Opening the Books: the Personal Papers of Dona Torr

Abstract

This paper discusses the significance of the collection of papers deposited by Dona Torr with the British Communist Party archive, and now held at the National Museum of Labour History in Manchester. Torr was a founder member of the Communist Party, and later a pioneer of 'history from below'. Although she would not have recognized the term, we can see her now as one of a generation of socialist feminists. Torr was certainly an influence on Christopher Hill and Edward and Dorothy Thompson, and through them on Sheila Rowbotham and the Ruskin generation who started History Workshop. Radicalized as much by the Great War as by the campaign for suffrage, Dona Torr became a socialist activist in her late thirties. In common with other middle-class campaigning women of her generation, Torr was able to leave the confines of the domestic sphere. Yet in her public work and in her published writing, there is little sense of personal memory or private emotion. The journey was travelled in one direction, and not returned. For these reasons, Torr's private papers give an important access to a personal story that is not well known. This paper begins with a summary of Torr's public life, before moving on to describe the papers deposited with the archive in Manchester.