Arranged in four subseries:
Subseries A: Raymond Robins and Margaret Dreier Robins to Elizabeth Robins
Subseries B: Margaret Dreier Robins
Subseries C: Raymond Robins, General Correspondence
Subseries D: Printed Material and Ephemera

Subseries A-C are arranged chronologically. Subseries A includes occasional letters from Elizabeth Robins to Raymond Robins.

Dates: The Raymond Robins and Margaret Dreier Robins series spans the years 1887-1951. Margaret Dreier Robins's correspondence begins in 1905, the year she married Raymond Robins, and continues regularly until 1924. Thereafter, her letters appear sporadically from 1932 1945.

Raymond Robins (1873-1954), Elizabeth Robins's youngest brother, was a lawyer, social worker, lecturer and politician. He led an active life in which he became passionately involved in a wide variety of progressive causes. In 1905 he married Margaret Dreier (1868-1945), an active member of the Women's Trade Union League. Margaret Dreier Robins served as President of the National Women's Trade Union League from 1907-1922. She also spoke in favor of women's suffrage and, like Raymond Robins, became involved in Progressive Party politics and, in the 1920's, the movement to outlaw war.

Raymond Robins wrote faithfully to Elizabeth Robins for most of their lives. His letters describe his social and political activism as well as his opinions of American politics and politicians. They also address family matters and reminisce about childhood experiences.

Although Margaret Dreier Robins occasionally wrote to Elizabeth Robins about the progress of American suffragists and her impressions of Chicago politics, she did not often write about her work. Her letters deal largely with the beauty and workings of the Chinsegut Hill property in Florida and Raymond Robins's health.

Raymond Robins, born in Staten Island, New York, spent his childhood in Ohio, Kentucky and Florida. In 1895, after receiving a law degree from Columbian (now George Washington) University, he joined the Florida State Bar and, shortly after, also became a member of the California Bar. He practiced law in San Francisco, California until 1897 when he joined the Alaskan Gold Rush.

Raymond Robins spent most of his time from 1897-1900 in Alaska. While there, he experienced a religious rebirth and considered becoming a Jesuit priest. Although he never took this step, he did spend much of his energy after leaving Alaska lecturing on the saving power of Christianity. (In 1900 Elizabeth Robins went to Alaska in search of Raymond Robins. Series Nine: Photographic Materials records some of Elizabeth and Raymond Robins's Alaska experiences. See also Elizabeth Robins's 1900 diary and her book Raymond and I.)

After leaving Alaska, Raymond Robins settled in Illinois. His letters from 1900-1917 describe his activities as a social worker and politician in Chicago. In 1901 he became involved with Jane Addams in the defense of Abraham Isaak, president of the Free Society of Anarchists of North America, who was arrested by police and charged with shooting President McKinley. Raymond Robins occasionally sent Elizabeth Robins letters he received and considered noteworthy. One example of this practice is the 1901 letter from Jane Addams about Abraham Isaak which includes, on the back, a note from Isaak to Robins written from prison. [See box 1, folder 2.]

Raymond Robins's interest in settlement work and the problems of the homeless is expressed in letters he wrote while involved with Chicago Commons and the Northwest University Settlement. A few typescripts of his speeches are filed at the end of Subseries A.

In 1913 Raymond Robins and Fred B. Smith toured the world for the Men and Religion Forward Movement. Documentation of this tour is in Subseries D: Printed Material and Ephemera. Raymond Robins became a supporter of the Progressive Party and, in 1914 ran unsuccessfully for the United States Senate on that ticket. [See the "Robins for Senator" button in Subseries D, folder 4.] Later letters reveal his changing political position as he supported Calvin Coolidge in 1924, Herbert Hoover in 1928, and Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1938.

In 1904 Elizabeth Robins and Raymond Robins purchased some property, Chinsegut Hill, in Old Hernando County, Florida. Raymond Robins and Margaret Dreier Robins lived and worked in Chicago, but made Chinsegut their second home. Elizabeth Robins visited Chinsegut several times between 1904 and 1925, when she sold her share of the land to Raymond Robins and Margaret Dreier Robins. After 1925, her visits to Chinsegut were less frequent.

In the 1920's Raymond Robins and Margaret Dreier Robins made Chinsegut their permanent residence, but due to economic hardship at the end of that decade, thought they would have to give up the property. In 1932, however, they were able to deed the land to the United States government (it became Chinsegut Hill Migratory Bird and Wild Game Preserve) with the understanding that they could continue to live on the property. Their letters from 1914 on often describe life on Chinsegut Hill. Among their employees were Lisa von Borowsky, "the Little Daughter of Chinsegut," and Fielding Harris, whom Raymond Robins had met during his Florida childhood. Raymond Robins letters about Harris, a black minister, tell of a deep friendship and reveal Robins's impressions of black life in Florida. [For more on the black community see Harris's and von Borowsky's letters to Elizabeth Robins in Series Two: General Correspondence, and the Chinsegut photographs in Series Nine: Photographic Materials.]

In 1917, Raymond Robins, as a member of the American Red Cross Mission to Russia, witnessed the Russian Revolution and met Lenin and other Bolshevik leaders. [Subseries C includes two letters from Trotsky.] In addition to letters addressed directly to Elizabeth Robins from this period, there are extracts from letters Raymond Robins wrote to other people and his essay "Some Considerations of the Present Conditions in Russia." Upon his return, Raymond Robins advocated American recognition of the Soviet Government and spent many years speaking on this topic. He visited the Soviet Union again in 1933.

In September of 1932, Raymond Robins developed amnesia and disappeared for nearly two months. During this period, a number of people, including members of the Dreier family, Fred B. Smith, and Annie W. Ickes (married to Raymond Robins's friend Senator Harold Ickes) wrote to Elizabeth Robins expressing their shared concern and good wishes. Letters and newspaper clippings from December 1932 announce his safe return and describe his activities during the bout of amnesia.

In 1935, while in Chinsegut, Raymond Robins fell from a tree, paralyzing himself from the waist down. While no longer able to travel the country speaking and working for social and political change, he remained vitally interested in current events. In his letters to Elizabeth Robins he continues to describe and comment upon American political events.

Subseries B consists of one folder of letters from Margaret Dreier Robins to Raymond Robins. While these letters occasionally mention Margaret Dreier Robins's social and political activism, they are primarily love letters. She died in 1945.

Invitations to speak comprise much of the general correspondence in Subseries C. In addition, there are a few letters from Raymond Robins's father, Charles E. Robins (folder 1) and sporadic letters from Vernon Robins and the Dreiers. There are some early letters showing Raymond Robins's interest in women's suffrage (folder 1) and a 1911 letter on the subject of lynching, signed by five black ministers (folder 3). Also in this subseries are letters from Leonora O'Reilly (folder 2), Theodore Roosevelt (folders 3 and 4), Harold Ickes (folders 4 and 6), Salmon 0. Levinson (folder 6) and telegrams from Robert LaFollette and Medille McCormick (folder 3).

Subseries D contains broadsides and programs from Raymond Robins's speeches, the texts of some of his speeches, articles he wrote, and publications (programs and articles relating to Raymond Robins). Folder 5 contains programs and other materials that mention Margaret Dreier Robins's activities. There are also materials relating to Florida, such as agricultural bulletins and maps of Brooksville.