Steptoe C. Wood and Lucie Wood Saunders letters

Access and use

Location of collection:
College of William and Mary
Special Collections Research Center
Earl Gregg Swem Library
College of William and Mary
400 Landrum Drive
PO 8795
Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795
Contact for questions and access:
Phone: (757) 221-3090
Fax: (757) 221-5440
Restrictions:

Collection is open to all researchers. Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, such as the Virginia Public Records Act (Code of Virginia. § 42.1-76-91); and the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (Code of Virginia § 2.2-3705.5). Confidential material may include, but is not limited to, educational, medical, and personnel records. If sensitive material is found in this collection, please contact a staff member immediately. The disclosure of personally identifiable information pertaining to a living individual may have legal consequences for which the College of William and Mary assumes no responsibility.

Terms of access:

Before publishing quotations or excerpts from any materials, permission must be obtained from the Curator of Manuscripts and Rare Books, and the holder of the copyright, if not Swem Library.

Preferred citation:

Steptoe C. Wood and Lucie Wood Saunders Letters, Special Collections Research Center, William & Mary Libraries.

Summary

Extent:
4 Linear Feet Contains 2 record cartons, 1 oversize box and one small box measuring 5 inches in length.
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

Steptoe C. Wood and Lucie Wood Saunders Letters, Special Collections Research Center, William & Mary Libraries.

Background

Scope and content:

Collection contains letters primarily to and from mother and daughter Mrs. Steptoe C. Wood to Lucie Wood Saunders (1928-2008) of King William County, Virginia and New York from the 1950-1970s. Letters also include those from Lucie to an aunt and documents Lucie's travels to Egypt.

Biographical / historical:

Steptoe C. Wood was born in Urbanna, Virginia on July 7, 1887, to Alexander and Lucy Campbell. She graduated from what is now Longwood University in 1906, and taught school in Nelson County, Virginia and at an Indian School in Idaho. One of her students in Nelson County was Earl Hamner (John Boy Walton). During World War I, she worked as a clerk in the War Department and served with the American Red Cross in France. She married Benton Chamberlain Wood in 1920 and their daughter, Lucie Antoinette, was born on April 29, 1928. They lived on a farm in King William County, Virginia. Steptoe died on February 22, 1975. Lucie graduated from Sweet Briar College in 1949 and received her doctorate in anthropology from Columbia University. She married Dr. James C. Saunders, a physician and pharmacologist. She was the head of the Lehman College's Anthropology Department and also taught at Bard and Barnard Colleges, specializing in Egypt. She died in Upper Nyack, New York on July 26, 2008.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard