Table of Contents
Ellsworth Grant Industrial Relations Records and Personal Papers
A Guide to the collection at the Connecticut Historical Society
Collection Overview |
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| Repository: | Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford, Connecticut |
| Creator : | Grant, Ellsworth |
| Title : | Ellsworth Grant Industrial Relations Records and Personal Papers |
| Dates : | 1924-1976 |
| Extent : | 2.5 linear feet (5 boxes, 2 vol., 1 oversize folder) |
| Abstract : | |
| Location: | Ms 99980 |
| Language: | English |
Biographical Sketch
Ellsworth Strong Grant was born October 8, 1917 in Wethersfield, Connecticut. He graduated from Kingswood School, West Hartford in 1935 and earned his A.B. degree at Harvard College in 1939. From 1940 to 1958, he held various positions in the administration of the Allen Manufacturing Company that made socket screws and other precision fasteners. His positions included Personnel Manager and Industrial Relations Director. In 1958 he was named President and Treasurer of Connecticut Manifold Forms Co. in West Hartford and was named General Manager after that company merged with Allied Paper Co.
Grant was active in civic affairs. He was a director at Kaman Aircraft in Bloomfield, Conn., Newton Company, and West Hartford Publishing Company. He founded the Hartford Small Plant Medical Service in 1946, was a trustee of the Renbrook School, served on committees of the Greater Hartford Community Chest, and directed a fund raising campaign for the Asylum Hill Congregational Church in Hartford, among many other activities. More information can be found in his resumes.
He was married to Marion Hepburn, sister of Katharine Hepburn, and as a result was involved with the Fenwick Production Company in Saybrook, Connecticut, a company that made documentary films. Many of those movies are now in the collections of the Graphics Department. Grant wrote many articles on industrial relations and personnel management. He also published monographs on aspects of Connecticut History. Those titles can be found in the CHS library collections.
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Scope and Content
The collection was left in Grant’s home in West Hartford when he sold the house in 2003. The current owners, who tried to return the materials to Grant, donated them to CHS to prevent their being destroyed. The materials fall into two clear series and are arranged as such. Series I contains business papers with what he termed “papers” first, followed by professional memberships and activities arranged alphabetically by title, and then correspondence. Series II is devoted to his personal and civic life and are arranged in chronological order except for his outside activities which are again alphabetically arranged. Folder titles are taken from the originals except when enclosed in brackets.
Series I: Business papers The file folders labeled by Grant as “papers” contain articles or speeches he wrote, mainly on the topic of personnel management, and correspondence, all primarily arranged in reverse chronological order and dated 1944-1954. These are followed by correspondence, reports, studies and memoranda concerning his outside professional activities, arranged alphabetically, and including Chamber of Commerce, Hartford Committee for Employment of Physically Handicapped, the Hartford Small Plant Medical Service, and the Unemployment Compensation Advisory Council, 1947-1965. His business correspondence dates 1948-1950.
Series II: Personal papers This contains personal papers and begins with what Grant called old letters and papers, which include correspondence and essays on such topics as cinema, press and radio. His personal correspondence dates 1940-1969. Among his correspondents were Caspar Weinberger, Cleveland Amory, Thomas Dodd and Lord Beaverbrook. One folder of correspondence is with a family in Germany, the Faulstroh’s, 1947-1959, some of which is written in German. A selection of papers from Grant’s days at Harvard includes essays, course descriptions, compositions, term papers, and reports. In the folder entitled Education I is a Report of Student Council Committee on Education, June 12, 1939, a committee on which Grant served.
Civic and charitable activities are arranged alphabetically. The Community Chest file contains newsletters, correspondence and reports. The Crusade for Freedom, 1951, was an attempt to get individuals to sign a pledge supporting the constitution and opposing communism. This file contains articles, correspondence, a citation issued to Grant, a sample pledge form, and reports. Grant helped raise funds for school construction at the Renbrook School, from 1957 to 1961. He was also active in the Sheldon Association, an organization promoting civic improvement in the area of Hartford around Sheldon, Arch and South Prospect streets. This file contains correspondence, the organization’s constitution, and newsletters. Grant’s “other activities” included fund raising for the Asylum Hill Congregational Church in Hartford, and serving on the Hartford Association for Retarded Children. This series also contains numerous examples of Grant’s writings, what he called stories.
