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C 2- URSULA BINGHAM: A LADY'S LIFE: NEW ENGLAND, BERKELEY, CHINA fc An Interview Conducted by Rosemary Levenson in 1983 Ursula Griswold Bingham, c. 1968 San Francisco Chronicle May 13, 1998 BINGHAM. Ursula Wolcott Grlswold Be loved mother and grandmother, died on May 11. 1998 at Orinda Convalescent and Rehabilitation Hospital. Orinda. California of stroke-related complications. Descended from three Governors of Con necticut. Ursula was born June 28 1908 to Evelyn Sloane and William Edward Scnenck Griswold in Greenwich. Connecti cut. In 1928. she married Woodbridge Bing- nam. son of Hiram Bingham. a Governor and Senator from Connecticut and discov erer of Machu Picchu. Peru's 'Lost City of the Inca's'. Ursula settled in Berkeley with her late husband, a Professor of Far Eastern Histo ry and founder of the East Asiatic Institute at the University of California. She also accompanied him on several trips to the Far and Middle East, living for two years in China and Japan before World War II. Among her many accomplishments and activities. Ursula served on the National Board of the YWCA for 2 decades and for 35 years, as a Trustee for the Pacific School of Religion. She is survived by her four daughters Mrs. Anne Altroccl of Old Lyme CT Mrs Clare Cochran of North Stamford. CT Mrs Evelyn Goodman of Kensington. CA. Mrs Marian McAdams of Salem. CT: ten grand children: ten great grandchildren: brothers John Griswold of Greenwich. CT and Wes Griswold Jr. of Old Lyme. CT: and sister Adela Bartholomew of Old Lyme. CT. A memorial service was held at the First Congregational Church in Berkeley. Cali fornia May 1 2. 1998. arrangements made by the Bayview Chapel in Berkeley CA A family service and burial will be held in Connecticut at a later date. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Oral History Section of the Bancroft Library. University of Califor nia. Berkeley. California. INTERVIEW HISTORY This is the story of the life and times of Ursula Wolcott Griswold Binghatn, a power for good in public charities and private kindnesses, faculty wife, mother of four, and grandmother of ten. Ursula was born in 1908. She is descended from two distinguished New England families and married into a third. She thrived on the characteristic upbringing for a lady of her class and period. When Woodbridge Bingham fell in love with her, she married him and travelled with him from Harvard to Berkeley, and on to China and Japan in the turbulent '30's. After World War II, the family settled for good in Berkeley where Woodbridge taught Chinese history until his retirement in 1969. In 1981 she suffered a disabling stroke while swimming in Long Island Sound. She responded to this with her customary courage and decisiveness at the time of the incident and with even more praiseworthy determination to recover as much mobility and independence as she could in the long rehabilitation process. In 1983, Ursula's husband asked me if I would conduct an oral history with her as I had worked for eleven years in the Regional Oral History Office of The Bancroft Library and we were long time friends. I accepted the invitation with pleasure. In preparation for the interviews, I reviewed family papers and consulted family members and friends. Before each meeting, I prepared an agenda for Ursula, and the interviews loosely followed these outlines. We met in the dining room of the Binghams 1 beautiful house on Greenwood Common in Berkeley. Papers would spread out all over the table as we checked recollections against the factual record. Usually, we took a pleasant break for coffee and refreshments. Twelve tape recorded interviews took place between September and December of 1983. The tapes were then transcribed, edited for continuity, and returned to Ursula for review. She made extensive revisions and emendations which were incorporated into the final typed version. The manuscript was indexed, illustrated and bound. A copy of the memoir with the original tapes has been deposited in The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. Other copies have been deposited at Yale, the New York Public Library, the Colonial Dames National Library in Washington, D.C., the Phoebe Griffin Noyes Library in Old Lyme, Connecticut, and presented to members of the family. Rosemary Levenson Interviewer /Editor ii 1, 3 7 I f! c s tl I c 1=7. fft a c -c - 4"^ 1 UJUJ-ft J7 O V> "5 s 1 o !! Gi ? I fe $ J> c "3 to o rHS" i K Ota 4 -3 .