Queen Silver papers, 1891-1995

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Summary

Creator:
Silver, Queen, -1998 and Silver, Grace, 1889-1972
Abstract:
Queen Silver (1910-1998), a life-long resident of Los Angeles, California, was known from a young age as a Freethinker (atheist), feminist, and socialist. Collection includes letters, clippings, broadsides, flyers, a pamphlet, and black-and-white photographs, some mounted, as well as two color photographs.
Extent:
1.6 Linear Feet (96 items)
Language:
Materials in English.
Collection ID:
RL.12032

Background

Scope and content:

Collection includes letters, clippings, broadsides, flyers, a pamphlet, and black-and-white photographs, some mounted, as well as two color photographs. Much of the material relates to Silver's lectures on humanist topics, but in addition to letters by Silver there are also letters from an admirer, a teacher, and from her mother. Items predating Silver's birth include a broadside for a speech by and photographs of her mother.

Biographical / historical:

Queen Silver (1910-1998), a life-long resident of Los Angeles, California, was known from a young age as a Freethinker (atheist), feminist, and socialist. She and her mother, Grace Verne Silver (1889-1972), were interested in the same causes, and were also supporters of the early labor movement, especially the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.). After being home-schooled, when she was eight years old Queen Silver delivered, at the Free Speech Zone on Los Angeles St., a series of six lectures sponsored by the London Society of Science, with subjects ranging from Darwinian evolution to Einstein's theory of relativity. She then edited and self-published these and her other lectures and ideas in Queen Silver's Magazine and in pamphlets between 1923-1931. As an adult, she pursued a college degree in the arts, worked for the Department of Motor Vehicles and as a court reporter, and volunteered for the local American Civil Liberties Union (A.C.L.U.) and the Humanist Association of Los Angeles.

See website Queen Silver: The Godless Girl, www.queensilver.org .

Acquisition information:
The Queen Silver papers were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library as a purchase in 2015.
Processing information:

Processed by Alice Poffinberger, July, 2022

Accessions described in this collection guide: 2015-0050-LUBMSS440

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Contents

Using These Materials

Using These Materials Links:

Using These Materials

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the Rubenstein Library's Citations, Permissions, and Copyright guide.

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Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Queen Silver papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

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https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/m13f12