Grace Warner Gray was born November 20, 1924 in Chicago, Illinois to William Scott Gray, a professor at the University of Chicago, and Beatrice Warner Jardine Gray. She attended the University of Chicago High School from 1937-1941. She entered Mount Holyoke College in 1941 and in 1945 received her B.A. in zoology. Gray worked as a junior pharmacologist for two years at the William S. Merrell Company until she entered the University of Michigan in 1947. She earned her Ph.D. in pharmacology in 1951 and worked as a research scientist from 1951-1953 at Bristol Laboratories, Inc. From 1954-1959 she taught pharmacology at Marquette University School of Medicine in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She attended Marquette University Medical School from 1954-1959. In 1963-1964 she was a postdoctoral trainee at the University of Tennessee Medical Units studying lipid metabolism. In 1965 Gray worked at the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania as an assistant professor of pharmacology. She became a professor at the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Minnesota in 1968. After retiring in 1986, she became an avid Elderhosteler and member of civic and conservation organizations. She died on May 21, 2001 at the age of seventy-six in Shoreview, Minnesota.

The Grace W. Gray papers consist of correspondence, course records, writings, memorabilia, biographical information, and a photograph. The materials in this collection relate chiefly to Gray's years as a student at Mount Holyoke College, 1941-1945. In letters to her family she discusses her studies (particularly in zoology) classmates, social activities, faculty, visiting lecturers, horseback riding, parties, dances, food, her jobs on campus, and College traditions such as Mountain Day, Faculty Show, Founder's Day, freshman hazing, and Junior Show. She mentions College President Roswell Gray Ham and professors Elizabeth M. Boyd, Leonora Branch, Ann Haven Morgan, Christianna Smith, Kathryn F. Stein and others. She also refers to motion pictures that she has seen and to political issues, such as the campaign for U.S. president in 1944. Many letters reflect the impact of World War II on the College. She mentions air raid drills, rationing, blackouts, blood drives, members of the U.S. Naval Reserve Women's Reserve (WAVES) training on campus, farm work and a war stamp drive. Course records are for zoology and English classes and a physical education class. Materials include notebooks, an annotated laboratory manual, a project, papers (including one about canoeing), examinations, and microscope slides that she prepared for histology courses. Writings in this collection consists of published articles by Gray dating from 1954-1975 which chiefly concern her scientific research on the effect of various drugs on intestinal muscle. Memorabilia, 1941-1945, consists of correspondence from College administrators to her parents concerning her course work, correspondence about her awards, and a receipt for her enrollment fee. Biographical information consists of two clippings about her from 1945 and an obituary dated 2001. The photograph is her Mount Holyoke senior portrait taken in 1945.

This collection is organized into six series:

• Correspondence
• Course Records
• Writings
• Memorabilia
• Biographical Information
• Photograph