The University of Chicago Library > The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center > Finding Aids > Guide to the Robert Morss Lovett Papers 1876-1950
© 2001 University of Chicago Library
Title: | Lovett, Robert Morss. Papers |
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Dates: | 1876-1950(inclusive) |
Size: | 1.5 linear feet (3 boxes) |
Repository: |
Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center |
Abstract: | The papers contain correspondence largely from the 1930s and 1940s, lectures, lecture notes, clippings, and printed documents. Correspondents include Sherwood Anderson, Bernard Berenson, Sinclair Lewis, Frances Perkins, Alice Hamilton, paul Douglas, Harold Ickes, and others. Topics include the 1933 Chicago garment workers' strike, Lovett's appointment as Government Secretary of the Virgin Islands, and the Congressional investigation involving Lovett. |
The collection is open for research.
When quoting material from this collection the preferred citation is:
Lovett, Robert Morss. Papers, [Box #, Folder #], Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library
The activities of Robert Morss Lovett, from the last decade of the nineteenth century into the second half of the twentieth, constitute an important part of American cultural and political life during the period. Born in Boston and educated at Harvard, he was appointed in 1893 instructor in English at the University of Chicago. His range of acquaintances included many of the most important writers and teachers of his time: Herbert Croly, William Vaughn Moody, Robert Herrick, Jane Addams, Charles W. Eliot, William R. Harper, John M. Manly, Bernard Berenson, and other. In 1919, Lovett became editor of Dial magazine, and in 1921 he was made an associate editor of The New Republic, a position he held for twenty years. In 1936 he retired from active teaching at the University of Chicago, but continued to give lectures and courses elsewhere, including several terms at the University of Puerto Rico.
Always vitally interested in social problems, Dr. Lovett's sympathies led him to be associated with many leftist and liberal organizations. During the 1930s and 1940s, his affiliations made him the center of heated controversies in the press and in Congress. His appointment in 1939 to the post of Secretary to the Government of the Virgin Islands began a four year period in this political office which ended with his resignation, after attack by the Dies Committee. He had succeeded his friend Robert Herrick as Secretary. These followed the celebrated case of The United States versus Lovett, in which he was able to collect back salary owed him by the government but for which certain Congressmen had tried to stop payment.
The collection includes 353 letters mostly incoming correspondence; there are also newspaper clippings, lectures and lecture notes, articles, and some official printed documents.
Box 1 Folder 1 | Typescript bibliography of the life and works of Lovett. Correspondence, April 1876-June 1933. Includes letters from Joseph Trumbull Stickney, Lincoln Steffens, Sinclair Lewis, Sherwood Anderson. Also correspondence on Lovett's arrest in connection with the Chicago garment worker's strike, 1933 |
Box 1 Folder 2 | Correspondence, May 1935-November 1939. 40 items. Includes letters from Bernard Berenson, Oswald Carrison Willard, Norman Thomas, Frances Perkins, George E. Vincent, and one letter to Mrs. Lovett from Alice Hamilton. A few letters dealing with the 1935 investigation of the University of Chicago, and several concerning Lovett's appointment to the Virgin Islands post |
Box 1 Folder 3 | Correspondence, December 1939-January 1941. 29 items. Letters on Virgin Islands business, the case of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and the American Civil Liberties Union, and the peace movement before World War II |
Box 1 Folder 4 | Correspondence, February 1941-February 1943. items. Letters from Rupert Emerson, Walter White, Roger N. Baldwin, Harry F. Ward; the Dies charges |
Box 1 Folder 5 | Correspondence, March 1942-May 16, 1943. 30 items. Letters from Sidney Hillman, Witter Bynner, Paul Douglas, Harold Ickes, Senator Chandler; activities on behalf of Lovett concerning the Congressional investigation of him |
Box 1 Folder 6 | Correspondence, May 17, 1943-May 29, 1943. 30 items. Letters on the subject of the Senate investigation |
Box 1 Folder 7 | Correspondence, June 1943-July 1943. 23 items. Letters on the Senate investigation |
Box 1 Folder 8 | Correspondence, September 1943-March 19, 1944. 34 items. Letters in the Senate investigation, and the beginning of the case of U.S. v. Lovett |
Box 1 Folder 9 | Correspondence, March 20, 1944-March 1, 1945. 24 items. Letters bearing on the case of U.S. v. Lovett |
Box 1 Folder 10 | Correspondence, March 5, 1944-July 17, 1946. 29 items. Letters dealing with U.S. v. Lovett; also negotiations with publishers concerning Lovett's autobiography; one letter from James T. Farrell included |
Box 2 Folder 11 | Correspondence, July 19, 1946-March 31, 1949. 35 items. Letters dealing with the autobiography, and with revision of some of Lovett's early textbooks |
Box 2 Folder 12 | Correspondence, April 18, 1949-September 20, 1950. 16 items. Letters on the National Council of Arts, Sciences & Professions |
Box 2 Folder 13 | Twelve undated items |
Box 2 Folder 14 | Organized material, mimeographed by-laws of NCASP, etc |
Box 2 Folder 15 | Miscellaneous academic lectures, undated |
Box 2 Folder 16 | Miscellaneous academic lecture notes, undated |
Box 2 Folder 17 | Miscellaneous articles and addresses |
Box 2 Folder 18 | Notes for talks, political papers, book reviews; undated letters to editors |
Box 2 Folder 19 | Course material concerning Lovett's teaching activities, examinations and bibliographies |
Box 3 Folder 20 | Unsigned typescript items from The New Republic, attributed by Lovett to Herbert Croly |
Box 3 Folder 21 | Virgin Islands and Puerto Rican newspaper clippings on Lovett. Includes one column written by Lovett for a Puerto Rican newspaper |
Box 3 Folder 22 | United States newspaper clippings on Lovett, also Congressional Record clippings on him, sent to Lovett by an Interior Department Official |
Box 3 Folder 23 | Printed material concerning U.S. v. Lovett, United States Court documents on the case |