The following information on recent archival processing work at Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library was written by Mary Caldera, Associate Director for Archival Description.
Beinecke staff have made available several new collections and additions to existing collections, including:
New collections
Claude Barnett and Etta Moten Barnett papers concerning trips to Africa (GEN MSS 2158)
The collection contains circa 54 photographs and ephemera produced and collected by Claude Barnett and Etta Moten Barnett during their trips to various countries in Africa, including Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Swaziland (later Eswatini). Also present are circa 131 photographs of Africa and other locations the Barnetts collected on their trips and in the course of Claude’s work with the Associated Negro Press. Most of the collected photographs were produced by the British Information Services and Central Office of Information. Collected photographs depict daily life and colonial administration in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Kenya, Togoland (later Togo and Ghana), Jamaica, and other unidentified locations. The papers also contain 10 personal photographs and ephemera unrelated to the Barnetts’ Africa trips, circa 1935-1978. (1.59 linear feet)
Gary Franks papers (GEN MSS 2153)
The collection documents the professional and personal life of Congressman Gary Franks. It includes diaries, notebooks, correspondence, reports, press materials, research materials, and writings largely focused on his political career, particularly welfare reform and elections. A significant portion of the professional papers stem from Franks’s work as chair of the Welfare Reform Task Force. Records relating to elections include press releases, correspondence, and voter surveys. Also present are a small quantity of papers related to his consultant career and personal papers. (7.3 linear feet)
Inez Smith Reid papers GEN MSS 2154
This collection documents the life and career of Inez Smith Reid, particularly her writing, research, and advocacy work during her academic and legal career prior to her appointment to a judgeship on the District of Columbia Court of Appeals in 1995. It includes personal papers in the form of scrapbook materials, student writing, awards and certificates, and photographs. The collection also contains writings such as research for her 1972 book “Together” Black Women, academic publications, and speech typescripts, manuscripts, and related ephemera. Also present are subject files composed of Smith Reid’s research interests in nascent Black studies programs, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Black women, and Brooklyn College student arrests (1968-1970), among others. Smith Reid’s academic and community development work is also documented in the collection, including for the African Heritage Studies Association (AHSA) and the Black Women’s Community Development Foundation (BWCDF). (8.59 linear feet)
Julia P. Cooper Mack papers (GEN MSS 2155)
This collection documents the life and career of Julia Cooper Mack, the first African American woman to serve on a state-equivalent court of last resort in the United States. Collection materials include correspondence, ephemera, and personnel documents related to her work as a government attorney for the United States Department of Justice and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as well as her judgeship on the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. Also included are materials related to speech writing, personal mementos, correspondence, press, and photographs. (1.25 linear feet)
Lincoln MacVeagh diaries (GEN MSS 2156)
This collection contains diaries documenting Lincoln MacVeagh’s work as an ambassador in Greece, South Africa, and Iceland with related guestbook and transcripts. (1.04 linear feet)
Meserve-Kunhardt Family papers (GEN 2149)
The collection covers over five generations of the Meserve-Kunhardt family and their historical interest in Abraham Lincoln and the long 19th century. The bulk of the material dating between 1890 and 1969 was collected by Frederick Hill Meserve and Dorothy (Meserve) Kunhardt. The collection covers the military career of William Neal Meserve, research of Frederick Hill Meserve and his daughter Dorothy (Meserve) Kunhardt together, research by Dorothy (Meserve) Kunhardt and her son Philip Bradish Kunhardt, Jr., and recent research contributions of Philip Bradish Kunhardt, III. Other topics covered include Meserve-Kunhardt family genealogical research, relationships with extended family members, the research career of Frederick Hill Meserve, children’s book career of Dorothy (Meserve) Kunhardt, Philip Bradish Kunhardt, Jr.’s research and publishing, development of the Meserve-Kunhardt collection, women in the workforce during the great depression, and Dorothy (Meserve) Kunhardt’s experiences attending Bryn Mawr College in the 1920’s. (129.75 linear feet)
Robert Giroux papers (YCAL MSS 1632)
This collection contains correspondence to and from Robert Giroux, along with related correspondence between others; writings of authors such as T.S. Elliot, Robert Lowell, and Elizabeth Bishop including typescripts, proofs, and galleys; photographs of Robert Giroux and others; and other papers relating to Giroux and publishing. (16.83 linear feet)
