The Adele Fuchs papers date from 1884 to 1990 and measure 6 linear inches. The papers are arranged into two series: Biographical and Writings.

The Biographical series (1980s-1990) includes the book, Prophetic Sisterhood: Liberal Women Ministries of the Frontier, 1880-1930, by historian Cynthia Grant Tucker, and the notes that Tucker made throughout the research process for this book. The book provides an overview of who Adele Fuchs was in relation to Mary A. Safford and the network of women-led ministries that she directed and includes some quotations from Fuchs’ diaries and correspondence. Tucker’s notes and comments that she made during her research process can be found on photocopies of Fuchs’ papers. Tucker’s notes also frame Fuchs’ personal papers and diaries by including a timeline of Fuchs’ life.

The Writings series (1884-1935) includes some of Adele Fuchs’ personal papers and correspondence to Mary Safford and consists of four diaries kept by Fuchs from February of 1885 to September of 1935. Fuchs’ papers range from 1884 to 1934 and include overviews of each month for the years 1889 to 1917, as well as a large amount of her correspondence with Safford. This correspondence reflects the unique nature of Fuchs and Safford’s relationship, and overall, Fuchs’ papers provide an intimate and detailed perspective into not only Fuchs’ personal life and relationships, but also into the complex women’s social networks that made up the liberal women ministries and the women’s suffrage movement. Both Fuchs’ correspondence and her diaries provide details pertaining to her many trips to Europe, to her careers as a doctor and a school teacher in Des Moines and Sioux City, and to her daily activities as an active member in Safford’s church and in the Women’s Suffrage Movement. Many historical events, figures, and topics are touched upon in Fuchs’ correspondence and diaries such as when Fuchs visited Jane Addams and the Hull House in 1907, when she commented on a growing presence of Anti-Semitism while she was in Germany in 1899, or when she experienced World War I on the German Homefront while she was visiting Germany in 1915 to 1916. Fuchs’ correspondence and diaries also give an intimate view into her mental health for she explicitly writes when she is suffering from bouts of depression. For example, in several letters to Safford, Fuchs writes how she hopes that the “blue devils” stay away and reflects upon previous times in which her depression was severe. It should be noted that the diaries are not entirely consistent in daily entries, and in the last diary especially there are large gaps of time not written about from the years 1923 to 1935.