Catherine Crary, née Conrad (12 February 1909 – 11 March 1974), was an American

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

of the

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

Life and work

Catherine Snell Crary was born in

Rochester, New York Rochester is a city in and the county seat, seat of government of Monroe County, New York, United States. It is the List of municipalities in New York, fourth-most populous city and 10th most-populated municipality in New York, with a populati ...

on 12 February 1909. Privately educated, she graduated from

Mount Holyoke College Mount Holyoke College is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in South Hadley, Massachusetts, United States. It is the oldest member of the h ...

in 1930 with a

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

Two year later, she married Calvert Crary and received her

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

from

Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that was founded in 1879. In 1999, it was fully incorporated into Harvard Colle ...

in 1933. She taught history at

Brearley School The Brearley School is an American all-girls private school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City. It educates approximately 770 girls in grades K–12, with approximately 50 to 65 students per grade. In addition to being a member ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

before becoming a lecturer in history at

Barnard College Barnard College is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college affiliated with Columbia University in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a grou ...

. Crary was an

adjunct professor An adjunct professor is a type of academic appointment in higher education who does not work at the establishment full-time. The terms of this appointment and the job security of the tenure vary in different parts of the world, but the term is gen ...

of history at

Finch College Finch College was an undergraduate women's college in Manhattan, New York City. The Finch School opened as a private secondary school for girls in 1900 and became a liberal arts college in 1952. It closed in 1976. Founding Finch was founded in ...

in 1957–59. That latter year, she found a presumed-lost

holograph An autograph or holograph is a manuscript or document written in its author's or composer's hand. The meaning of " autograph" as a document penned entirely by the author of its content (as opposed to a typeset document or one written by a copy ...

draft of the Federalist Papers No. 64 in the

John Jay John Jay (, 1745 – May 17, 1829) was an American statesman, diplomat, signatory of the Treaty of Paris (1783), Treaty of Paris, and a Founding Father of the United States. He served from 1789 to 1795 as the first chief justice of the United ...

papers at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. She also had an article in the

William and Mary Quarterly The ''William and Mary Quarterly'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed history journal published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture. The journal originated in 1892, making it one of the oldest academic journals in the Un ...

that year that showed that

James Rivington James Rivington (1724 – July 4, 1802) was an English-born American journalist who published a Loyalist newspaper in the American colonies called ''Rivington's Gazette''. He was driven out of New York by the Sons of Liberty, but was very li ...

, a New York City

newspaper editor An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The editor-in-chief heads all departments of the organization and is held account ...

during the British occupation of the city, fed information to an American agent. Crary published ''Dear Belle: Letters from a Cadet and Officer to His Sweetheart, 1858–1865'' in 1965 and ''The Price of Loyalty: Tory Writings from the Revolutionary Era'' in 1973. The latter book was honored with the American Revolution Bicentennial Roundtable Award the following year. She died in New York City on 11 March 1974.Scanlon & Cosner, p. 50

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Crary, Catherine 1909 births 1974 deaths Mount Holyoke College alumni Radcliffe College alumni 20th-century American historians