Scope and Content Note
The papers of Mary Marvin Breckinridge Patterson (1905-2002) span the years 1846-2003 with the majority concentrated between 1921 and 2000. The collection documents the wide range of Patterson’s varied and complex life. At a time when women found it difficult to pursue careers, Patterson was an exception, achieving a successful career as a photographer, journalist, and broadcaster by the age of thirty-five. The papers chronicle Patterson’s early life and family history; her career as a photographer, filmmaker, journalist, and radio broadcaster; her experiences as the wife of a foreign service officer at various foreign postings; and her cultural and philanthropic activities. The collection also includes an extensive group of papers of Patterson’s mother, Isabella Goodrich Patterson. The papers are in English, Arabic, German, French, and Greek and are organized into the following thirteen series: Diaries, Family Papers, Correspondence, Frontier Nursing Service, Subject File, Activities File, Gifts in Kind and Income Deductions, Speeches and Writings File, Notebooks and Albums, 2020 Addition, Classified, Oversize, and Artifact.
The first series, Diaries, 1919-1924, records Patterson’s activities as a teen and young woman, documenting her activities at home, school, and college. The Diaries also include an account of some of her travels to Chicago, Ill.; York, Maine; San Francisco, Calif.; British Columbia; China; Japan; and Paris, France.
The Family Papers, 1846-1999, reflect Patterson’s heritage as a member of a family of privilege and wealth. Patterson’s great grandfather was John C. Breckinridge, vice-president of the United States, United States senator, candidate for president in 1860, and Secretary of War of the Confederacy during the Civil War. Her maternal grandfather was Benjamin Franklin Goodrich, inventor and founder of the B.F. Goodrich Company. Papers pertaining to both branches of the family are present in the collection. The Family Papers are arranged into two groups: Isabella Goodrich Breckinridge and Mary Marvin Breckinridge Patterson. The majority of the Family Papers are those belonging to Isabella Breckinridge. Breckinridge’s papers provide insight into her early life as a young woman and document her activities as a wife and mother. Around the age of thirteen Breckinridge expressed interest in becoming a doctor, but her father wanted her to marry and become the mistress of “some good true man’s household” (letter of 24 March 1887). She heeded his advice and married John C. Breckinridge in 1900. Isabella Breckinridge’s papers include diaries, letter registers, property inventories, party books, genealogy papers, and files pertaining to her wedding. Also present in her papers are a significant number of engagement books that document her social activities.
The majority of the Family Papers, however, are comprised of correspondence from Isabella’s children, Joseph C. Breckinridge (Cabell), Charles D. G. Breckinridge (Chad), Robert Breckinridge (Bobby), and Patterson (Marvin).The correspondence includes letters from the children to their mother and Marvin Patterson’s letters to her brothers. Early correspondence relates to school and college years, while later letters discuss family matters, friends, and current events. Letters to Patterson from her family are filed in the chronological file of the Correspondence series.
The Family Papers also document the premature deaths of Patterson’s brothers, Chad and Cabell. At the age of twenty-six Cabell died in a car accident on a cross-country trip through the western United States. Included in the files about his death were a cache of papers and photographs about the accident that were found in Isabella's safety deposit box after her death.
The largest amount of correspondence in Isabella Breckinridge’s Family Papers is written by Patterson, and these letters to her mother provide insights into her life. The letters document Patterson’s stint as a courier and filmmaker for the Frontier Nursing Service in Kentucky, 1928 and 1930; her trip from Cape Town, South Africa, to Cairo, Egypt, with her friend Olivia Stokes Hatch and Hatch’s parents, 1932 (photographs from that trip were used later as illustrations for the book, Olivia’s African Dairy); her photojournalism career and radio broadcasts for CBS News from Europe prior to the start of World War II, 1937-1940; and descriptions of her life after marriage as the spouse of a foreign service officer, 1940-1958.
In Patterson’s memoirs (published posthumously in 2006) she wrote that the most exciting years of her life were from 1939 to 1941 when she worked as a broadcaster and married Jefferson Patterson. Her enthusiasm is revealed in her letters, particularly to her mother. She writes about her assignments for Life magazine and the Black Star photo agency. Patterson provides a detailed account of life in London, England, at the start of World War II and describes her radio broadcasts and dealing with travel difficulties and pro-Nazi censors. While living in Berlin, Patterson experienced unexpected air raids and endured a city with an “undercurrent of meanness and tragedy in all life that comes up in every activity ” (Patterson to her mother, 29 July 1940). No matter where the couple was assigned, the correspondence with her mother seemed to lift Patterson’s spirits. Patterson’s letters reveal her appreciation of hearing news of family and friends and receiving advice on the problems of running a household.
The Family Papers also feature an array of letters from the youngest Breckinridge sibling, Robert. His letters document his service during World War II with the United States Navy while stationed in Washington, D.C., from 1942 through November 1943, and as an assistant naval attaché at the American embassy in Bogota, Colombia, from 1943 to 1945. His letters describe his work activities as well as an active social life. Many of his letters are humorous and convey funny stories about events that happened to him or relay news that he heard while attending functions. A somber letter to his mother on 26 April 1945, however, chronicles how upset the Colombians were to hear the news of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s death. The Colombians viewed it as the “loss of a personal friend” and closed their shops for a day to show their respect for the president.
