Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Consolidation and separation: British archives and American historians at the turn of the twentieth century

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Archival Science Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Although American historians used British archives throughout the nineteenth century, the most fruitful period of contact was in the decades covering the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. Scholarly collaboration and initiatives for ‘advanced historical training’ were accompanied by American funding which provided for both intellectual and physical access to British archives. From the 1920s, the formalisation of many of these relationships and projects contributed towards the development of the separate professional structures which exist today for archivists and historians on both sides of the Atlantic. This process has obscured the role of the many individuals whose activities spanned, without arousing comment, both groups pre-1930. One such British ‘historical worker’ was Hubert Hall. While Hall’s long career provides many examples of trans-Atlantic collaboration, it also coincided almost exactly with the establishment of firm professional boundaries, a development which inevitably led to the demise of the generalist ‘historical worker’ as a recognisable type.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Jimerson (2006).

  2. For a description of the way in which European models and methodologies for history were adopted, and then discarded by American historians see Randall and Haines (1946).

  3. Novick (1988) and Higham (1989).

  4. Adams (1893, pp. 62–63).

  5. Ibid, pp. 126, 129.

  6. Webster (1929, pp. 416–419).

  7. UK National Archives, State Paper Office Register, PRO 6/325. Entry 11 August 1840. Three later entries (29 September, 26 November and 10 March 1841) extended the permission to examine the correspondence of Generals Gage and Haldin, and for papers of 1775 and 1776. Mr. Ed[ward] Stevens received permission “to assist Mr Sparkes” on 10 September 1840.

  8. Journal entry 8 September 1840 in Adams (1893, p. 384).

  9. UK National Archives, PRO 6/325, State Paper Office Register. Entries dated 24 February, 26 February, 30 March, 27 April 1842.

  10. Falco (1969).

  11. Brodhead later served under George Bancroft as Secretary of the US Legation in London. Bancroft subsequently appears in his own right in the State Paper Office register.

  12. Higham (1989, pp. 162–164).

  13. UK National Archives, PRO 6/32, Register of the State Paper Office. Entries dated 2 February 1809, 6 September 1827, 26 October and 3 November 1838. The SPO finally merged with the PRO in 1854.

  14. Roper (1990, p. 9).

  15. Cantwell (1991, p. 272). Managing a growing number of users, and their expectations of services, led to constant disputes over (proposals for) the abolition or re-introduction of fees and charges. See Cantwell, passim.

  16. Anonymous review of the Annual report of the work of the Department of Historical Research, Carnegie Institution, in Athenaeum, 16 April 1910, p. 460 [by Hubert Hall], quoted in Donnan and Stock (1956, p. 129, f/n 147).

  17. Stamp (1928). Frances Davenport joined the staff of the Department of Historical Research [of Carnegie Institute of Washington] in 1905 subsequently editing several publications relating to European records; Galliard Thomas Lapsley retired as Reader in Constitutional History at Cambridge in 1937; Roger Bigelow Merriman was Professor of History, Harvard.

  18. UK National Archives, PRO 8/61, fol.5. Newspaper clipping, “A fair American looking at Domesday Book”.

  19. Vermont Historical Society Library: Henry Stevens Henry Stevens Family Correspondence, 1844–1862, Introduction, at www.vermonthistory.org/arccat/findaid/stevens (consulted 13 May 2005).

  20. Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts (HMC; 1895, 1904–1909). The convoluted story of the Stevens family’s acquisition of papers of Benjamin Franklin in London, and attempts by Jared Sparks to edit the papers for publication is in Adams (1895, Ch XXXII “Discovery of Franklin’s papers”, pp. 520–533).

  21. Novick (1988, pp. 44–46).

  22. Higham (1989, p. 17).

  23. Andrews et al. (1908), Andrews (1912–1914). Andrews was professor of history at Yale between 1910 and 1931; Leland was on the staff of the Bureau between 1902 and 1927 (and formerly a student of Jameson’s at John Hopkins University). See Randall C. Jimerson in this volume.

