Patience Worth Collection

Collection

Identifier: A0351

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The collection includes correspondence of Pearl Curran and miscellaneous material relating to her career; 29 typescript volumes of dialogues between Patience Worth and the family and friends of Pearl Curran, 1913-1937; loose typescripts of selected dialogues, 1916-1928; one bound volume titled “Odds and Ends” of miscellaneous writings, poems, etc. by Patience Worth; a typescript by Casper Yost of Patience Worth’s The First Book of Panda, 1915-1916; partial typescript manuscripts of Patience Worth’s works Redwing and The Merry Tale; a book of poetry written by Patience Worth for members of the Parrish family; loose poems written for Mrs. Dudley French and others; original and photocopy newspaper clippings regarding Pearl Curran and Patience Worth; a photograph of Pearl Curran’s gravesite; and correspondence of the Missouri Historical Society with donor Mrs. A.B. Smith.

Dates

1913-2012

Creator

Curran, Pearl Lenore Pollard, 1883-1937 (Author, Person)

Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open for research use.

Conditions Governing Use

For permission to publish, quote from, or reproduce material in this collection, please contact the Archives Reference Desk at archives@mohistory.org. Copyright restrictions may apply. The researcher assumes full responsibility for conforming to the laws of copyright.

Biographical Sketch

Pearl Pollard was born in 1883 in Mound City, Illinois, and moved to St. Louis with her family about 1897. She married John H. Curran in 1907. After his death in 1922, she married Henry H. Rogers (died 1926), and in 1931 she married Robert Warman. Beginning around 1913, the spirit of a supposedly long-dead English Puritan girl, Patience Worth, spoke through Pearl Curran and her Ouija board (channeling). Through Mrs. Curran, Patience Worth dictated plays, poems, and essays. A number of publications resulted from the “spiritual writings” of Patience Worth, including The Sorry Tale and Hope Trueblood. Through Patience Worth’s urging, Pearl and John Curran adopted a daughter whom they christened Patience Wee, and whom Patience Worth considered her own spiritual daughter. Patience Worth continued to communicate through Mrs. Curran on a regular basis until her death in 1937 in California.

Extent

2.5 Cubic Feet ( (3 boxes; 30 volumes))

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Arrangement

The collection is divided into the following four series: Pearl Curran Series, Patience Worth Typescripts Series, Manuscripts Series, and Ancillary Material Series. The original binding for The First Book of Panda manuscript was removed to Box 3 for preservation of the manuscript.

Physical and Technical Requirements

There are no physical or technical restrictions.

Donor Information

In 1956, Mr. and Mrs. Dudley French donated poems written by Patience Worth for Mrs. French and others, 1917-1920. In the same year, M.D. Conroy donated a book of poetry written to members of the Parrish family by Patience Worth through Mrs. Pearl Lenore Curran, 1924-1928. The thirty volumes of writings of Patience Worth as set down by Pearl Curran, including accounts of séances, poems, and miscellaneous thoughts, were donated in 1957 by Mrs. A.B. Smith, a close friend of Pearl Curran while she was living in California and prior. In 1973, Peggy Ives Cole donated Casper Yost’s typescript of First Book of Panda; various transcriptions of sessions with Patience Worth; the partial manuscript of The Merry Tale; a stock certificate of the Patience Worth Publishing Co., $10.00 share; and miscellaneous writings of Patience Worth. Dr. Daniel B. Shea donated a photograph of Pearl Curran’s gravesite in 2013. Photocopies of articles about the Curran family and Patience Worth were also given by Dr. Shea at that time.

Existence and Location of Copies

Selected items have been digitized by staff and volunteers. The images may be viewed online by clicking the links beside each item in the inventory.

Bibliography

For more information concerning Pearl Curran and Patience Worth, please see the following publications, all available in the Missouri History Museum Library: The Patience of Pearl: Spiritualism and Authorship in the Writings of Pearl Curran by Daniel B. Shea. Columbia, Mo.: University of Missouri Press, 2012. Rediscovering Pearl Curran: solving the mystery of Patience Worth by Mia Grandolfi Wall. Tulane University Thesis, 2000. Singer in the shadows: the strange story of Patience Worth by Irving Litvag. New York: Macmillan, 1972. The case of Patience Worth: a critical study of certain unusual phenomena by Walter Franklin Pierce. Boston: Boston Society for Psychic Research, 1927. Patience Worth: a psychic mystery by Casper S. Yost. New York: H. Holt and Company, 1916.