Scope and Content Note
The papers of Eleanor ("Roxy") Lord Pray (1868-1954) span the years 1894-1975, with the bulk of the material dating from 1894 to 1930. The papers are in English with some Russian and are organized chronologically. The correspondence ends at 1930; all material after that date consists of drafts and partial and extrapolated transcripts, mostly created by her granddaughter, Patricia Silver. The collection is largely comprised of the correspondence of Eleanor Pray with her family back in New England, with her daughter Dorothy, and with her sister-in-law Sarah Smith after Sarah left Vladivostok, Russia, to live in Shanghai, China. Many of the letters are lengthy and in journal form. Pray's letters, in particular, are highly descriptive and detailed. Pray would often continue adding to a letter until a ship carrying mail left port.
When newlyweds Eleanor ("Roxy") and Frederick ("Ted" or "Fred") Pray arrived in Vladivostok in 1894, the city was only a little over thirty years old. By then the city, boasting the Golden Horn Bay, had already become the most important Russian commercial and military port on the Pacific. The construction of the Trans-Siberian Railroad further cemented the role of Vladivostok in the Russian Far East. As such, Vladivostok became the home to a large international community of merchants, diplomats, and military personnel. This was the social world of the Prays who had come to Vladivostok to work at Frederick's brother-in-law, Charles Smith, and sister Sarah Smith's general store, "The American Store." Eleanor's early letters home describe social events with other expatriates (primarily Germans, Scandinavians, and Americans), the mixed culture of the city (which still included large numbers of Koreans and Chinese as well as Russians), and she conveys her enthusiasm for the natural beauty of the area.
Over the course of Eleanor Pray's thirty-six years in Vladivostok, she witnessed a procession of major historical events, often literally from her front porch. Events with local consequences covered in her letters include: the Russo-Japanese War and the 1905 Japanese attack on Vladivostok, the 1905 uprising or first Russian Revolution, World War I, the forced removal of German citizens from Vladivostok during the war, the taking of Vladivostok by the Czechoslovak Legion in June/July 1918, the Russian Civil War, the Siberian Intervention of 1918-1920, the occupation of Vladivostok by the Japanese military 1918-1922, the Far Eastern Republic and the Provisional Priamur Governments of Siberia/Vladivostok, the return of the Bolsheviks in 1922, and life under Soviet rule during the 1920s until her departure for Shanghai in 1930.
Pray was a volunteer and served as treasurer for the Vladivostok chapter of the American Red Cross, 1919-1924. In this capacity, she was involved in efforts to aid war refugees and stray soldiers. There are several folders dedicated to the American Red Cross containing documents and activity reports. Many of her personal letters also chronicle her work with the Red Cross.
In October 1916, daughter Dorothy and sister-in-law Sarah Smith moved to Shanghai, where Dorothy was enrolled in the Shanghai American School until her graduation in 1924. Sarah Smith worked at the school and remained in Shanghai after Dorothy's graduation, eventually working in a private home. Letters from them describe their lives at the Shanghai American School and life in Shanghai. During the 1920s, after the Soviet takeover of Vladivostok, Eleanor Pray occasionally traveled to Shanghai to visit family and friends and also took trips to Japan and Harbin, China. While away, Pray's letters offer more detail about life at home, claiming that she dared not write these things in Vladivostok for fear of difficulties with Soviet censors who read her mail.
Also in the letters is Pray's reaction to the arrival of Richard Theodore Greener who served as the official United States Commercial Agent, 1898-1905, in Vladivostok. Greener was the first African American graduate of Harvard College and later served as the dean of the Howard University Law School.
In 2021, three letters that had inadvertently been separated from the original donation were brought to the Library to be reunited with the collection. These letters have been appended to the end of the papers as the 2021 Addition.
It should also be noted that, especially in the early letters, sometimes both Julian and Gregorian calendar dates are given, sometimes only one or the other. Pray, however, rarely used only Julian calendar dates. Gregorian dates are most common.