Helen Truesdell Heath collection on Samuel Pepys
Scope and Contents
The Helen Truesdell Heath Collection on Samuel Pepys consists of Heath’s research and writing for works on Pepys that were never published, dated from about 1950-1978. Materials include: transcriptions of archival materials by or related to Pepys from various institutions in England; letters addressed to Heath by publishing agencies regarding her publishing attempts; her research notebooks on Pepys from Oxford and Cambridge; Samuel Pepys Club paperwork and newsletters; images of Samuel Pepys and his associates; miscellaneous paperwork related to both Samuel Pepys and Helen Truesdell Heath; paperwork from the Public Record Office, London (PRO); and other miscellaneous paperwork.
Dates
- Creation: about 1950-1970
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
The Clark Library owns the property rights to its collections but does not hold the copyright to these materials and therefore cannot grant or deny permission to use them. Researchers are responsible for determining the copyright status of any materials they may wish to use, investigating the owner of the copyright, and obtaining permission for their intended publication or other use. In all cases, you must cite the Clark Library as the source with the following credit line: The William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Biographical Note
Helen Truesdell Heath (born Yetta Helen Walker) was born in Tucson, Arizona on June 18, 1897 to Mark Walker, Jr. and Alice Feldman. She received a B.A. from USC in 1918, followed by a teaching credential and a master’s degree, also at USC .This ultimately helped her land a job as an English teacher for a public school from the mid 1930s to early 1940s. Following her career as an educator, she edited a collection of Samuel Pepys’s family letters, which was published as The Letters of Samuel Pepys and His Family Circle in 1955. She did other work with the Pepys archive (reflected in this collection at the Clark Library), but this work does not appear to have been published.
She married Clifford Ambrose Truesdell II in 1917 and had a son named Clifford Ambrose Truesdell III, who would later become a scholar in the field of mathematics and sciences. Following the death of her first husband, Helen married her second husband and a fellow teacher, William R Heath, adopting the name Helen Truesdell Heath. Helen Truesdell Heath died in California in 1987.
References:
* Helen Walker Truesdell Papers at USC (other archival collection)
* Yetta Helen Walker page on FamilySearch
Extent
7.5 Linear feet (15 boxes)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
This collection consists of Helen Truesdell Heath's research materials and manuscripts of research related to the life of Samuel Pepys. It documents the long process of archival research on Samuel Pepys, and the numerous attempts that are taken by Heath to get this work published.
Provenance
This collection was donated to the Clark Library by Helen Truesdell Heath. At least two boxes were donated in 1975, and it is possible that the rest of the collection was donated later, as some materials in the collection are dated 1978 and later.
Processing History
Processed and described in January 2024 by Elizabeth Cervantes.
- Title
- Helen Truesdell Heath Collection on Samuel Pepys
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Finding aid by Elizabeth Cervantes
- Date
- 2024
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library Repository