  24. Jameson to Miss Tapley, 5 March 1931 in Donnan and Stock (1956, pp. 344–345).

  25. Donnan and Stock (1956, p. 335, f/n 24).

  26. Novick (1988, pp. 22–24).

  27. Randall and Haines (1946), op. cit.

  28. London School of Economics.

  29. Royal Historical Society (RHS) archives, Advanced Historical Teaching Fund Committee of Management report, February 1903.

  30. RHS archives. Advanced Historical Teaching Fund Committee of Management, 7th annual report, July 1907.

  31. Ibid, p. 51.

  32. RHS archives [School of Advanced Historical Studies] subcommittee minutes, 26 February 1901.

  33. RHS archives, folder PP2/III.4.

  34. Jameson to Bryce, 7 January 1914 in Donnan and Stock (1956, p. 163). Jameson and Bryce corresponded until the latter’s death in 1922.

  35. Donnan and Stock (1956, p. 164, f/n 294). See also Stock (1945) where the use of the room as a reading room for American soldiers is discussed. Arthur Percival Newton (1873–1942) was Rhodes Professor of Imperial History at King’s College London between 1920 and 1938.

  36. Institute of Historical Research (IHR), First Annual Report 1921–1922, p.12.

  37. IHR, Fifth Annual Report 1925–1926, pp. 11, 17.

  38. Members admitted under Regulation (ii) (a).

  39. IHR, First Annual Report 1921–1922, p.13. Those attending these sessions are listed by categories including ‘Archivists, historians, etc’ , and ‘Teachers in other universities’ either British or overseas. Frances Davenport appears in the former category for example.

  40. Ibid, pp. 16, 25.

  41. Jameson to Leland, 4 June 1923 in Donnan and Stock (1956, p. 289).

  42. Limited influence might be exerted by providing evidence to the Royal Commission on Public Records which was active and/or publishing reports between 1910 and 1919.

  43. Pilgrim Trust (1935, p. 42) and Pilgrim Trust (1938, pp. 62–63).

  44. Pilgrim Trust (1939, pp. 29–31).

  45. Pilgrim Trust (1934, p. 43). The Trust continues to fund archival projects in the UK.

  46. Jenkinson et al. (1935, p. 238).

  47. A comprehensive county record office network in England was forming by the early 1930s.

  48. Jameson (1923, p. 32).

  49. Leland (1926, p. 59).

  50. Donnan and Stock (1956) and de Ricci (1935–1940). A revision is in progress; See Uncatalogued Manuscripts Control Centre http://members.aol.com/dericci/umcc/home.htm (consulted 25 November 2005).

  51. Jenkinson et al. (1934, pp. 141–142).

  52. Hall (1933).

  53. Editor’s Preface by James Shotwell vi–xii—this general preface appears in all volumes in the British series.

  54. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP), List of publications (1991, pp. 106–112).

  55. Ibid, p. xi.

  56. Leland and Mereness (1929); Jenkinson (1922); Hall (1925). Other source-based works commissioned—for the German series (‘a supplementary section on The Imperial German Archives, by Dr. Müsebeck’), and for the Italian series (‘an introduction on the collection and use of the documents of the War, by Eugenio Casanova)—subsequently formed part of wider bibliographic surveys.

  57. Columbia University, CEIP archives, Vol 20, fol. 760. Pauline Stearns, Division of History and Economics, CEIP to George Finch, 6 May 1920.

  58. Both the section on war archives, and any reference to its CEIP origin, are absent from the 1937 (2nd) edition of the Manual.

  59. Shotwell to Jameson, 6 February 1920. Quoted by Jimerson (2005).

  60. Jenkinson (1937, p. 16).

  61. Phillipa Levine (1986) considers the senior PRO staff “the earliest group who might be deemed professional scholars within an expanding historical discipline”.

