CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · People & Ideas

Christina Harris

American historian

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 31, 2026
Entity authorityQ43805725
Source-derived summary

Christina Harris, née Phelps (9 February 1902 – 1972), was an American historian of the Middle East.

Life

Christina Harris was born in New York City, New York on 9 February 1902. She attended the Sorbonne in Paris, France, in 1919–20 and Wellesley College in 1920–22 before receiving her A.B. degree from Barnard College in 1925. Three years later she was awarded her A.M. degree by Barnard. Harris was an instructor in English history at Vassar College until she received her Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1930. She was briefly an instructor in Middle Eastern history at the extension division of McGill University, Montreal, Canada in 1938. The following year Harris returned to Barnard College, where she was appointed as an associate professor in history and assistant to the dean. From 1942 to 1946 she was associate professor of history and college dean at Bryn Mawr College. Harris worked for the United States Department of State in 1946–47 and then became curator of the Middle East Collection of the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University in 1948. Three years later, she was appointed a professor at Stanford on Middle East area studies and professor of political science from 1959 until her retirement in 1967.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Christina Harris” as american historian. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1902, 1972, 1919, 1920—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1902-02-09. The account is most persuasive where Christina, Harris and American can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as american historian. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q43805725. VIAF identifies the subject as 35780122. The Library of Congress control number is n81097570. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1902, 1972, 1919 and 1920.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Christina Harris”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Christina Harris primary sources, Christina Harris archive and Christina research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Christina Harris”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Christina Harris” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.