Al202xis0 at 22:16, 31 October 2025

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{{short description|American writer}}

{{Infobox person
| name = Beatrice Pitney Lamb
| image = BeatricePitneyLamb1927.png
| alt = A young white woman, photographed outdoors
| caption = Beatrice Pitney (later Lamb), from the 1927 yearbook of Bryn Mawr College
| other_names =
| birth_name = Beatrice Louise Pitney
| birth_date = May 12, 1904
| birth_place = Morristown, New Jersey
| death_date = December 9, 1997 (aged 93)
| death_place = Hightstown, New Jersey
| occupation = {{hlist|Editor|writer|photographer}}
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse(s) =
| relatives = [[Mahlon Pitney]] (father);
[[John Oliver Halstead Pitney]] (uncle); [[Christopher Reeve]] (grandson); [[Matthew Reeve]] (great-grandson); [[F. D. Reeve]] (son-in-law)
}}

'''Beatrice Louise Pitney Lamb''' (May 12, 1904 – December 9, 1997) was an American editor and writer. She worked with the [[League of Women Voters]] in the 1930s, and with the [[United Nations]] in the 1940s. She published several books on India.

== Early life and education ==
Beatrice Pitney was born in [[Morristown, New Jersey]], the daughter of [[Mahlon Pitney]] and Florence Theodora Shelton Pitney. Her father was an Associate Justice on the [[Supreme Court of the United States|United States Supreme Court]]. Her uncle was lawyer [[John Oliver Halstead Pitney]]. She graduated from [[Westover School]] and, in 1927, from [[Bryn Mawr College]]. She completed further studies in international relations at the [[Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies|Geneva Graduate Institute]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |date=December 5, 1950 |title=Author and Lecturer to Speak at Wilson; Beatrice Pitney Lamb to Discuss 'Current U.N. Problems' |pages=2 |work=Public Opinion |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/public-opinion-author-and-lecturer-to-sp/124743812/ |access-date=May 15, 2023 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> Much later, in 1956, she earned a master's degree from [[Columbia University]].<ref name=":2" />

== Career ==
Lamb wrote pamphlets on policy topics for the National League of Women Voters in the early 1930s, and chaired the League's department of government and economic welfare.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1935-11-10 |title=Mass Meeting to Be Held at the Hotel Astor Is Only One of Three Events by Organization in the Nation This Week. |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1935/11/10/archives/mass-meeting-to-be-held-at-the-hotel-astor-is-only-one-of-three.html |access-date=2023-05-15 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=October 14, 1934 |title=League of Women Voters Arranges Luncheon for Tomorrow |pages=67 |work=Chicago Tribune |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-league-of-women-voters-a/124767972/ |access-date=May 15, 2023 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> She also represented the League in a hearing before the Senate Finance Committee in 1935, in support of unemployment compensation.<ref>{{Cite book |last=United States Congress Senate Committee on Finance |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tBTRAAAAMAAJ&dq=Beatrice+Pitney+Lamb&pg=PA442 |title=Economic Security Act: Hearings Before the Committee on Finance, United States Senate, Seventy-fourth Congress, First Session, on S. 1130, a Bill to Alleviate the Hazards of Old Age, Unemployment, Illness, and Dependency, to Establish a Social Insurance Board in the Department of Labor, to Raise Revenue, and for Other Purposes. January 22 to February 20, 1935 |date=1935 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |pages=442–444 |language=en}}</ref> From 1945 to 1950, she was the editor of the ''United Nations News,'' and lectured on the United Nations to community groups.<ref name=":0" /> "We are never going to save the world from communism without effort and without sacrifice," she told a Pennsylvania audience in 1950, in reference to the [[Korean War]] and [[NATO]]. "We have been thinking it could be done cheaply and easily."<ref>{{Cite news |date=December 7, 1950 |title=Editor Asserts A-Bomb Use Now Would Hurt U.N. |pages=3 |work=York Daily Record |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/york-daily-record-editor-asserts-a-bomb/124768106/ |access-date=May 15, 2023 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

Lamb was a delegate to a conference on Indo-American relations in New Delhi, and spent much of her later life traveling, photographing, and writing about India. She published several books on the subject,<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Prescott |first=Orville |date=1963-06-26 |title=Books of The Times; Encyclopedic Impersonal View of India |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1963/06/26/archives/books-of-the-times-encyclopedic-impersonal-view-of-india-end-papers.html |access-date=2023-05-15 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> and exhibited her photographs in galleries and museums.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |last=Dietz Krebs |first=Betty |date=February 20, 1988 |title=Portraits of India; Visiting exhibition explores a country that stretches the American imagination |pages=25 |work=Dayton Daily News |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/dayton-daily-news-portraits-of-india-vi/124767510/ |access-date=May 15, 2023 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |date=April 9, 1990 |title=Museums |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SIncA1J36TMC&dq=Beatrice+Pitney+Lamb&pg=PA125 |journal=New York Magazine |pages=125}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Shine |first=James G. |date=October 4, 1985 |title=Indian Art Exhibit at Vassar Worth a Visit |pages=11D |work=Poughkeepsie Journal |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/poughkeepsie-journal-indian-art-exhibit/124765979/ |access-date=May 15, 2023 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> She also revised the India article for the ''World Book Encyclopedia''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Collection: Beatrice Lamb Collection |url=https://archives.lib.umn.edu/repositories/4/resources/5446 |access-date=2023-05-15 |website=University of Minnesota Archival Collections Guides}}</ref> "Her intelligence was obvious, her energy formidable, her exuberant enthusiasms contagious," wrote [[Orville Prescott]] in a 1963 review for ''[[The New York Times]].''<ref name=":1" />