  62. Kent Archives Service, U890 Papers of Hubert Hall. F5/2 Lester J Cappon, Secretary, SAA to Mrs Winefred Hall, 17 November 1944.

  63. Kent Archives Service, U890 Papers of Hubert Hall. F1 [Auto]biographical note by Hubert Hall.

  64. Alvord (1917); Davenport (1917); Curtis (1926).

  65. The offer of the honorary degree is noted by Hall (Kent Archives Service, U890/F1) but cannot be verified (or disproved) by Harvard University Archives.

  66. Jameson to Charles Andrews, 25 August 1908 in Donnan and Stock (1956, pp. 118–119).

  67. Donnan and Stock (1956, p. 119, f/n 107).

  68. Jameson to Hall, 21 December 1910 in Donnan and Stock (1956, p. 141).

  69. Charles Andrews for example commented that, as “the recent changes of classification having hit the Americans rather hard, it is suggested that ... as few infractions as possible of the principe de provenance, should be entered upon in the future”. Royal Commission on Public Records First Report (London: HMSO, 1910), Vol 1 (Part iii), p. 109.

  70. Jameson to Hall, 21 December 1910 in Donnan and Stock (1956, p. 129). Jameson’s specific suggestions for improvements were sent to Hall on 17 March 1911, ibid, 142.

  71. The original title was to have been British archives in peace and war, and later British archives in the war and the peace. Columbia University, CEIP archives, Vol. 23, fol. 493. Shotwell to James Scott, 7 July 1921.

  72. Shotwell (1961, p. 65).

  73. Columbia University, CEIP archives, Vol. 27, ff 670–673. Shotwell to James Brown Scott, 8 September 1923.

  74. Columbia University, CEIP archives, Vol. 27, ff 670–673. Shotwell to James Brown Scott, 8 September 1923.

  75. Kent Archives Service, U890 Papers of Hubert Hall. F5/4 Copy [circular] letter of invitation sent to prospective British delegates from Jameson, Shotwell and H. C. Bell, co-chairmen of the AHA Committee.

  76. Donnan and Stock (1956, p. 291, f/n 471).

  77. Hall to Jameson, 17 January 1925 in Donnan and Stock (1956, p. 303 f/n 3).

  78. Huntington Institutional Archives, folder 31.1.1.19.3. R. B. Haselden to Hubert Hall, 29 May 1931.

  79. Huntington Institutional Archives, folder 31.1.1.19.3. Unsigned statement [by R. B. Haselden] outlining circumstances of Hall’s visit, n.d. [July or August 1931].

  80. Huntington Institutional Archives, folder 31.1.1.19.3. Hall to Haselden, n.d. [June 1931].

  81. Huntington Institutional Archives, folder 31.1.1.19.3. Hall to Haselden, 3 May 1935, 10 May 1935; Haselden to Hall, 30 July 1935, 3 September 1935.

  82. Society of American Archivists, ‘The Society of American Archivists: description and brief history, n.d. http://www.archivists.org/history.asp (consulted 14 August 2005).

References

  • Adams HB (1893) The life and writings of Jared Sparks. Books for Libraries Press, Freeport, New York, 1970 reprint, first published 1893

  • Alvord CW (1917) The Mississippi valley in British politics, vol 1. Arthur H Clark Co, Cleveland, USA, p 17 (2vv)

  • Andrews CM (1912–1914) Guide to the materials for American History to 1783 in the Public Record Office. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC (2vv)

  • Andrews CM, Davenport FG (1908) Guide to the Manuscript materials for the history of the US to 1783 in the British Museum, in minor London archives, and in the libraries of Oxford and Cambridge, iii–v. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Cantwell JD (1991) The Public Record Office, 1938–1958. HMSO, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Curtis EE (1926) The organisation of the British army in the American revolution. Yale University Press, New Haven

    Google Scholar 

  • Davenport F (1917) European treaties bearing on the history of the US and its dependencies. Carnegie Institute of Washington

