Dorrit Friedlander Papers

Collection

Identifier: LU-MS-113

Staff Only

This collection consists of the papers of Dorrit Friedlander, professor of German at Lawrence University from 1951 to 2013. The collection documents her teaching, administrative roles and committee service, and experiences with off-campus study programs, particularly the German study centers in Eningen and Bönnigheim during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Materials documenting her social life, retirement, and other celebrations are also included. Materials include correspondence, newspaper clippings, postcards, photographs, ephemera, and artifacts.

Dates

1946-2014
Other: Date acquired: 09/02/2014

Creator

Friedlander, Dorrit (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Property rights reside with Lawrence University. Copyright for materials created by Dorrit Friedlander is retained by her heirs until the materials enter the public domain, 2083-11-14.

Extent

7.25 Linear Feet (9 boxes)

924 Megabytes

Additional Description

Biographical or Historical Information

Born in 1925 in Berlin, Germany, Dorrit Friedlander and her family fled the Nazis in the late 1930s, catching one of the last boats leaving Germany and winding up in Havana, Cuba as a young teenager. She emigrated to the United States in 1940, resettling with her family in Mississippi. She attended the University of Cincinnati, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Romance Languages and a master’s degree in German. She spent a year teaching German and Spanish at the University of Oklahoma before coming to Lawrence. Friedlander joined the Lawrence faculty in 1951. She taught both German and Spanish for her first seven years before focusing solely on her primary passion, German. Although she officially retired in 1993, she continued to teach at least one course each year up through the fall of 2012. With 61 years of teaching, she was the longest-serving faculty member in the college’s history. She was known affectionately to generations of students as “Tante Dorrit” or “Frau Friedlander." She was also instrumental in establishing Lawrence’s first foreign language study program in 1967, a venture in Bönnigheim, Germany, and was a frequent and popular director of the college’s study-abroad programs in Eningen and Munich, Germany. Friedlander passed away on November 14, 2013. [Excerpted from Lawrence University news article by Rick Peterson, November 15th, 2013.]

Method of Acquisition

Donated by Jeffrey Riester on behalf of the family of Dorrit Friedlander. Materials received from November 2013 through June 2014.

Processing Information

Processed by Erin Dix, 2014. Folders for papers were retained when possible - loose papers were put in folders. Most copies of university publications, duplicate sets of stationery, and large sets of duplicate photographs were weeded from the collection.