Benjamin F. Carruthers (1911-1985) was a college professor, translator, and an award-winning travel writer and editor. The collection contains two audio recordings and one video related to Carruthers's life and career as a travel writer, dating from 1983 to 1985.
College professor and translator Benjamin F. Carruthers (1911-1985) was an award-winning travel writer and editor at Essence magazine and others. He contributed travel articles to newspapers such as The Boston Globe, the Chicago Tribune, and the New York Amsterdam News. His awards included Trans World Airline's prize for best foreign travel article. He was active in professional organizations throughout his life, including the Society of American Travel Writers, serving as the organization's first Black vice president in 1976, and president in 1977.
Carruthers earned a doctorate from the University of Illinois in 1941, taught Spanish and French at Howard University, and is noted for his translation into English, together with Langston Hughes, of Cuba Libré (1948) by the Cuban poet Nicolás Guillén. Additionally, he was active in organizations that supported civil rights and human rights, as social affairs officer in the Human Rights Division of the United Nations, and as public relations counsel to the National Council of Negro Women. He died on October 4, 1985.
The collection contains two audio recordings and one video related to Benjamin F. Carruthers's life and career as a travel writer, dating from 1983 to 1985. They are organized chronologically. The collection includes an appearance by Carruthers on a television travel magazine episode about Spain, as well as an audio recording of his memorial service.
Marcel D. Chassagne, 1985.
Collection inventoried by Stacey Doyle Ference. Collection processed and described by Lyric Evans-Hunter, archivist. Finding aid published in 2025.
See the Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division for the Benjamin F. Carruthers papers, Sc MG 433.
See the Photographs and Prints Division for the Benjamin F. Carruthers photograph collection, Sc Photo Benjamin F. Carruthers Collection.
At the time of publishing, one audio cassette is not available pending digitization.