== Publications ==

* ''Reparations and War Debts in 1932'' (1932, pamphlet)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lamb |first=Beatrice Pitney |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mvWOkwNVlmYC |title=Reparations and War Debts in 1932 |date=1932 |publisher=New York League of Women Voters |language=en}}</ref>
* ''Economic causes of war and the hope for the future'' (1932, pamphlet)<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Lamb |first1=Beatrice Pitney |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001887512 |title=Economic causes of war and the hope for the future |last2=National league of women voters |date=1932 |publisher=National league of women voters, Dept. of international cooperation to prevent war |location=New York city}}</ref>
* ''Buyers Beware: The Case for New Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Legislation'' (1935)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lamb |first=Beatrice Pitney |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zuxCAAAAIAAJ |title=Buyers Beware: The Case for New Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Legislation |date=1935 |publisher=National League of Women Voters |language=en}}</ref>
* ''Government and the Consumer'' (1935)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lamb |first=Beatrice Pitney |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xgXZAAAAMAAJ |title=Government and the Consumer |date=1935 |publisher=National league of women voters |language=en}}</ref>
* "Documents of the United Nations" (1947)<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lamb |first=Beatrice Pitney |date=January 1947 |title=Documents of the United Nations |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-journal-of-international-law/article/abs/documents-of-the-united-nations/F2A0E3DC5CF513EE2CD2776686D48A50 |journal=American Journal of International Law |language=en |volume=41 |issue=1 |pages=140–145 |doi=10.1017/S0002930000085912 |s2cid=246004920 |issn=0002-9300|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
* ''Trade and Aid'' (1953)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lamb |first=Beatrice Pitney |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hFK2NaJz9XoC |title=Trade and Aid |date=1953 |publisher=Public Affairs Committee |language=en}}</ref>
* ''Introduction to India'' (1960)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lamb |first=Beatrice Pitney |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uBpCAAAAIAAJ |title=Introduction to India |date=1960 |publisher=American Association of University Women, Educational Foundation |language=en}}</ref>
* ''India: A World in Transition'' (1964)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lamb |first=Beatrice Pitney |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001249651 |title=India: a world in transition |date=1964 |publisher=Frederick A. Praeger |series=Praeger contemporary World series; no. 7 |location=New York}}</ref>
* ''India'' (1965)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lamb |first=Beatrice Pitney |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xZ0EAQAAIAAJ |title=India |date=1965 |publisher=Macmillan |language=en}}</ref>
* ''The Nehrus of India: Three Generations of Leadership'' (1967)<ref>Lamb, Beatrice Pitney. ''The Nehrus of India: Three Generations of Leadership''. New York: Macmillan, 1967.</ref>
* "Glimpses of a Great Person" (1988)<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lamb |first=Beatrice Pitney |date=November–December 1988 |title=Glimpses of a Great Person |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XG8mJN-CgwoC&dq=Beatrice+Pitney+Lamb&pg=RA5-PA7 |journal=Darshan |volume=5 |issue=11 |pages=7–9}}</ref>

== Personal life ==
Beatrice Pitney married lawyer Horace R. Lamb. They had two daughters, Barbara and Dorothy. One of their grandchildren was actor [[Christopher Reeve]]. Her husband died in 1977,<ref>{{Cite news |date=1977-11-12 |title=H. R. Lamb, New York Law Firm Partner |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/11/12/archives/hr-lamb-new-york-law-firm-partner.html |access-date=2023-05-15 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> and she died in 1997, at the age of 93, at a retirement community in [[Hightstown, New Jersey]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=1997-12-14 |title=Beatrice Pitney Lamb (death notice) |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/12/14/classified/paid-notice-deaths-lamb-beatrice-pitney.html |access-date=2023-05-15 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lamb, Beatrice Pitney}}
[[Category:1904 births]]
[[Category:1997 deaths]]
[[Category:Bryn Mawr College alumni]]
[[Category:Writers from Morristown, New Jersey]]
[[Category:20th-century American women writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American women photographers]]
[[Category:Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies alumni]]
[[Category:20th-century American photographers]]

Beatrice Pitney Lamb - Revision history

Al202xis0 at 22:16, 31 October 2025