Ruth Cromer Weir papers

Collection

Identifier: IWA0490

Staff Only
Please navigate to collection organization to place requests.

Scope and Contents

The Ruth Cromer Weir papers date from 1805 to 1993 and measure 12 linear inches. The papers are arranged in four series: Personal, Professional, Photographs, and Artifacts.

Most of the materials in the Personal series (1805-1964) pertain to Weir's family history. The series includes genealogical information and family trees compiled by Lela Lundy Cromer, Cromer's mother, a diploma from the State University of Iowa earned by Weir's sister, Helen Cromer, and obituaries for Cromer's parents and grandparents. Two Bibles may also be found within the collection. One belonged to Mary Cromer, Weir's sister, and the other belonged to her mother's grandparents, Levi and Sarah Lundy. Information about family history is written in the back cover of the Lundy Bible, and several pages are marked with Quaker tracts.

The bulk of the Professional series (1920s-1960) is composed of Weir's published children's books. Other materials include a rough draft of a children's book and several feature articles written by Weir in the 1920s for the Des Moines Sunday Register on topics ranging from jazz to paternity battles. One article highlights the surprise election of a woman mayor and an all-female town council in the 1920s in Randalia, Iowa, where women had declined to vote; all but one of the women refused to take office.

The bulk of the items in the Photographs series (1880s-1993) date from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Several of the photographs have been identified as Weir's relatives.

A baby bonnet and lace tatting which Weir wore as an infant, as well as a hinged case with two framed tintypes, make up the collection's Artifacts series. The tintypes are not specifically identified, but a note indicates that they are of her relatives.

Dates

Creation: 1926-1964

Creator

Weir, Ruth Cromer, 1902-1998 (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

The papers are open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright held by the donor has been transferred to the University of Iowa.

However, copyright status for some collection materials may be unknown. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owner. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility and potential liability based on copyright infringement for any use rests exclusively and solely with the user. Users must properly acknowledge the Iowa Women’s Archives, The University of Iowa Libraries, as the source of the material. For further information, visit https://www.lib.uiowa.edu/sc/services/rights/

Biographical / Historical

Ruth Cromer Weir, journalist and children’s author, was born in Union, Iowa, in 1902 to Lela Lundy Cromer and Emory Arnett Cromer. Her grandfather, Enoch Wickersham Lundy, traveled by covered wagon to Iowa in 1856. Cromer’s father was a school principal in Union. Cromer attended the State University of Iowa (now the University of Iowa) and graduated with a degree in journalism in 1924. She married Kenneth Weir and moved to Illinois.

As a young woman, Weir was a feature writer for the Des Moines Register. In the 1940s, she began to write children’s books, many of which she dedicated to her own children and grandchildren. She was the biography editor for the World Book Encyclopedia. Weir also served as the nature editor for the magazine Childcraft. Following Kenneth Weir’s death, she married Tom Dimond, an engineer who had also attended the University of Iowa. Ruth Weir passed away in 1998.