Perdita Huston papers
Collection Scope and Content
This collection includes files documenting Huston's professional life, beginning with her journalism work with Time/Life in Algeria until her final work on the Global Family Project in the late 1990s. Included are research notes, interview transcripts, drafts of her writing projects, correspondence from throughout her career, and material on organizations and conferences she was involved with. Also included are clippings of published articles by and about Huston which she collected. Correspondence can be found both in Series 2: Correspondence, as well as interfiled throughout the collection with Huston's working records.
Dates
- 1936-2007
Creator
- Huston, Perdita, 1936- (Person)
Access
Collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
For permission to reproduce or publish, please contact the Curator of the Maine Women Writers Collection.
Biographical/Historical Note
Born and raised in Portland, Maine, Perdita Huston spent her professional life advocating for sustainable development and sound family planning worldwide. She spent a number of years living in northern Africa and France before settling in the Washington, D.C. area.
Perdita Huston studied at the University of Colorado and the Université de Grenoble, and received her bachelor's in sociology and international relations from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Internationales in Paris in 1958. Marriage to a French doctor brought her to Algeria during its war for independence. There, she worked as a medical social worker, beginning her life-long advocacy for people living in developing countries, especially rural women. Huston also held positions with the Tunisian Ministry of Information and the Algerian Ministry of Agriculture while living in Africa. Her professional journalism career began with Life magazine, for which she worked both as an administrator and as a reporter, writing freelance articles about the situation in northern Africa throughout the 1960s for Life and Time, as well as The New York Times.
After continuing work with Time Life in Europe for several years, Huston moved to Washington, D.C. in 1971 to direct programs for the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration, primarily programs for women. In addition to her varied journalistic work, Huston was involved with many organizations and delegations, including several United Nations agencies, the Peace Corps, and the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration. In 1978, Huston became the Peace Corps regional director for North Africa, Near East, Asia, Pacific (NANEAP), and returned as a country director (Bulgaria and then Mali) in 1997. Her activities between 1981 and 1985 included a wide variety of work, including serving as a scholar-in-residence for two years at Wheaton College, researching and producing a documentary film (African Recovery) and consulting on public affairs for the InterAction Council, an independent group of 30 former heads of government. Other positions included coordinating the Population and Sustainable Development Program for the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and serving as director of Public Affairs for the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).
Huston's books deal largely with the state of families and the status of women worldwide. To research her first two books, Message from the Village (1978) and Third World Women Speak Out (1979), Huston traveled to six developing countries. Huston continued to focus on the changing nature of families world throughout the mid-1990s, as a part of her Global Family Project, publishing Families As We Are in 2001.
Huston passed away in 2001 at the age of 65, and the United Nations Association for the National Capital Area created the "Perdita Huston Human Rights Fund" in her honor. She is survived by her three children, Francoise Champey Pommier, Jeanne Marie Champey Paynel, and Pierre Marc Diennet.
Extent
19.75 linear feet (32 boxes (some oversize materials))
Language of Materials
English
Arrangement
This collection is organized into the following series: I. Writing projects, 1963-1995; II. Correspondence, 1967-1998; III. Work with organizations, 1972-1999; IV. Presentations and conferences, 1977-1994; V. Published articles by and about Huston, 1937-1999; VI. Audio, visual, and computer media; VII. Global Family Project - Families As We Are.; VIII. Biographical material, photographs, and end-of-life documents, 1936-2001; IX. Perdita Huston Human Rights Award, 2002-2007
- Africa Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Algeria Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- American Revolution Bicentennial Administration
- American poetry -- 20th century Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Amnesty International
- Audiocassettes Subject Source: TGM II, Genre and physical characteristic terms
- Bangladesh Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Bergen (Norway) Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Brazil Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Cameroon Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Carnegie Corporation of New York
- Catalogs Subject Source: TGM II, Genre and physical characteristic terms
- Children and the environment Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- China Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Clippings Subject Source: TGM II, Genre and physical characteristic terms
- Conference on World Affairs (U.S.)
- Correspondence Subject Source: TGM II, Genre and physical characteristic terms
- Costa Rica Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Cross-cultural studies Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Developing countries Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Diaries Subject Source: Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms
- Dominican Republic Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Egypt Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- El Salvador Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Ephemera Subject Source: Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms
- Families Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Family planning Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Fatherhood Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Feminist Press
- Floppy disks Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Ford Foundation
- France Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Ghana Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs
- Human rights Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Huston, Perdita, 1936-
- India Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- InterAction Council
- International Center for Research on Women
- International Council of Voluntary Agencies
- International Planned Parenthood Federation
- International Union for Conservation of Nature
- Jamaica Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Japan Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
- Jordan Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Journalism Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Kenya Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Korea Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Life (Chicago, Ill.) Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Mali Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Manuscripts Subject Source: TGM II, Genre and physical characteristic terms
- Mexico Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Middle East Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Missouri Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Morocco Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Motherhood Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- National Women's Conference
- Nepal Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- New York (State) Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- New York Times Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- New Zealand Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Nicaragua Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Obituaries Subject Source: Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms
- Overseas Development Council
- Pamphlets Subject Source: TGM II, Genre and physical characteristic terms
- Peace Corps (U.S.)
- Philippines Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Photographs Subject Source: TGM II, Genre and physical characteristic terms
- Portland (Me.) Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Postcards Subject Source: Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms
- Posters Subject Source: Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms
- Research Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Sierra Leone Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Singapore Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Sri Lanka Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Substance abuse Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Sudan Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Sustainable development Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Tanzania Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Teenage pregnancy Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Thailand Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Tonga Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Tunisia Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Typescripts Subject Source: TGM II, Genre and physical characteristic terms
- UNICEF
- Uganda Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Unesco
- United Nations
- United Nations Development Fund for Women
- United Nations Development Programme
- United Nations Environment Programme
- United Nations Fund for Population Activities
- Video recordings Subject Source: Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms
- West Virginia Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Wheaton College (Norton, Mass.)
- Women and the environment Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Women's rights Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- World Conference on Women
- Title
- Guide to the Perdita Huston papers, 1936-2007
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Anna Brandenburg
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Maine Women Writers Collection Repository
Abplanalp Library
University of New England
716 Stevens Avenue
Portland Maine 04103 United States
mwwc@une.edu