The Mary Marvin Breckinridge Patterson group of Family Papers consists mainly of letters and poetry from her husband, Jefferson, genealogy files relating to the Breckinridge, Goodrich, Patterson, and Shaw families, and condolence letters and other papers relating to Jefferson’s death and the death of Marvin's mother, Isabella Goodrich Breckinridge.
The Correspondence series, circa 1927-2003, is arranged into five groups: alphabetical file, Christmas cards, chronological file, outgoing letters, and thanks for the hospitality letters. The alphabetical file, including incoming and outgoing letters, contains some correspondence from distant family relations; however, most of the letters relate to Patterson’s business dealings with companies or people. The Christmas cards, circa 1927-2002, are from Patterson’s friends, family, and other State Department personnel. Also represented are Christmas cards sent by the Pattersons. Their cards were distinctive and usually incorporated some artwork or photograph of the country where they were posted.
The chronological file consists mainly of letters Patterson received from family, friends, and acquaintances discussing personal news and current events. A few of the early letters include carbon copies of letters sent. Most of the letters prior to 1961 are from her mother and her brother, Bobby. These complement the letters in the Family Papers. Also included are a couple of letters from her husband prior to their marriage. In 1940 while she and her spouse were stationed in Berlin, she accompanied him on visits to German prison camps which were part of his diplomatic duties. The chronological file contains a few letters of Major John B. Hodge, a British prisoner of war, who wrote thanking Patterson for the food and books that she sent to the prisoners.
Also represented are a few letters from Mary Breckinridge, Patterson’s cousin and founder of the Frontier Nursing Service, Anna Roosevelt, and Wilhelm Hermann Solf, son of Johanna (or Hanna) Solf, a member of the anti-Nazi Solf Circle of German intellectuals imprisoned by the Nazis during World War II. Most of Solf’s letters are written from an internment camp in Australia. Correspondence from the 1970s to 2002 consists mostly of incoming notes and letters from family and friends and requests for financial donations from individuals and organizations. Most of the later correspondence had never been filed and was arranged by Library staff. In Patterson's letter registers in the Notebooks and Albums series, she kept a record of her incoming and outgoing correspondence.
The Frontier Nursing Service, 1928-2000, documents Patterson’s work primarily as a member of the governing bodies of the organization. She served as a trustee from 1936 to 1955 and was appointed to the Board of Governors in 1955, serving as its chair between 1960 and 1975. Most of the files document her work with the Washington Committee, particularly the “Derby Day” benefits that she held for the organization at her home in Washington, D.C. Represented are files pertaining to Patterson’s silent film about the nursing service, The Forgotten Frontier. The “general” files, 1929-1939, contain letters to Patterson from Mary Breckinridge, including the 1929 letter asking her to make the film. A notebook containing notes about The Forgotten Frontier and She Goes to Vassar (another film made by Patterson about Vassar College) are located in the “Films” folders of the Subject File series.
The Subject File, 1864-2003, is wide-ranging, documenting Patterson’s career as a photographer, journalist, and broadcaster, her duties as the spouse of a diplomat, her invitations and club activities, and her philanthropic gifts to public institutions and local governments. There are substantive files, including scripts, correspondence, notes, and photographs, relating to Patterson’s radio broadcasts for the Columbia Broadcasting System, 1939-1940. Also included is correspondence between Patterson and Edward R. Murrow, a friend from their participation in the National Student Association, who asked her to report about the effect of the war on English villages. After that broadcast, Murrow hired her for World News Roundup. Patterson wrote her own reports from London and broadcast from other locations including Amsterdam, Berlin, and Paris. After her marriage she gave up her broadcasting career because officials at the Department of State thought her reporting would be a conflict of interest with her husband’s duties.
The photography file in the Subject File includes papers relating to Patterson’s photography courses and her photography studio, files relating to her work as a photojournalist for various publications, and documentation relating to exhibits and loans of her work. The folder “published photographs” contains publications where Patterson’s photographs appeared. This file contains only a few photographs. Most of Patterson’s photographs, personal and professional, are held in the Library’s Prints and Photographs Division. Included with some of the notes are drafts of Patterson’s articles for publication.
Also present in the Subject File are materials pertaining to her responsibilities and activities as the spouse of a Foreign Service Officer. Assignments were Berlin, 1940-1941; Peru, 1941-1945; Belgium, 1945-1946; Egypt, 1946-1949; the United Nations Special Committee on the Balkans in Greece, 1950-1952, and Uruguay, 1956-1958. The most extensive files are those pertaining to their time in Uruguay and include reports by Patterson about her duties there. The Subject File documents Patterson’s work as a contributor to a training course for wives by the Foreign Service Institute. Patterson’s engagement books, household books, clippings albums, party books, and notes located in the Notebooks and Albums series, also provide a record of Patterson’s activities as a diplomatic spouse.
