George Cecil Ives was born on October 1, 1867. He was raised by his father's mother, Emma Ives, and referred to her as his mother. Ives and his grandmother primarily resided in England at Bentworth Hall, or in the South of France. Ives was educated at home and at Magdalene College, Cambridge.
In 1892, Ives met Oscar Wilde at the Authors' Club in London. By this
time Ives had accepted his homosexuality and was working to promote the end of
the oppression of homosexuals, what he called the
By 1897, Ives understood that the
The developing study of sex psychology was of great interest to Ives and put him in touch with many of the writers in this field such as Magnus Hirschfeld, Havelock Ellis, Professor Lombroso, and Edward Carpenter. The British Society for the Study of Sex Psychology was founded in 1914 by Carpenter, Hirschfeld, Ives, Laurence Housman, and others. Some of the topics addressed in lecture and publication form by the British Society for the Study of Sex Psychology were: the promotion of the scientific study of sex and a more rational attitude towards sexual conduct; problems and questions connected with sexual psychology (from medical, juridical, and sociological aspects), birth control, abortion, sterilization, veneral diseases, and all aspects of prostitution. In 1931, it was resolved to change the name of the organization to the British Sexological Society.
For the BSS and other interested groups, Ives gave lectures and published books entitled
Ives was also noted for his scholarship of penal methods, having traveled around visiting prisions and studying the penal methods of various European countries, particularly England. He lectured to several groups about his findings and also published books on the topic. Among these were
George Ives died June 4, 1950.
The George Ives papers range in date from 1874 to 1949 and are divided into four series: I. Correspondence, 1874-1936; II. Works, 1897-1937; III. Diaries, 1886-1949; and IV. Miscellaneous, 1888-1949.
The correspondence contains invitations to dinners, parties, and cricket matches, as well as letters regarding Ives' writings and lectures on prison reform, sodomy, the British Society for the Study of Sex Psychology, and other topics. There are also several letters thanking Ives for gifts of books and various lectures given. Among his correspondents were Adolf Brand, Oscar Browning, Edward Carpenter, Havelock Ellis, Norman Gale, Augustus Hare, Ernest Jones, Cesare Lombrose, C.M. North, Reggie Turner, Edward Westermarck, and others.
There are several examples of Ives' published works, lectures, and notes, 1897-1926. Some of the topics represented are: prison reform, crime and punishment, historical views of sexuality, religion, and samples of his verse writing. Typescripts and holograph examples are both present in this series.
The bulk of the material consists of 122 volumes of diaries kept by Ives from the age of nineteen until about six months before his death at age eighty-two. Most of the diaries have daily entries for the period from December 20, 1886 to November 16, 1949. Ives often used the battle of Chaeronea when dating his diary entries, adding 338 years to the actual date. The view Ives provides in his diary of the life of an upper-middle class English homosexual from the end of the nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century is of particular interest for understanding the homosexual movement in England during this time. The content varies from descriptive impressions of social events, to detailed examinations of his friends and acquaintances, to analyses of the treatment of criminals and the workings of prisons. From volume thirteen on, Ives indexed his diaries and often used them when he was preparing for a lecture or other writings.
Miscellaneous materials include the rules and wax seal impressions for the Secret Society, along with a library catalog for the British Society for the Study of Sex Psychology, and a scrapbook of reviews and loose clippings for three of Ives books,
While Ives amassed 45 volumes of scrapbooks, 1892-1949, they do not form part of this collection. These scrapbooks consist of clippings on topics such as murders, punishments, freaks, theories of crime and punishment, transvestism, psychology of gender, homosexuality, cricket scores, and letters he wrote to newspapers. For extracts of these scrapbooks, which were edited by Paul Sieveking and published by Jay Landesman in 1981, see
The British Sexological Society Collection at the Ransom Center also contains a large amount of Ives material. He was involved from the onset of the British Sexological Society in several ways, one of which was preserving the papers and records for the organization. There are materials to and from him throughout the collection. A large portion of the Ives material is in the Miscellaneous series, including nine boxes of his notebooks, lectures, and works. A substantial number of letters to Ives from Lawrence Housman (1916-1948), correspondence from Ives' family members, and others, are also part of the Miscellaneous Series. See the manuscript card catalog for further information.
Purchase, 1977
Open for research
Deborah Shelby, 1993
Other Ives materials include books, scrapbooks (see
Consists of letters and invitations to Ives from Edward Carpenter, Havelock and Edith Ellis, Augustus Hare, E.B.H. Lacon, W.D. Morrison, C.M. North, Edward Westmark, W.H. Wilkins, and others. Several of the correspondents who wrote only one or two letters were primarily discussing arrangements for dinner or cricket games. There is one folder of unidentified letters, one folder consisting of invitations and envelopes, and one folder containing two letters to Ives' grandmother, Emma. One of these letters is from Susan Ann Talbot Ives (his aunt) and the other is from Anna Whiteside, which was removed from the family bible (cataloged in HRC book collection, BS 2085 1848 O94b IVS). This series is arranged alphabetically by author. There is an alphabetical index to the correspondents at the end of the inventory. For other corresponence to and from Ives, see the list of additional materials.
Holograph drafts of Ives' published works present in the collection are,
The 122 volumes of diaries were handwritten on a single side of a page, and occasionally Ives would add information at a later date on the verso in order to clarify a point or add other comments. Sometimes Ives wrote in several different codes so that an onlooker could not at a glance understand what he was writing about. The codes are decipherable, though some require more time than others. For further descriptions of the codes see
These diaries provide detailed descriptions of Ives' life and his
impressions of persons around him such as Oscar Wilde, Lord Alfred Douglas,
Magnus Hirschfeld, Edward Carpenter, and close intimate friends and
acquaintances. Other topics such as penal methods, the homosexual
The first sixty volumes were bound together in groups of five. Diary 35 was bound between 32 and 33, but all other volumes are in chronological order. There are two sets of page numbers, one in the upper righthand corner that paginates each individual volume and one at the bottom of the page which is continous from volume 1 through 122, ending with page number 19,973. Ives indexed each volume beginning with volume thirteen. The indexes refer to the page numbers for the individual volume found at the top of the page. The volume number designations were retained for this reason. The condition of the diaries is good, though volumes 1-60 are bound very tightly and require special care when opening.
Arranged alphabetically, the seven items in this series are: an address book, clippings, library catalog, scrapbook, Secret Society materials, G.B. Shaw's galley proof and letters concerning his preface to
The clippings include reviews of three of Ives' published works;
The library catalog for the British Society for the Study of Sex Psychology is organized alphabetically, first by title and then by author. The works represented in this catalog are in various languages and include topics such as homosexuality, flagellation, slavery, transvestism, prostitution, pornography, eunuchism, circumcision, and obscene literature.
A galley proof of G. B. Shaw's preface to