Kingman Brewster Personal Papers Are Now Available for Research

The Kingman Brewster Personal Papers (Finding aid) are now open to research. Brewster (1919-1988) was a noted American educator, who became especially well-known when he served as president of Yale University from 1964 to 1977.

Brewster was born in Longmeadow, Massachusetts on June 17, 1919, the son of Kingman Brewster Sr. and Florence Foster. His parents divorced in 1923 and he and his sister settled with their mother in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His mother married Edward Ballantine, a Harvard University music professor. Brewster attended the Belmont Hill School, where he participated in debate and drama. Before entering Yale University as an undergraduate student, Brewster traveled to Europe with his family. He attended Yale College from 1937 to 1941, where he was chairman of the Yale Daily News and was involved in the America First campaign, protesting America’s involvement in World War II.

Beginning of Brewster's Yale College class oration, 1941.

Beginning of Brewster’s Yale College class oration, 1941.

After the attacks on Pearl Harbor, Brewster enlisted. He served as a Naval aviator and flew anti-submarine patrols in South America for three years.

Page 1 of a letter from Kingman Brewster to Mary Louise Phillips Brewster, written from Paris and regarding his social engagements during a break from his military service.

Page 1 of a letter from Kingman Brewster to Mary Louise Phillips Brewster, written from Paris and regarding his social engagements during a break from his military service.

Page 2 of a letter from Kingman Brewster to Mary Louise Phillips Brewster, written from Paris and regarding his social engagements during a break from his military service.

Page 2 of a letter from Kingman Brewster to Mary Louise Phillips Brewster, written from Paris and regarding his social engagements during a break from his military service.

Page 3 of a letter from Kingman Brewster to Mary Louise Phillips Brewster, written from Paris and regarding his social engagements during a break from his military service.

Page 3 of a letter from Kingman Brewster to Mary Louise Phillips Brewster, written from Paris and regarding his social engagements during a break from his military service.

After the war ended, he attended Harvard Law School, where he served on the Harvard Law Review. He graduated magna cum laude in 1948. Following graduation, he went to Paris and served as assistant general counsel to Milton Katz, the United States Special Representative in Europe for the Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA). The ECA was responsible for administering the Marshall Plan, and his work with Katz in Paris marked the start of a long-term professional relationship and personal friendship. Thereafter he accepted a position in the economics department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1950, Brewster was appointed assistant professor at Harvard Law School. He was promoted to full professor in 1953. While at Harvard, he became a noted expert on antitrust matters and international commerce and relations. His well-received publications included Antitrust and American Business Abroad, published in 1958, and The Law of International Transactions and Relations: Cases and Materials, co-authored with Milton Katz and published in 1960.

Letter from Brewster to his colleagues regarding a survey of the "behavioural sciences" at Harvard University.

Letter from Brewster to his colleagues regarding a survey of the “behavioural sciences” at Harvard University.

In 1960, Brewster returned to Yale University as provost under Yale president, A. Whitney Griswold, who had taught at Yale when Brewster was a student and was a friend of Brewster’s parents.

Page 1 of a letter from Brewster to A. Whitney Griswold regarding Griswold's thoughts on the liberal arts.

Page 1 of a letter from Brewster to A. Whitney Griswold regarding Griswold’s thoughts on the liberal arts.

Page 2 of a letter from Brewster to A. Whitney Griswold regarding Griswold's thoughts on the liberal arts.

Page 2 of a letter from Brewster to A. Whitney Griswold regarding Griswold’s thoughts on the liberal arts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After Griswold died from cancer in 1963, Brewster became acting Yale University president and was named president in October. He was inaugurated in April 1964.

Brewster led the university through significant and controversial changes to the faculty, student body, and curricula. For a summary of the work of his presidential administration and the records that document it, see the Kingman Brewster, Jr., president of Yale University, records.

In May 1977, Brewster left Yale to become Ambassador to the Court of St. James’s in the United Kingdom.


Swearing in of Kingman Brewster, Jr. as Ambassador to the Court Of St. James’s in May 1977. Brewster was sworn in by Cyrus Vance, and the recording includes comments by Vance, Brewster, and Hanna Holborn Gray

He served as ambassador until 1981 and was well-liked by the British with whom he regularly interacted. He travelled throughout the country to meet people and noted that his job was to try “to advise my Government on British attitudes and concerns in the fullest way possible.”

Page 1 of a BBC Radio 4 Today interview with Brewster regarding the release of United States diplomats and citizens from the United States Embassy in Tehran, Iran.

Page 1 of a BBC Radio 4 Today interview with Brewster regarding the release of United States diplomats and citizens from the United States Embassy in Tehran, Iran, January 21, 1981.

Page 2 of a BBC Radio 4 Today interview with Brewster regarding the release of United States diplomats and citizens from the United States Embassy in Tehran, Iran.

Page 2 of a BBC Radio 4 Today interview with Brewster regarding the release of United States diplomats and citizens from the United States Embassy in Tehran, Iran, January 21, 1981.

