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Edna Rees Williams was born on June 25, 1899 to Arthur and Rose (Longmire) Williams. Edna grew up in Tallahassee, Florida and attended Florida State College for Women (now Florida State University), where she received her B.A. in 1920. She later received both her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in English from Yale University in 1929 and 1936 respectively.
In 1930 Williams joined the Smith College English Department as Instructor. In addition to teaching general courses, she gave courses in the field of medieval literature, such as Old English (Beowulf), Chaucer, and the History of the English Language. At various points she taught classes at Mount Holyoke College, the University of Massachusetts, and the University of London. She rose through the ranks of the department steadily and was appointed Professor of English in 1959. In the academic year 1960-61 she was awarded a grant as a Fulbright Lecturer in English to teach at Japan Women's University in Tokyo. In many ways this was the culmination of Williams' longtime interest in foreign education. In addition to acting as a guide and mentor to the many foreign students who studied at Smith each year, she had also served for several years as chairman of the Committee on Foreign Students at Smith. She often formed close relationships with these students and it was common for her to keep in touch with them for years after their graduation. In 1964, Williams officially retired and was named Professor Emeritus of English Language and Literature by the Trustees, but continued to teach a reduced class load. In 1982-83 Williams was named a Sophia Smith Fellow.
Williams' major published work is The Conflict of Homonyms in English, a development of her Ph.D. thesis, published in 1944. She also authored several articles for scholarly journals and a few short reviews.
Williams died on May 28, 1992, at the age of 92 in Tallahassee. She had lived in Northampton until 1991.
The great majority of the materials in the Edna Rees Williams Papers, 1937 -1992, concern her work with foreign students at Smith College. There are also some items relating to her personal life, published work, and the Smith community in general. Types of materials include correspondence, photographs, books, articles, awards, clippings, typescripts, slides, and an audio recording.
This collection is organized into five series:
The are open to research according to the regulations of the Smith College Archives. Single photocopies may be made for research purposes.
Smith College owns copyright to any published material relating to college events and activities. Provenance and copyright ownership of other materials is unknown and researchers are responsible for determining any question of copyright. Permission to publish material from the documents must be requested from the Smith College Archives.
Please use the following format when citing materials from this collection:
Edna Rees Williams Papers, Box #, Smith College Archives.
The Edna Rees Williams Papers were donated by Edna Williams and others between 1986 and 1991.
Processed by Christina Lehman, '03.
This series contains general information about Williams' personal and professional life, including an overview of her teaching career and items from the year she taught in Japan. Also, this series contains material related to her father's death and the dedication of a building in his name at Florida State University.
This series holds a sample of Williams' publications. There are three articles and her major work,
This series includes general material on foreign students at Smith, presumably gathered by Williams in her work on the Committee on Foreign Students, which she was deeply involved with for many years. The material here gives various summaries of the numbers, backgrounds, and accomplishments of the foreign students. Additionally, there is more detailed information on certain individuals that Williams became good friends with.
This series contains quite a large collection of letters Williams received from her former foreign students. The women regarded her as a mentor and friend, and often wrote to keep her updated on their lives and progress. These letters are a testament to the great impact a Smith education and Williams' guidance had on the students' lives both personally and professionally.
This series contains a variety of images of students, faculty and friends. Williams herself was an amateur photographer and especially enjoyed taking pictures of the Smith campus. Other pictures that may or may not have been taken by Williams include quite a few of foreign students and Smith faculty and friends. Additionally, Williams had collected baby pictures of her female faculty friends for a project on "Friends in Childhood." Thus the series also contains photographs of the following women as babies or young girls: Dorothy Bacon, Gladys Bryson, Mary Ellen Chase, Virginia Corwin, Katherine Hornbeak, Dorothy Huey, Laura Lord Scales, Priscilla Van der Poel, and Edna Williams.
This series contains slides of the Smith campus and foreign students, as well as a tape recording of Williams' farewell party in Japan. These items are not housed with this collection; please see below for their locations.