• Classification number: 3P
• Title of Record Series: Alice H. Bushee Papers
• Record Group: Faculty
• Sub Group: Individuals
• Date: February 20, 2007
• Accession Number: A76-20, A76-6, A86-043
• Source: 3L Spanish Department Records; Alice H. Bushee Biographical File
• Restrictions: None
• Volume: 1 box

Alice Huntington Bushee was born December 4, 1867, in Worcester, Massachusetts, to the Reverend William Aldrich Bushee and Emily Jane Clapp Bushee. She spent her early childhood in Vermont, completing her secondary studies at the academy in Morrisville, Vermont, in 1886. She attended Mount Holyoke Seminary where she graduated as valedictorian of her class in 1891.

Alice Bushee began her teaching career at Miss Baird's Finishing School in Norwalk, Connecticut. Within a year, Ms. Bushee moved to San Sebastian, Spain, to serve as librarian and teacher of mathematics and Spanish literature at the International Institute for Girls. She remained here for the next 14 years with occasional trips home and one sabbatical year in 1900 when she earned a Bachelor of Arts from Mount Holyoke College.

In 1907, she returned to the United States to live with her mother in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. Ms. Bushee received a Master degree from Boston University in 1909 and arrived at Wellesley College as an instructor of Spanish in 1911. She moved progressively through faculty ranks, becoming assistant professor in 1916, associate professor in 1918, and full professor in 1924. In 1923-1924, she spent a sabbatical year researching and traveling in Spain followed by a leave of absence in 1924-1925 in order to serve as acting director of the International Institute for Girls. In 1931, she was named Helen J. Sanborn Professor of Spanish Literature. Ms. Bushee retired from Wellesley College in 1936 after serving as chair of the Spanish Department for many years.

Ms. Bushee's early scholarship focused on the study of Hispanic culture in America. In 1911, she published the original edition of the Sucesos of Mateo Alemán. Later, her interest turned to the work of Tirso de Molina, one of the great dramatists of the Golden Age of Spanish Literature. She published Three Centuries of Tirso de Molina in 1939 and a critical edition of Molina's La prudencia en la mujer in 1948.

In recognition of her studies, Alice Bushee was made a corresponding member of the Hispanic Society of America in 1916 and elected a full member in 1924. In 1932, she was made a Corresponding member of the Spanish-American Academy of Science and Arts of Cadiz, Spain. She was given the Medal of Arts and Literature for distinction in the field of Hispanic humanities by the Hispanic Society of America on the occasion of her eighty-fifth birthday.

Alice H. Bushee died on April 28, 1956 in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.

Papers of Alice Huntington Bushee date from 1833 to 1956.

The 0.3 linear feet of records were compiled from a variety of sources. (See the list of accessions at the beginning of the finding aid). The folder titled "Bushee: Book" previously in the records of the Spanish Department records was moved to this collection. Materials on the translation and publication of Un Estudio sobre Tirso traducido por Millé were removed from Accession A86-043. Scrapbook of Emily Jane Clapp Bushee came from Alice Bushee's biographical file.

Papers consist of biographical information, book reviews, correspondence concerning publications, newspaper clippings, letters, publications about Tirso de Molina by Bushee ["Bibliography of La Prudencia en la Mujer"; "The Guzmán Edition of Tirso de Molina's Comedias"; "The Five Partes of Tirso de Molina"] and publications about Tirso de Molina by others.

Also included is material regarding the publication of a translation of Bushee's study of Tirso de Molina. The material includes correspondence from translator Juan Millé Giménez to Ms. Bushee, translations, and correspondence by Ada M. Coe, who took over this effort, to bring publication Un Estudio sobre Tirso traducido por Millé to fruition.

The scrapbook of Alice Bushee's mother, Emily Jane Clapp Bushee is also included. It contains newspaper clippings of events, literature, household remedies, and poetry.

Records of the Spanish Department should be consulted in conjunction with Bushee's Papers.

Processing of this collection was made possible through a generous gift in memory of Janet Meyers Hennick, Wellesley Class of 1952.

• General
• Bushee, Emily Clapp: Scrapbook (1833-1870's)
• Giménez, Juan Millé (correspondence and translations of Tirso de Molina studies)
• Tirso de Molina I
• Tirso de Molina II