Dr. Elizabeth B. Drewry: A Leading Lady

The National Archives History Office continues to celebrate Women’s History Month with stories of former employees. Today’s post comes from Kaitlin Errickson.

Elizabeth B. Drewry was a key member of the National Archives staff during her many years of service and became a leading woman in the field of archives.

After a few years of teaching at Penn Hall Junior College in Chambersburg, PA, she joined the National Archives as a reference supervisor in 1936.

Drewry specialized in American and World War I history and worked on compiling the records of World War I. In 1942, the Government Printing Office published her book Historical Units of the First World War.

Drewry wanted to help make the National Archives better and more efficient, so she led the effort to get all federal records under a uniform retention and disposal system throughout the 1950s.

Elizabeth B. Drewry, Director of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, 1964. (National Archives Identifier 12171066)

She left the main National Archives in Washington, DC, to work at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park, NY, where she stayed from 1961 until her retirement in 1969.

While working at the library, Drewry made even more progress for women in the archival profession. Her friend and colleague Lynn Bassanese said that Drewry—the first woman to head a Presidential library—was instrumental in raising money for the Eleanor Roosevelt wings, which were completed in 1972.

Her extraordinary work in records management while at the National Archives also earned her the Federal Women’s Award, which was presented to her by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965.

Dedication of the Eleanor Roosevelt Wings at the Franklin Roosevelt Library, left to right: Herman Kahn, Yale University, Josef C. James, Roosevelt Library Director, Elizabeth Drewry, Former Director of the Roosevelt Library, Dr. James E. O’Neill, Deputy Archivist, and Dr. James B. Rhoads, Archivist of the United States, 5/3/1972. (National Archives Identifier 35810082)

Elizabeth Drewry was a leader for women during her career at the National Archives. Through her hard work, she left her mark and a blazed a trail for women throughout the National Archives.

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