University of Chicago Library

Guide to the Frederick Starr Liberian Research Collection 1792-1914

Descriptive Summary

Title:	Starr, Frederick. Liberian Research Collection
Dates:	1792-1914
Size:	2 linear feet (2 boxes)
Repository:	Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center University of Chicago Library 1100 East 57th Street Chicago, Illinois 60637 U.S.A.
Abstract:	Professor of Anthropology at the University of Chicago, Frederick Starr, maintained these research materials for his book, Liberia: Description, History, Problems.

Information on Use

Access

The collection is open for research.

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Citation

When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: Starr, Frederick. Liberian Research Collection, [Box #, Folder #], Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library

Biographical Note

Frederick Starr (1858-1933) was professor of anthropology at the University of Chicago from 1892 until his retirement in 1923. Starr was born in Auburn, New York, the fourth son of a Presbyterian minister. He was educated at the University of Rochester and received a Ph.D. in geology from Lafayette College in 1885. He served in various academic posts including registrar and professor of geography at Chautauqua where he became acquainted with William Rainey Harper. In 1892, Harper asked Starr to help organize a program in anthropology at the new University of Chicago. Starr taught anthropology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology under the leadership of Head Professor Albion W. Small. He was an active and popular lecturer throughout his tenure at the University, combining a heavy teaching load with extensive travel. He also served as curator of the Walker Museum from 1895 until retirement. Starr's reputation was not based on his scholarship, but on a popular and controversial lecture style which did much to create an interest in the study of culture. Fay-Cooper Cole, Starr's successor at the University, praised him in the Dictionary of American Biography for "The wide interest he personally created in the subject of anthropology, and the appreciation of other peoples which he engendered in his students." Starr retired from active teaching in 1923 His students gave him a sum of money, which he used to buy a house in Seattle. Starr remained active during the last ten years of his life, making a number of trips to the Orient and lecturing throughout the western United States. He died in Tokyo of bronchial pneumonia in August 1933.

Scope Note

For his work on the book Liberia: Description, History, Problems, Frederick Starr assembled a small collection of research materials. They cover the history of the American Colonization Society and Liberia from 1792 to 1914. The collection is divided into original documents and typed copies of original documents. Within each section, the papers are organized chronologically.

Folders 1 - 5 contain typed copies of letters and documents relating to the early years of the American Colonization Society and the Liberia Colony (1820-1836). Among other correspondents represented in this section of the papers are Ernest Boudinot Caldwell, Eli Ayres, Smith Thompson, Francis Scott Key, and Ralph R. Gurley. Folder 6 holds a small set of miscellaneous original correspondence from the founders of the A.C.S. The earliest letter, dated 1792, is from Bushrod Washington who was the first president of the Society; other correspondents include Gurley, R. F. Stockton, and Joseph Jenkins Roberts, first President of the Republic of Liberia. The remaining folders contain original correspondence, documents, and reports concerning the status of Liberia at the end of the nineteenth century. The bulk of material relates to Liberian efforts to attain international recognition, principally through the work of Liberian Secretary of State G. W. Gibson and his charge d'affairs in France Leopold Garrance.