The Subject File also reflects Patterson’s active social life with files pertaining to her clubs, particularly the Society of Woman Geographers, an array of invitations accepted, and “met lists,” maintained from 1952 to 1993, that recorded individuals Patterson encountered. Also found in the Subject File are papers pertaining to her gift of River House, her family estate in York, Maine, to Bowdoin College in 1974, and the donation of her and her husband’s farm, Point Farm, to the state of Maryland in 1983. In honor of her husband, the Point Farm property was named Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum.
The Activities File, 1948-2002, documents Patterson’s participation with organizations and her donations to institutions relating to the arts, education, historic preservation, the environment, social services, family planning, and other causes. Most were located near Washington, D.C. Also represented in the Activities File is her funding in 1990 of the Junior Fellows Program at the Library of Congress. The MARPAT Foundation, founded in 1985 by Patterson, coordinated many of her charitable endeavors. Patterson’s philanthropy is further documented in the Gifts in Kind and Income Deductions series, 1964-2002. This series documents Patterson’s gifts of collectibles and financial contributions to various organizations. It also includes appraisal documents, receipts, and forms for reporting income deductions.
The Speeches and Writings File, 1920-1996, includes speeches and articles by Patterson and writings by others. The bulk of the series relates to correspondence and publicity relating to Olivia’s African Diary: Cape Town to Cairo, 1932 by Olivia Stokes Hatch. The book, published in 1980, was illustrated with Patterson’s photographs from the trip. Most of the files relating to Patterson’s memoirs consist of background material and correspondence about the project. Early speeches by Patterson describe her career and life at various postings including Germany, Peru, and Egypt.
The Notebooks and Albums, 1917-2002, overlap with many of the other series in the collection and reflect Patterson’s efforts to record a lifetime of personal and professional activities. The Notebooks and Albums include engagement books from 1924 to 2000. They offer an account of her daily activities as a diplomat’s wife in foreign countries and contain notes of historic events she observed. Daybooks maintained by Patterson list all staff activities, note Patterson’s activities, and record the names of anyone who came to her house each day. Letters received are recorded in letter registers and lists of things she ordered in her “buy expected mail record” notebooks. Also featured are albums documenting her parties that include menus, table seating charts, and sometimes photographs of table settings. Albums of clippings document Patterson’s career and include articles by her and clippings of publications containing her photographs. In addition, there are clippings pertaining to her radio broadcasts, her engagement and marriage, and philanthropic endeavors. The household books provide a glimpse of the décor used at the Pattersons' personal residences and at their diplomatic postings.
The 2020 Addition, 1877-2003, supplements the initial portion of the collection and documents primarily Patterson's family relationships, her duties as the spouse of a Foreign Service Officer, her course work at school and college, and her reflections about her life through her memoirs. The 2020 Addition is organized into four groups: correspondence, family papers, subject file, and writings. The correspondence and family papers follow the same internal order as the first part of the collection with letters to Patterson from Breckinridge family members filed in the correspondence group, while correspondence in the family papers consists chiefly of letters to Isabella Goodrich Breckinridge from her children and Jefferson Patterson.
The majority of the correspondence group consists of incoming letters to Patterson from family, friends, and acquaintances discussing family news and social activities. The correspondence includes letters from her mother, brothers, and her cousin, Desha Breckinridge, publisher of the Lexington, Kentucky, Herald. Desha writes about family news and his race horses, including one named after Marvin. Other correspondents represented are Johanna (or Hanna) Solf and her daughter, Lagi von Ballestrem. Their letters describe conditions in Berlin after World War II. A few carbons of Patterson's outgoing letters are also filed with the correspondence.
The family papers comprise letters mainly from Marvin Patterson to her mother, Isabella Goodrich Breckinridge, pertaining to the diplomatic postings where Patterson and her husband were stationed. Patterson's letters convey some of the unrest in Cairo, Egypt, after the establishment of Palestine as a Jewish state in 1948. Correspondence from 1950 to 1958 relates to the Patterson's assignments in Greece and Uruguay. The family papers also include letters to Patterson from her husband, Jefferson, and genealogy files about the Breckinridge family. Also present in the family papers are cards, notes, and drawings from the Patterson's adopted children, Mark and Patricia.
The subject file in the 2020 Addition includes Patterson's essays and other papers while a student at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, and a journal and related files documenting Patterson's attendance at a meeting of the International Confederation of Students in 1925 held in Copenhagen, Denmark. Also featured in the subject file is material relating to the Patterson's stint in Uruguay from 1956 to 1958 and the role and training of wives of foreign service officers. The Uruguay files also include some family correspondence.
The writings file comprises a draft of Patterson's memoirs and background information for the memoirs. The background files feature Patterson's notes about her travels in Europe from 1939 to 1940 and her activities when she and her husband lived in Egypt and Uruguay.
The Oversize series, 1916-2002, is comprised mainly of certificates honoring Patterson or her family members, school and training certificates of Patterson, and volumes of oversize clippings about Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum. The Artifact series, contains a campaign button for John C. Breckinridge’s 1860 presidential campaign, with a tintype photograph of Breckinridge on one side and vice presidential candidate Joseph Lane on the reverse.