Public health specialist, editor, and publicist Louise Stevens Bryant (1885-1956) received a B.S. from Smith College in 1908 and a PhD in Medical Science from the University of Pennsylvania. She promoted dispensary development and edited a pioneer medical study and publicity program in the field of human fertility. She was associated at various times with the Russell Sage Foundation, the Girl Scouts of America, the Pennsylvania School for Social Service and Health, and the War Industries Board. She was the American representative of Havelock Ellis and wrote books and many articles on applied psychology and maternal health. She was the editor and publicist of the United Hospital Fund and National Committee on Maternal Health, New York City, from 1923 to 1937, and publicist for the American Association of University Women from 1938 to 1952. Her other interests included art, poetry, and animals. In 1909, she married Arthur Bryant, whom she divorced in 1912. Her longtime companion was Lura Beam.

The Louise Stevens Bryant Papers consist of personal and professional material. They include a typescript of Bequest from a Life (privately printed), a biography of Bryant written by her companion, Lura Beam, and excerpts from correspondence to Beam from Bryant. The collection also contains Bryant's diaries, notebooks, and professional reports concerning public health and social work issues; subject files; and correspondence, including letters from Havelock Ellis and others generated from Bryant's work negotiating the U.S. publication of Ellis's Studies in the Psychology of Sex." There is related material about Louise Stevens Bryant in the Smith College Archives. The Lura Beam Papers are housed in the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University.

This collection is organized into four series:

• I. BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS
• II. PERSONAL ACTIVITIES
• III. CORRESPONDENCE
• IV. PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
• OVERSIZE MATERIALS
• BOOKS ON SHELF

Please use the following format when citing materials from this collection:

Louise Stevens Bryant Papers, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, Northampton, Mass.

Lura Beam donated the Louise Stevens Bryant Papers to the Sophia Smith Collection in 1962. The papers are open to research according to the regulations of the Sophia Smith Collection without any additional restrictions.

Finding aid revised by Jenn Smar and Burd Schlessinger, 2006