^ 'z IU H .? a -sV c ll ?2ii 7 PJ Lfij TABLE OF CONTENTS Ursula Bingham INTERVIEW HISTORY i GENEALOGY ii I A FINE EAST COAST UPBRINGING 1 Grandparents 1 Parents 6 A Happy Childhood 7 Servants 10 Education 13 Religion and Cousin Henry Sloane Coffin 14 Music and Dancing Lessons: Knickerbocker Greys for the Boys 16 Foxcroft Boarding School, in Virginia, 1923-1926 19 A New York Debut 23 The Summer Circuits 26 Glimpses of Childhood 32 The Family Business: W&J Sloane 39 Learning to be a Gracious Person 40 Courses at the YWCA and Columbia University 42 Volunteer Work 44 Managing Money 45 Family Tours to Europe: 1926 and 1928 46 The Lenox Quartet and Meeting Woodbridge Bingham 50 Engagement and Marriage, 1926-1928 53 Senator and Mrs. Hiram Bingham 57 II MARRIED LIFE: GRADUATE SCHOOL, HARVARD AND THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, AND STUDIES IN THE ORIENT, 1928-1937 62 Cambridge Living 62 Attends Lecture Courses from Paul Pelliot, Langdon Warner, and Sir Aurel Stein 64 Pays Formal Calls on the President of Harvard, and Later, at the University of California on Mrs. Robert Gordon Sproul 65 The Depression 67 Anne, Our First Baby 67 Graduate Student Days at the University of California, Berkeley 1930-1934 69 Traveling to China 73 Life in Peking and First Impressions of China 75 Summer at Yu tao ho, Shansi 80 General Comments 85 Eight Months in Japan, July, 1936 - March, 1938 92 Living in Kyoto and Expeditions 96 Arranged Marriages 105 Going Home with the Clubbs 106 Back Home in America 108 Ill JUNIOR FACULTY WIFE AND MOTHER AT BERKELEY: WORLD WAR II 112 Private Means in a University Environment 112 The Girls' Education: Views on Dating, Family Planning, Sex, and Religious Instruction 114 Public Schools Through Junior High, Then Boarding School in Ross: A Family Pattern Repeated 117 Town and Gown Club Communities in Berkeley in the Thirties 119 A Last Big Trip Before the War: Cross Country with a Trailer 122 Navy Japanese Language School in Berkeley and Boulder, Colorado 126 Berkeley and Wartime Train Journeys 129 IV FACULTY AND FAMILY LIFE, TRAVEL AND VOLUNTEER WORK 133 Town and Gown Club 133 A Faculty Wife's Life 134 1950, A Family Trip to Europe 138 Sabbatical Leave: New York, 1950-1951 143 Volunteer Work 144 The YWCA, University and National Boards 144 USO (United Service Organization) 150 Board Member of the Pacific School of Religion for Thirty-Six Years 152 The English in Action Program 154 Problems of Activism at Pacific School of Religion 157 Pacific School of Religion: A Great Experience 158 Personal Faith 160 The Rewards of Volunteer Work 161 V TRAVEL, BACK TO CHINA, DEATHS, ILLNESS, AND LIFE 164 Collecting and Travel 164 A Winter in Hong Kong, 1970-1971: More Volunteer Work 170 A Trip to Russia, 1974 173 Back to China with Jack and Caroline Service, 1980 181 Happy Family Relationships Remembered 196 Four Family Deaths 199 Traditions of Needlework, Music, and Art 202 The Four Bingham Daughters 204 Thoughts on Marriage 211 No Fear of Flying 212 A Major Stroke in Long Island Sound, 1981 212 Life Falls Apart and Recovery 215 INDEX 222 I A FINE EAST COAST UPBRINGING Grandparents Rosemary Levenson: I'm very pleased to be here, Ursula, Let's start your memoir by talking about your grandparents. Ursula Bingham: I'll start with my mother's family. My mother was Evelyn Sloane. Her father was John Sloane and her mother was Adela Berry Sloane*; they lived in New York City. My grandfather built the first fire proof house there, on Fifth Avenue near what later was Seventieth Street, and it faced Central Park. It had a big, wide stoop and stairs up to the front door. The family would gather there on days when there were parades because many times on St. Patrick's Day, there were big parades down Fifth Avenue. My grandfather's grandfather had started the firm of W&J Sloane, a furniture company in New York City. They were first way downtown and later moved up to Fifth Avenue and Fifty-Seventh Street. My grandmother Sloane died when I was about three years old. My grandfather died shortly before Mother was married, on September 7, 1907. Levenson: Where were they from originally? Bingham: Far back, my Sloane grandparents came from Scotland. My grandfather was a close friend of Mr. Carnegie's in Dunfermline, across the Firth of Forth from Edinburgh. *Her father was a Dr. Berry who was the first medical doctor in Brooklyn, New York. My grandfather John Sloane and his brother William were, I believe, the founders of the Sloane Hospital of New York City. Bingham: We still have lots of good Scots stories that were told at Christmas time and Thnaksgiving when the family gathered together. I wish I could remember them because we all had a wonderful time together. Levenson; What religion were they? Bingham: They were staunch Presbyterians. Levenson: And your father's family? Bingham: My father's family were quite different.