Judith Schiff

Judith Schiff (November 26, 1937 – July 11, 2022) was an American archivist. She was chief research archivist at Yale University and historian for the city of New Haven, Connecticut.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Early life

Schiff was born in New York City, but grew up in New Haven, where she attended Hillhouse High School.^[4] She earned a degree in history from Barnard College, and returned to work at the Cowles Foundation at Yale.^[5]

Career as a librarian

Schiff's first job at the

Josiah Dwight Whitney.^[6] She worked at the university for more than 60 years, becoming Yale University Library chief research archivist in 1971.^[1] She met Millicent Todd Bingham and helped to acquire the papers of Bingham's mother, Mabel Loomis Todd, an editor of Emily Dickinson's poetry.^[1] In the 1960s, Schiff got to know Charles Lindbergh and his wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, who visited the library to look at Lindbergh's manuscripts.^[1] She went on to co-edit Lindbergh's Autobiography of Values, and co-wrote a biography of the aviator.^[1] Schiff also helped determine that a skeleton exposed by a tree uprooted by Hurricane Sandy in 2012 dated to the 18th century.^[7]

In addition, Schiff organized exhibitions. She served on the group investigating Yale's slavery history.[6]

Schiff was inspired by a "history from below," and her work often focused on telling the history of marginalized people, including women and people of color.^[4]

Beyond Yale, Schiff was a founder of New England Archivists, the Jewish Historical Society of Greater New Haven, and the Ethnic Heritage Center of New Haven.^[4]

While working at Yale, she earned a master’s degree in history from

Southern Connecticut State College.^[1]