Unique among Grant’s papers are two scripts for a film directed by John Ford in 1938. Evidently, John Ford was a great friend of Katharine Hepburn’s which explains the existence of these scripts among Grant’s papers. The first copy is the first draft, continuity. The second is the shooting final. The film was released under the title of Submarine Patrol. The final item in the collection is a published book about the Grant Memorial in Washington, DC. It may only be that he and the General shared a last name, or it could be Ellsworth was a descendant.
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Restrictions
Access Restrictions
There are no restrictions on access to the collection.
Use Restrictions
Use of the material requires compliance with the Connecticut Historical Society's Research Center regulations.
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Subject Headings
Corporate Names
Subjects
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Administrative Information
Preferred Citation
Item, Collection Title, Collection number (Box #, Folder #). Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford, Connecticut.
Processing Details
Collection was processed by Barbara Austen in 2007.
EAD Finding Aid created December 2010.
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Contents:
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Return to the Table of Contents Series I. Business papers |
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| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 1 | 1 | Papers, 1944-45 [1944-1964] | |||||||||
| 1 | 2 | Papers, 1946-47 | |||||||||
| 1 | 3 | Papers, 1948-49 | |||||||||
| 1 | 4 | Papers, 1950-54 | |||||||||
| 1 | 5 | Allen Manufacturing organizational chart (Oversize) | |||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 2 | 1 | Advisory Committee on Occupational Health, [1959-1965] | |||||||||
| 2 | 2 | Chamber of Commerce, [1960-1964] | |||||||||
| 2 | 3 | [Chamber of Commerce] State Legislation Committee, 1960-63 | |||||||||
| 2 | 4 | The Connecticut Committee, [1947-1948] | |||||||||
| 2 | 5 | Connecticut Personnel Association, [1955-1957] | |||||||||
| 2 | 6 | Hartford Committee for Employment of Physically Handicapped, [1951-1957] | |||||||||
| 2 | 7 | H.S.P.M.S. [Hartford Small Plant Medical Service], 1951-64 | |||||||||
| 2 | 8 | NAM [National Association of Manufacturers] Committee, [1950 1960] | |||||||||
| 2 | 9 | [New England Council, 1953-1956] | |||||||||
| 2 | 10 | Silver Bay Conference, [1957-1961] | |||||||||
| 2 | 11 | 1Unemployment Compensation Advisory Council, [1949-1958] | |||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 3 | 1 | [Presentation about Small Health Services in] New York, [1958-1960] 1960 | |||||||||
| 3 | 2 | Business correspondence, 1948 | |||||||||
| 3 | 3 | Business correspondence, 1949-1950 | |||||||||
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Return to the Table of Contents Series II. Personal papers |
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| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 3 | 4 | Old letters and papers, 1934-44 | |||||||||
| 3 | 5 | Personal correspondence, July 1940-December 1946 | |||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 4 | 1 | Personal correspondence, 1947-58 | |||||||||
| 4 | 2 | Faulstroh [correspondence, 1947-1959] | |||||||||
| 4 | 3 | Personal correspondence, 1959-62 | |||||||||
| 4 | 4 | [Correspondence with] V.V. Counter Co., [1964-1966] | |||||||||
| 4 | 5 | Personal correspondence, 1965-69 | |||||||||
| 4 | 6 | Harvard, 1937-1938 | |||||||||
| 4 | 7 | College composition, 1935-38 | |||||||||
| 4 | 8 | College term papers--Literature, [ca. 1935-1939] | |||||||||
| 4 | 9 | Education I | |||||||||
| 4 | 10 | [Community] Chest Budget Committee, [1947-1951] | |||||||||
| 4 | 11 | Crusade for Freedom, 1951 | |||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 5 | 1 | Cultural Affairs Inc. [1964-1970] | |||||||||
| 5 | 2 | Republican Finance Committee, 1962-64 | |||||||||
| 5 | 3 | Renbrook School, [1957-1961] | |||||||||
| 5 | 4 | The Sheldon Association, [1946-1952] | |||||||||
| 5 | 5 | Y.M.C.A., [1944 1963] | |||||||||
| 5 | 6 | Other activities, 1956-76 | |||||||||
| 5 | 7 | Stories | |||||||||
| 5 | 8 | [Script for movie Splinter Fleet, First Draft Continuity, 1938] | |||||||||
| Volume | |||||||||||
| 1 | [Script for movie Splinter Fleet, Shooting Final, 1938] | ||||||||||
| Volume | |||||||||||
| 2 | The Grant Memorial in Washington, 1924 | ||||||||||