  • Donnan E, Stock LF (1956) An historian’s world: selections from the correspondence of John Franklin Jameson. American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia

    Google Scholar 

  • Falco N (1969) The Empire State’s search in European archives. Am Archivist 32(2):111–123

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall H (1925) British archives and the sources for the history of the world war. Humphrey Milford; OUP; New Haven Yale University Press, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall H (1933) A discussion on the exploration of Anglo-American archives. Trans Roy Hist Soc, 4th series 16:55–68

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Higham J (1989) History: professional scholarship in America. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London

    Google Scholar 

  • Jameson JF (1923) The American historian’s raw materials, the dedication of the William L. Clements library of Americana at the University of Michigan. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass

    Google Scholar 

  • Jenkinson H (1922) A manual of archive administration including the problems of war archives and archive making. Clarendon Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Jenkinson H (1937) Manual of archive administration, 2nd edn. Percy Lund, Humphries, London

  • Jenkinson H et al (1934) Year’s work in librarianship

  • Jenkinson H et al (1935) Year's work in librarianship

  • Jimerson RC (2005) American historians and European archival theory. Paper given at I-CHORA 2, Amsterdam, 31 August 2005

  • Jimerson RC (2006) American historians and European archival theory: the collaboration of J. Franklin Jameson and Waldo G. Leland. Arch Sci 6 (forthcoming)

  • Leland WG (1926) The Anglo-American conference of historians, London, July 12–16, 1926. Am Hist Rev 32(1):59 (Oct)

    Google Scholar 

  • Leland WG, Mereness ND (1929) Introduction to the American official sources for the economic and social history of the World War. Yale UP, New Haven and Humphrey Milford, London, OUP

  • Levine P (1986) History in the Archives: The Public Record Office and its Staff, 1838–1886. The English Historical Review 101:20–41

  • London School of Economics, LSE History Timeline 1895, http://www.lse.ac.uk/resources/LSEHistory/timeline.htm (consulted 25 November 2005)

  • Novick P (1988) That noble dream: the objectivity question and the American historical profession. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Pilgrim Trust (1934) Annual report

  • Pilgrim Trust (1935) Annual report

  • Pilgrim Trust (1938) Annual report

  • Pilgrim Trust (1939) Annual report

  • Randall JH, Haines G (1946) Controlling assumptions in the practice of American historians, in Theory and practice in historical study: a report of the Committee on Historiography. Social Science Research Council, New York, pp 15–52

  • de Ricci S (1935–1940) Census of medieval and renaissance manuscripts in the United States and Canada. H W Wilson Co., New York

  • Roper M (1990) The international role of the Public Record Office. In: Martin GH, Spufford P (eds) The records of the nation. Boydell Press, Woodbridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts (HMC) (1895) 14th report. Appendix Part 10. The MSS of the Earls of Dartmouth. Vol 2: American papers. HMSO, London

  • Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts (HMC Series 59) (1904–1909) Report on American manuscripts in the Royal Institution of Great Britain. HMSO, London

  • Shotwell J (1961) The autobiography of James T. Shotwell. Bobbs-Merrill, Indianapolis and New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Stamp AE (1928) The Public Record Office and the historical student—a retrospect. Trans Roy Hist Soc, 4th series 11:17–37

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stock LF (1945) Some Bryce-Jameson correspondence. AHR 50:271, 272

    Google Scholar 

  • Webster CK (1929) Some early applications from American historians to use the British archives. J Modern History 1(3):416–419

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Liverpool University Centre for Archive Studies, University of Liverpool, 9 Abercromby Square, Liverpool, L69 7WZ, UK

    Margaret Procter

Authors
  1. Margaret Procter
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Margaret Procter.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Procter, M. Consolidation and separation: British archives and American historians at the turn of the twentieth century. Arch Sci 6, 361–379 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-007-9041-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-007-9041-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation