Correspondence

Scope and Contents This file of letters covers the last three months Marjorie Rackstraw was in Russia. Letters are sent from Buzuluk, and Alexievka, and are sparse during this time because courriers could not deliver mail to flooding from the thaw. She describes the Easter festivities, the still constant threat of thieves, and she cites that looking through the data she has taken, that 1 in 4 people have died in Buzuluk since she arrived. The food trains are arriving on schedule, and some signs of autumn sown...

Scope and Contents This file consists largely of letters sent by Margery Fry to Marjorie Rackstraw, though there are a few from Marjorie Rackstraw to Margery Fry. Of note for readers, Margery Fry nicknamed Marjorie Rackstraw Martha early in their friendship, and she uses this name in her letters to address her friend. Letters are sent from addresses at University House, Birmingham; Failand House, Nr. Bristol; different cities in France; 13 Calthope Rd, Birmingham; 7 Dalmeny Avenue, London; St. John's Manse,...

Scope and Contents

This file contains correspondence from fer family to Marjorie Rackstraw, and is largely unsorted.

Scope and Contents This file contains letters sent from Danelovka, and Alexievka. In these letters Rackstraw writes that she has a new translator, who becomes ill during their travels. They also visit a priest, whose home has been a welcome place to them many a time, and whose wife and children have been a source of happiness, to find that his wife has died of illness 8 days previously, and a child is ill. She also writes about other visits that they make, and the observations she has of children's centers,...

Scope and Contents In this file are letters from Tarkolka, Alexievka, and Loevka. She describes how and where they travel by sleigh, in anticipation for a conference in Buzuluk that will decide the policy strategy for the next few months. She finally makes it, and writes that that in 2 of the villages (volosts) she will be able to feed all the children who are not already fed by the Soviet authorities, as well as a fair number of adults. ...

Scope and Contents This file contains letters sent from Buzuluk, and Alexievka. This month she describes a blockage of supplies due to trains being held up by rivers flooding key track lines. There is a great fear that they won't get food until the thaw, which is saved towards the end of the month by a great cold snap! Previously they experienced a great drop in the death rate, and people have been hopeful, perhaps a turn for the best. This month contains only three letters, which MR explains is due to the...

Scope and Contents This file contains letters Marjorie Rackstraw sent during November of 1922. Letters are from Moscow, (also written Mokba, the Russian pronunciation for Moscow), and she describes the activities of her days: going to the ballet at the Opera House by night, and distributing milk to nurseries by day. She writes of distributing cocoa, tinned condensed milk, and soap. Those of a higher pay grade like chauffeurs and interpretors on her team receive a weekly ration of fat, sugar, beans or rice,...

Scope and Contents This pack of letters describes Marjorie Rackstraw's first month in Russia, several from the Norwegian Steamship named the Cygnus, then from Reval, Estonia,and the last two from Moscow. She describes the trip, how her passport was checked by police in Estonia, and the other travelers she meets on the ship and on subsequent trains. In her final letter, she describes in detail the food shortages in Moscow. "Bread is weighed out with the very greatest care and every little broken pieces i picked...

Scope and Contents

This file contains personal correspondence from contacts of Marjorie Rackstraw. Letters relate to Masson Hall, Moray House, Birmingham University, Edinburgh University, her relief work time in France, Russia, and her involvement with the Hampstead Housing Old People's Trust. There are updates from students, and friends, many in response to Christmas cards that she sent, and including photos of their family.

Scope and Contents

This file contains a photograph and a letter sent to Marjorie Rackstraw 18 August 1971 announcing the Headmistress May Brown's retirement, and thanking her for her "kindness and encouragement during my term of office". The photo is from the Reunion Summer of 1970, and is of a large room full of people seated. Marjorie Rackstraw is in the front row, on the right, third from the aisle.