COLLECTION GUIDES

ca. 1878-2000

Guide to the Photograph Collection


Collection Summary

Abstract

This collection contains photographs collected and taken by Lieutenant-Colonel Ruby Winslow Linn, U.S. Army dietician. These photographs span the years ca. 1878-2000 and depict many subjects, including Ruby's travels around the world, her family, and her work as a dietician in various places and hospitals in the United States.

Biographical Sketch

Lieut. Col. Ruby Zillah Winslow Linn, dietician with the U.S. Army Medical Specialist Corps (AMSC), was born in 1910 in Berkeley, Mass., the daughter of Lena Borden Macomber (1883-1970) and Edward Williams Winslow (1875-1966), stationmaster at the Myricks, Mass. depot for the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. Ruby graduated with a B.S. in Home Economics from Simmons College in Boston in 1932. She continued her studies at Walter Reed General Hospital, Washington, D.C., in the Dietetic Internship Program, 1932-1933. After graduating, she served there as a civilian staff dietician, 1933-1936. Her career continued at the Fort Sheridan Station Hospital in Chicago, 1936-1937, and at the Veterans Administration Hospital in the Bronx, 1937-1941. From the Bronx she traveled to Puerto Rico, serving at Rodriguez General Hospital in San Juan and the Station Hospital, 1941-1944. In the meantime, civilian dieticians were offered military status in Dec. 1942, and Ruby was sworn into the Army as a second lieutenant in April 1943. From Puerto Rico, she moved to the Dietician Branch of the Office of the Surgeon General, 1945-1946, and to Brooke General Hospital, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, 1947-1950. Ruby obtained her Master's Degree in Institutional Management from Columbia University in June 1951 and served as Hospital Food Supervisor and Chief of the Food Service Division, Tripler Army Hospital, Honolulu, 1951-1954. After stints at Murphy Army Hospital, Waltham, Mass. (1954-1956) and the U.S. Army Hospital, Fort Benning, Georgia (1956-1958), Ruby returned to Walter Reed General Hospital as Chief of the Food Service Division and Director of the Dietetic Internship Program, 1958-1963. She was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in May 1959 and retired in Dec. 1963.

Ruby Z. Winslow married Col. LaVon Parker Linn (1911-1985) in 1966, and the couple made their home in Arlington, Virginia. LaVon Parker Linn retired from the military shortly before his marriage to Ruby in 1966, after a career of service that included tours of duty in World War II and the Korean War, as well as work with the North American Defense Command, NATO, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. LaVon was an active member of the National Sojourners, a fraternal organization of Masons who were also members of the military, and served as the organization's president in 1975. Upon the death of her mother in 1970, Ruby and LaVon inherited a considerable estate and established a second career as noted philanthropists.

Ruby had one brother, Gilbert Williams Winslow, born in 1915, a safety engineer and graduate of M.I.T. He and his wife Betty Lee (Moment) died in the tragic Coconut Grove Fire in Boston, 28 Nov. 1942.

Collection Description

This collection contains 4,147 photographs and 52 postcards collected by Ruby Winslow Linn. These photographs span the years ca. 1878-2000 and consist of loose photographs and photographs arranged in volumes (including 1 oversize volume).

Fifteen volumes of photographs date from ca. 1916-1981. Most contain photographs that depict Ruby Winslow Linn's travels to the Caribbean, Mexico, Africa, South America, Antarctica, the Arctic Sea, and the Galapagos, among other places, as well as various locations in the United States, from ca. 1940-1976. Other volumes contain photographs that depict Ruby Winslow Linn's childhood and family in Myricks, Mass.; her life and work in the Bronx, N.Y., ca. 1938-1944; and her and Lavon Parker Linn's involvement with the National Sojourners in 1972-1976 and with the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1980-1982. Most of the photographs in these volumes were taken by either Ruby Winslow Linn or LaVon Parker Linn. Please note that many of these volumes have been disbound due to preservation concerns and have been foldered and boxed in their original order.

There are also 4 boxes of loose photographs in this collection. These photos consist mainly of individual and group portraits (both formal and informal) of various Linn, Winslow, Macomber, and Pierce family members, among others. These portraits include many photos of Ruby Winslow Linn, taken between ca. 1911-2000. There are also a number of views of various places, including the Winslow family home in Myricks, Mass., as well as photographs pertaining to Ruby's professional work as a dietician with the U.S. Army, 1953-1964; her travels in the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico, the Middle East, and Europe, among other places; the organizations to which she and LaVon Parker Linn belonged; her philanthropic work; her life at the Fairfax in Fort Belvoir, Va. in the 1990s; and LaVon's service with the U.S. Army during World War II.

Photographers represented in this collection include Ruby Winslow Linn, LaVon Parker Linn, J. Frank Choicener of Taunton, Mass., and James E. Purdy & Co. of Boston, Mass., among many others. Many of the photographers in this collection are unidentified.

There are also 52 postcards collected by Ruby Winslow Linn in this collection, which are stored apart from the collection by format (Ruby Winslow Linn postcards, Postcard Coll. 16.2).

This collection includes cartes de visite, cabinet cards, tintypes, film negatives, and postcards. Included are both black-and-white and color photographs.

Acquisition Information

The Ruby Winslow Linn photographs were removed from the Ruby Winslow Linn papers (stored offsite), which were given by Col. Linn to the Massachusetts Historical Society in November 2000, with additions in May 2003.

Detailed Description of the Collection

Expand all

I. Photographs in albums

Vols. 1-14 are arranged in chronological order. Vol. 15 is Oversize. Vols. 3-14 were disbound in Mar. 2004 due to preservation concerns; the album pages are stored in boxes in the order in which they originally appeared in the albums.

Close I. Photographs in albums

II. Loose photographs

Close II. Loose photographs

Preferred Citation

Ruby Winslow Linn photographs, Photo. Coll. 38, Massachusetts Historical Society Photo Archives.

Access Terms

This collection is indexed under the following headings in ABIGAIL, the online catalog of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related persons, organizations, or subjects should search the catalog using these headings.

Persons:

Linn, LaVon Parker, 1911-1985, photographer.
Linn, LaVon Parker, 1911-1985--Photographs.
Linn, Ruby Zillah Winslow, 1910- --Photographs.
Linn family--Photographs.
Macomber family--Photographs.
Winslow family--Homes and haunts--Massachusetts--Myricks--Photographs.
Winslow family--Photographs.

Organizations:

Daughters of the American Revolution--Photographs.
National Sojourners--Photographs.

Subjects:

Cabinet photographs.
Cartes de visite.
Dietitians--Photographs.
Film negatives.
Middle East--20th century--Photographs.
Nova Scotia--20th century--Photographs.
Photograph albums.
Puerto Rico--20th century--Photographs.
Tintypes.
United States--Armed Forces--Food service specialists--Photographs.
United States--Armed Forces--Women--Photographs.
Voyages and travels--Photographs.
Women in the military--Photographs.
Women photographers.

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