Personal Papers of Cynthia Mary Crews

Summary of the Cynthia May Crews papers: 1. published work, offprints of 18 articles, 2. unpublished work, including card index for a projected Judaeo-Spanish dictionary 40,000 entries, 3. correspondence, 3 files, 4. self records, includes curricula vitae 1946-1968 and reviews of her publications, 5. material in Judaeo-Spanish, includes typescript of 18 stories by a native Salonican and photographs taken in Bitolj, 1929 and Salonica in 1935, 6. material on Judaeo-Spanish, includes notebooks on pronunciation and vocabulary, 7. material for research projects in romance philology, mainly concerned with the phonological and semantic influence of French on English, 8. medical material, (transferred to the Wellcome Institute), 9. list of microfilms, miscellaneous publications 1547-1859, 10. correspondence concerning Crews material (unlisted), 11. Estudios Sefardies.

Cynthia Mary Crews, nee Jopson, was born in 1906 and died in 1970. She was a student of many languages, electing to study in fields that did not readily lead to fame or employment. From early on in her career she specialised in Judaeo-Spanish, the language spoken by the Spanish Jews banished in the later Middle Ages who settled in Romania. She studied Modern and Medieval Languages at Girton College 1924-1928. Between 1937-1939 she was a Pfeiffer Research Scholar at Girton College. She published widely on Judaeo-Spanish and collected materials for a dictionary.

The papers are held in the Girton Library not the Archive. Access is open to bona fide scholars by appointment only.

As at Sep 2008 an online catalogue for Girton College Archives was available at http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/ [Detailed handlist available in the Girton Library]

Collection Description taken from Genesis in Sep 2008 as part of Genesis 2008 Project. Description by Catherine Burke, Genesis Project Officer 16/01/2002