Report by Askanasy on "My Mediterranean
Journey, Aug 26, 1964 - January 2nd, 1965"

Anna H. Askanasy was a Viennese woman who emigrated from Nazi Austria to Canada in 1938. Askanasy was involved in the women's movement and part of a circle of feminists which included Mary Beard and Rosika Schwimmer. She also appears to have been active in the movement for peace which emerged in response to the beginnings of the First World War. Askanasy's letters to Margaret Grierson, founder of the Sophia Smith Collection, reveal that she was deeply passionate about women's history and very interested in the potential of the Collection. Askanasy was an amateur women's historian herself and published a historical novel Empress of Byzantium (1952) under the pseudonym Helen A. Mahler. Her unpublished book, "The Catastrophe of Patriarchy," also reflects her interest in the subject.