Frederick Henry Cramer was born on March 2, 1906 in Berlin, Germany. His father was Hans Cramer, a wealthy ship line owner in Germany. He attended the Arndt Gymnasium in Berlin and did graduate work at Erlangen University, Columbia University, the University of Berlin, and the Universitat Zurich from which he received his Ph.D. Before joining Mount Holyoke faculty as an associate professor of history in 1938, he served as a visiting lecturer at Zurich and during the 1938-1939 academic year was a visiting lecturer at Harvard University. Along with his professorship at Mount Holyoke College, Cramer also taught at Hartford College and Holyoke Junior College, was a visiting lecturer at Smith College, and taught at the Harvard and Boston University summer schools as well as at the Universitat Zurich. Cramer and his wife Elizabeth Zeigler Cramer were married twenty six years and were the parents of five children. The Cramers were avid automobile racers and were the only American entrants in the Rally Monte Carlo, Europe's biggest auto competition, in January 1954. Frederick Cramer died September 5, 1954 at the age of forty-eight while taking part in the Tour de France automobile race.

The Frederick H. Cramer Papers consist of writings, biographical information and photographs dating from 1938-1954. The collection is primarily made up of the reprints of articles written by Cramer. They concern contemporary European history including "The Rivalries Between the Great European Powers", "The Growth of Revolutionary Movements", "The Decline of European Economy", "World War II", "The Collapse of Western and Eastern Europe", "America At the Cross Roads" and "American Foreign Policy". The collection includes of a series of four articles written for the "Current History" magazine entitled " Between East and West", "Benes of Czechoslovakia", "Renner of Austria", "Cripps of England" and "Jouhaux of France". Numerous articles written during the same period on subjects ranging from the circumstances of tourist travel in Europe to the economic and political situations in Italy, Switzerland and France are also included. Personal accounts of his travel in Europe between 1947-1948 were published in the Holyoke, Massachusetts "Transcript-Telegram". The collection also includes two books by Cramer: "The Caesar and the Stars" (1951), dealing with the influence of astrology on Roman life and "Classica et Mediaevalia" (1951) describing the political, cultural and legal aspect of the early Roman period. The biographical information includes newspaper clippings concerning his interest in automobile racing. The photographs are primarily portraits of Cramer and his wife Elizabeth Zeigler Cramer.

Material from this collection is available in an online digital format.

This collection is organized into three series:

• Writings
• Biographical Information
• Photographs