Dorothy Bethurum Loomis Papers

Collection

Identifier: MSS.0266

Staff Only

Scope and Content Note

The Dorothy Bethurum Loomis papers range from material collected at the beginning of the 20th century to those collected in the late 1980s. The first box of the collection consists of Loomis's biographical and academic materials such as personal correspondences, newspaper clippings, photographs, and handwritten notes found in her papers. Also included are her academic writings/published articles. The next box consists of teaching tools such as handouts, transparencies, and translated works. Boxes 3-5 consist of Loomis's collected papers relating to the academic scholarship of other Loomis family members, including photographs and articles by her husband Roger Sherman Loomis and his previous two wives, Laura Hibbard Loomis and Gertrude Schoepperle. Boxes 6-9 consist of a collection of articles written by other scholars on medieval studies and the Anglo-Saxon period. The series and subseries of this collection are as follows:

Roger Sherman Loomis's Images
Loomis Family Writings

Dates

circa 1918-1983

Language of Materials

English

Biographical Sketch

Dorothy Bethurum Loomis of Franklin, Tennessee was a Vanderbilt Alumna, Bachelor of Arts 1919 and Master of Arts 1922. She went on to obtain her doctorate from Yale University in 1930 and also studied at Oxford as a Fulbright Fellow. While at Vanderbilt, Loomis was a Founder's Medalist, editor of the Commodore, president of the Scribblers, vice-president of the YWCA, on the Hustler staff, permanent class secretary, a member of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, and Phi Beta Kappa student president. After finishing her education, she taught at Randolph Macon Women's College and at Lawrence College. In 1937 Loomis was a Guggenheim Fellow in England. By 1940, she accepted a position as Professor of English and head of the department at Connecticut College for Women. In 1946 she served as chairman of the English Institute. Through her professional life Loomis maintained her ties with Vanderbilt University, at times serving as a visiting professor. She was also a member of the Alumni Association Board of Directors, 1953-57. Through her research and dedicated scholarship, Loomis was an authority on the medieval and Anglo-Saxon period.