Stephen John Keynes collection files (GEN 2151)
The Stephen John Keynes collection files shed light on the process of manuscript collecting in the 1970s through 1990s. The collection contains catalogues of manuscripts and miniatures as well as correspondence, invoices, and notes related to items of Keynes’ business interest. The collected catalogues were published between 1973 and 2001 by household names such as Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Maggs Bros. Ltd, and offer insight into the identity, condition, and demand of artifacts that informed Keynes’ purchasing decisions. With the catalogues are notes written by Keynes that were either tucked into specific pages or found inside the cover. Several boxes in this collection contain books from the Sotheby’s catalogue series Western Manuscripts and Miniatures, which describes artifacts between the ninth and nineteenth century. Papers related to the acquisition of manuscripts include correspondence with antiquarian booksellers regarding location and pricing. Many manuscripts referenced have annotated catalogue copies and invoices detailing their history and value. Lastly, this collection contains three artifacts obtained by Keynes that are partially identified by their short description and item number. (3.13 linear feet)
Susannah Colt papers related to Maxine and Victor Kumin (YCAL MSS 1633)
The collection consists of correspondence, photographs, and documents related to Colt’s relationship to Maxine as her personal assistant and her friendship with the Kumins. The collection includes correspondence and photographs related to the Manhattan Project, Victor Kumin’s association with the Project, and the 50-year anniversary of the dropping of the atom bomb. (.75 linear feet)
Western US surfing ephemera collection (WA MSS S-4560)
The collection includes photographic prints taken by surfer and photographer Brian McStotts. These images of surfers were captured primarily off Manhattan Beach Pier, among other popular surfing spots.
The collection also contains correspondence, announcements, clippings, decals, and other printed material related to surfing competitions, film festivals, and other activities. (.75 linear feet)
Additions to existing collections
Annie Allender Gould papers (addition) (GEN MSS 2138)
The addition consists of a letter to Mrs. John Gould from Annie Allender Gould, December 1898. (1 letter)
Blanche Meyer collection of Jean Giono (addition) (GEN MSS 457)
The addition consists of writings, correspondence, and other papers relating to Blanche Meyer, Jolaine Meyer, and Jean Giono. (0.42 linear feet)
Clark, Hall, and Peck and White Brothers records (addition) (MS 1820)
The addition contains maps, inventories, and papers related to properties located in the cities and towns of New Haven County, Connecticut including New Haven, North Haven, West Haven, Hamden, East Haven, Cheshire, Meriden, Wallingford, Orange, Milford, Branford, Guilford and with the town of Berlin in Hartford County. (5.92 linear feet)
Goldie Russler and Abraham Burstein papers (addition) (YCAL MSS 1117)
The addition contains a memoir by Abrahan Burstein, a datebook, correspondence, and realia, along with photographic prints of Goldie Russler, Abraham Burstein, and others. (1.58 linear feet)
Living Theatre records (YCAL MSS 1038)
The newly processed materials includes the Judith Malina writings, Living Theatre company records, Hanon Reznikov papers, Writings of others, and Production files. (240.43 linear feet)
Richard Buswell Photographs of Abandoned Wooden Buildings and Artifacts in Montana (addition) (WA Photos 410)
The addition contains twenty-one photographs of artifacts. The negatives were exposed in 2020 and the prints made in 2021. Images include vegetables, tricycle spokes, washers, a log, a light bulb cover, a seed pod, feathers, honeycomb, thistle, labels, driftwood, syrup, and a tree branch. (.21 linear feet)
Samuel Wells Williams family papers (addition) (MS 547)
The addition contains two diaries of Samuel Wells Williams and six diaries of Sarah Walworth Williams (1815-1888), his spouse, dating from 1870 to 1882. The diaries pertain to personal activities, meetings with prominent visitors, lectures, and travels while in residence in New Haven during Wells’ professorship at Yale. Included is an undated sketch with a pagoda and Chinese numbers and characters written on the business card of Aurelio Garcia y Garcia who was named the extraordinary envoy and plenipotentiary minister of Peru to the empires of Japan and China from 1873 to 1875. (.42 linear feet)
Rosanna Warren papers (addition) (YCAL MSS 1611)
The addition consists of two letters addressed from Rosanna Warren to Richard Howard. (.25 linear feet)
Yale Collection of American Literature manuscript miscellany (additions) (YCAL MSS MISC)
The additions consist of Thornton Wilder letters to James Leo Herlihy. (.25 linear feet)
William Dowdell Denson papers (addition) (MS 1832)
The addition contains transcripts, documents, and photo books, including materials about the Mauthausen and Dachau concentration camps, related to William Dowdell Denson. (.42 linear feet)