covers her time spent at Rutgers University and Smith College. The material from Rutgers University is little consisting of publications Ruby is mentioned in from 1939 to 1941. The material on Ruby’s time at Smith College is more extensive, including multiple directories and bulletins during her time there from 1945 to 1963. An interesting peice in this series is a scrapbook of letters Ruby received from students when she retired from Wheaton College in 1978. The series also includes Ruby's black graduation cap with black tassle from when she was a professor at Wheaton.

The WRITINGS series comprises materials from 1933 to 1990. The series includes Ruby’s BA and MA thesis along with her Doctorate thesis as well. An interesting part of this series is the multiple copies and drafts of Ruby’s “Perspective” paper, including many complete drafts, partially complete drafts, and incomplete drafts, showing Ruby’s editing process. The series also includes other publications by Ruby during her career and also after retirement. A weakness of the series is the lack of other publications of Ruby’s or simply her process of writing the publications that is provided for her “Perspective” paper, which is a definite strength of the series.

The PERSONAL LIFE series is mainly undated. It includes Ruby’s book of recipes along with recipe cards and there is little information towards their origins. What is also in the series is a property deed in French from 1698 whose origin is also unknown.

Dates

Creation: 1698-1990

Creator

Jane Eleanor Ruby, d. 1992 (Wheaton Prof. of History) (Person)

Access Restrictions

No restrictions. Open for research.

Copyright

Copyright is retained by the authors, or their descendants, of items in these papers as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Biography

Jane Eleanor Ruby was born on September 17th, 1912 in Portland, Oregon to Samuel and Jessie (Newmark) Ruby. She has a sister, Lucile Brown who resided in Oakland CA in 1992. Ruby attended U.S Grant High School where she was Secretary for the Migwan Club and graduated in 1929. She went onto Reed College where she received a Bachelor’s Degree in 1933 in History, her specialty being Medieval and Renaissance history. She also became a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Ruby then received a Master’s degree from Reed in 1835 followed by a second Master’s in 1936 from Radcliffe College in History as well. Ruby also received her Doctorial degree from Radcliffe College in 1951.

During her time working on her first Master’s degree, Ruby also worked as Graduate Assistant at Reed College. Ruby began teaching History in 1938 at the New Jersey College for Women as an instructor until 1941 when she began work as an Assistant Professor at Russell Sage College until 1944. From 1944, Ruby worked as a Teaching Fellow at Radcliffe College until 1945 when she started working as an Assistant Professor at Smith College until 1954 and was also a Fellow for the Fund for the Advancement of Leaning from 1952 to 1953. Ruby also taught at the University of Iowa during the summer of 1949. Ruby left Smith College because she lost the opportunity to become Associate Professor and began working at Wheaton College in 1954 as an Assistant Professor.

At Wheaton Ruby became an Associate Professor in 1956 followed by Professor of History in 1961. In 1962 Ruby conducted research at the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana for five months during her leave of absence from 1961-1963. Ruby became chair of the History Department at Wheaton in 1966 until 1968 when she took another leave of absence from 1968 to 1969. Ruby then took her Sabatical Leave from 1975 to 1976 and became Acting Provost from 1976 to 1977 before becoming Provost in 1977 to 1978 when she retired.

Ruby was appointed Professor Emeritus in 1978 and returned to teach part time from 1979 to 1982. During the 1980’s Ruby visited European Libraries and returned to the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana on July 5th 1987. Ruby died at age 79 on Saturday February 15th, 1992. She requested that gifts go towards establishing the Jane Ruby Fellowship Fund at Wheaton College. An English Hawthorne Tree was planted near Chapin Hall on the Wheaton Campus on May 7th, 1992 in Ruby’s memory.