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The Gertrude Sanford Legendre papers
“The life of Gertrude Sanford Legendre is more like that of a fictional character in a Hollywood film than reality: socialite, heiress, world traveler, spy, game hunter, and philanthropist. In fact, it has been said that Mrs. Legendre inspired Katharine Hepburn’s character in the 1938 film Holiday. Certainly, she was not the average 20th century American woman.” -Discovery magazine, fall 2012
Gertrude Sanford Legendre (1902–2000) was an American socialite who served as an OSS operative during World War II. She was also a noted explorer, big-game hunter, environmentalist, and owner of Medway plantation in South Carolina.
The collection consists mostly of scrapbooks, loose photographs ranging in date from the mid to late 19th century to the 21st century, correspondence and business records, and a small amount of published material. We are currently digitizing these materials, and parts of the collection are now available to view from anywhere in the world via the Lowcountry Digital Library!
Processing this collection has been made possible by a generous donation from The Medway Charitable Trust, and will be an ongoing project until April 2015. Any questions about the collection may be directed to the Head of Special Collections at the Addlestone Library, Harlan Greene (GreeneH[at]cofc[dot]edu), or the project archivist, Cara McHugh (mchughck[at]cofc[dot]edu).