Lewis Henry Morgan papers
Biographical / Historical note
Lewis Henry Morgan - Chronology
1818: Born November 21, near Aurora, New York
1840: Graduated from Union College, Schenectady, New York
1844: Moved to Rochester, New York to practice law
1851: Published League of the Ho-de-no-sau-nee, or Iroquois.
1851: August 13, married Mary Elizabeth Steele
1861: Served in the New York State Assembly
1868: Published The American Beaver
1868-69: Served in the New York State Senate
1870-71: Toured Europe with his wife and son
1871: Published Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity ...
1877: Published Ancient Society
1879: Elected President of American Association for the Advancement of Science.
1881: Published Houses and House-life of the American Aborigines
1881: Died December 17, Rochester, New York
Scope and Contents
The papers include correspondence to and from Morgan, manuscripts of articles and speeches, manuscript notebooks and travel diaries, and the manuscripts of several of his books. Correspondents include Henry Adams, Adolph F. Bandelier, Charles Darwin, Joseph Henry, Francis Parkman, and Herbert Spencer.
Articles, bibliographies, and books have been based on the Morgan papers. In 1923, Donald B. Gilchrist, Librarian of the University of Rochester, published a "Bibliography of Lewis H. Morgan" in volume two of the Rochester Historical Society's Publication Fund Series. In 1936, he published a pamphlet, "Manuscript Journals and Records of Indian Letters by Lewis Henry Morgan in the Rush Rhees Library," which gave a detailed description of these parts of the papers. This pamphlet is Appendix A.
An article on the collection, "The Lewis Henry Morgan Collection" by Leslie A. White, appeared in The University of Rochester Library Bulletin volume II, no. 3 (1947) p. 48-52. The collection has been entered in the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections as number 61-1662.
The two biographies of Morgan have been based on material in the collection. They are Bernhard Stern, Lewis Henry Morgan, Social Evolutionist, which was published by the University of Chicago Press in 1931 and Carl Resek, Lewis Henry Morgan, American Scholar, which was published by the University of Chicago Press in 1960.
Several parts of the collection have been published separately. These include "Extracts from the European Travel Journal of Lewis Henry Morgan," edited by Leslie A. White and published in volume XVI (1937) of the Rochester Historical Society's Publication Fund Series; The Indian Journals, 1859-62, edited, and with an introduction, by Leslie A. White which was published by the University of Michigan Press in 1959; and Pioneers in American Anthropology: the Bandelier-Morgan Letters, 1873-1883, edited by Leslie A. White and published by the University of New Mexico Press in 1940.
Work slips used by Donald B. Gilchrist in compiling his bibliography of Lewis Henry Morgan, with additional entries for works on Morgan, are shelved immediately after the Manuscript journals.
(The above was written in 1968: the paragraphs that follow were added in 2008 and 2010.)
Several important books on Morgan have appeared since this register was originally compiled. They include Thomas R. Trautmann, Lewis Henry Morgan and the Invention of Kinship, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987; Elisabeth Tooker, Lewis H. Morgan on Iroquois Material Culture, Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1994; and Daniel Noah Moses, The Promise of Progress: the Life and Work of Lewis Henry Morgan, Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2009.
The Indian Journals, 1859-1862 (1959) was reprinted by Dover Publications in 1993. It is important to realize that the pagination of the reprint differs from that of the original volume. Lewis Henry Morgan and the Invention of Kinship (1987) was reprinted by the University of Nebraska Press in 2008. Thomas Trautmann, the author, has provided a new introduction, three new appendices and an updated bibliography.
Creator
- Morgan, Lewis Henry, 1818-1881 (Person)
Dates
- Creation: 1826 - circa 2000
- Creation: Majority of material found within 1840 - 1881
Language of Materials
English
Extent
32 linear feet (32 boxes, 2 packages, 23 volumes of manuscripts, 5 print volumes, and 2 scrapbooks)
Access
The Lewis Henry Morgan Papers is open for research use. Researchers are advised to contact the Rare Collections & Preservation Department prior to visiting. Upon arrival, researchers will also be asked to fill out a registration form and provide photo identification.
Use
In consultation with a curator, reproductions may be made upon request. Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from a curator. Researchers are responsible for determining any copyright questions.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The papers of Lewis Henry Morgan (1818-1881), American anthropologist, were willed by Morgan to the University of Rochester. The Library has added to the collection by purchase and by the acquisition of photocopies of relevant material in other collections.
Morgan's library was bequeathed to the University of Rochester. It arrived several decades before there was a special collections department in the library, and so all the books were first housed in the general stacks. Over the years, many of the rarer ones were identified and transferred to the special collections area. In 1988, all the volumes still in the general stacks were so transferred. This was in conjunction with the project by Thomas R. Trautmann and Karl Sanford Kabelac to bibliographically reconstruct Morgan's library using his own brief listing of his library and the accession records of the University's library.
This project resulted in the volume: The Library of Lewis Henry Morgan, Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1994. In this volume, the books owned by Morgan are listed by main entry, but the over 700 pamphlets in over 30 volumes, are only listed by the binder's spine titles. Those appeared in The Library of Lewis Henry Morgan and Mary Elizabeth Morgan: the Pamphlets, Rochester: Dept. of Rare Books and Special Collections, Rush Rhees Library, University of Rochester, 2008.
Preferred Citation
[Item title, item date], Lewis Henry Morgan Papers, A.M85, Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester
Arrangement
GENERAL SUMMARY
Correspondence, 1839-1885
Manuscripts of Books
Manuscript Journals and Travel Diaries
Manuscripts of Articles, etc.
Manuscript and printed material relating to Morgan's business affairs
Memorabilia and Miscellany
Material relating to Morgan, since 1900
Jones Auction Acquisitions, 1991
Gifts of Rosemary (Morgan) Decker, Great Grand Niece of Lewis Henry Morgan
Appendix A: Manuscript Journals and Record of Indian Letters by Lewis Henry Morgan: A Descriptive Table of Contents.
Appendix B: Memorandum on Published Portions of Lewis H. Morgan's Manuscript Journals and Record of Indian Letters, compiled by Elisabeth Tooker.
Genre / Form
Occupation
Topical
Subject
- Morgan, Lewis Henry, 1818-1881 (Person)
- Title
- Lewis Henry Morgan papers
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Finding aid prepared by Rare Books and Special Collections staff
- Date
- undated
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Library Details
Part of the Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation Library