Page 3 of a BBC Radio 4 Today interview with Brewster regarding the release of United States diplomats and citizens from the United States Embassy in Tehran, Iran, January 21, 1981.

Page 3 of a BBC Radio 4 Today interview with Brewster regarding the release of United States diplomats and citizens from the United States Embassy in Tehran, Iran, January 21, 1981.

BBC Platform One interview with Kingman Brewster, Jr., recorded in January 1981, shortly before final confirmation of the release of the American hostages from the United States Embassy in Tehran, Iran

After the ambassadorship ended in 1981, Brewster returned to New Haven, and worked for the New York-based law firm of Winthrop, Stimson, Putnam, and Roberts. He also served as chairman of the English-Speaking Union of the United States, a group that sponsors cultural and educational opportunities for students and educators. He was active in other organizations, serving in positions with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Reuters, Common Cause, and the American Council of Learned Societies. In 1984, he returned to London as resident partner for his law firm.

In 1985, he was elected Master of University College at Oxford, an unusual position for an American to hold.

Page 1 of Brewster's June 26, 1985 letter to Barry Bingham regarding his Oxford master position.

Page 1 of a letter from Brewster to Barry Bingham, June 26, 1985, regarding Brewster’s Oxford master position.

Page 2 of a letter from Brewster to Barry Bingham, June 26, 1985, regarding Brewster's Oxford master position.

Page 2 of a letter from Brewster to Barry Bingham, June 26, 1985, regarding Brewster’s Oxford master position.

Page 3 of a letter from Brewster to Barry Bingham, June 26, 1985, regarding Brewster's Oxford master position.

Page 3 of a letter from Brewster to Barry Bingham, June 26, 1985, regarding Brewster’s Oxford master position.

He died at the age of 69 on November 8, 1988.

The Kingman Brewster Personal Papers include informative (but limited) material from 1940 to 1950, but primarily document the personal and professional life of Brewster as a Harvard faculty member (1950-1960) and Ambassador to Great Britain (1977-1981). The most substantive material in the collection is that created by Brewster himself. Letters, unpublished writings, speeches, and interviews, provide extensive documentation of his interests and expertise, including in the areas of the role of government; maintaining a viable center in the political opinion spectrum; American anti-trust laws; American companies doing business abroad; the role of a liberal arts higher education; Anglo-American relations; and the United States in world affairs. The documentation on Brewster as ambassador reflects the public side of his work, rather than behind-the-scenes policy making. The materials displayed herein provide examples of the substantive documentation in the collection.

The work undertaken to arrange and describe the Kingman Brewster personal papers was supported by Henry Chauncey, 1957 B.A., and funded by many generous individuals, including a lead gift from William Lilley, 1965 Ph.D.

New Collections and Additions at Manuscripts and Archives, October-December 2019

The following information on recently acquired and processed collections was assembled by Alison Clemens, assistant head of arrangement and description.

Manuscripts and Archives has recently acquired and made available the following collections and additions to existing collections:

New collections

Lee Goebel Papers (MS 2103)

The Lee Goebel Papers, totaling 3 linear feet, include correspondence and other materials documenting Lee Goebel’s studies as a student at the Yale School of Music. The bulk of the collection comprises letters from Goebel to her mother while Goebel attended the Yale School of Music from 1941 to 1946. Her letters describe her social life and studies, which included English, dictation, voice, and the history of music. The collection also includes twenty-eight photographs of Goebel and her associates, concert programs, and biographical material about Goebel compiled by Joel Helander.

Michael Antisdale and Mark R. Melanson Papers (MS 2105)

Michael Antisdale and Mark Melanson, a gay couple, sued the town of West Hartford in 1998 because the town pool only gave discounted “family” rates to heterosexual couples. Five other cohabitating, non-married couples later joined them in the suit. The suit continued until 2002, and the council revised the definition of “family” in West Hartford’s recreational facilities policy to include couples of any sexual identity who lived together. The collection, totaling 1 linear foot, contains legal filings, correspondence, news clippings, and council meeting materials related to the couple’s appeal to the West Hartford town council and subsequent civil suit.

Drury A. McMillen Papers (MS 2107)

The Drury A. McMillen Papers, totaling .75 linear feet, consist of photographs, albums, reports, and a magazine from McMillen’s career as an explorer and pilot in Brazil. The papers document his exploration of the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso and include photographs of the Xingu tribe, as well as photographs of the Brazilian state of Amazonas and the city of Manaus. There are also reports written by McMillen to the Brazilian government regarding defense strategy for the Brazilian Air Force.

Early Yale Documents Collection (RU 1154)

The Early Yale Documents Collection consists of 12.67 linear feet of correspondence, minutes, financial records, charters and official acts, inventories, and other papers documenting the founding and early history of Yale College from its early eighteenth century origins as the Collegiate School until the mid-eighteenth century, as well as some miscellaneous Yale-related material from the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The collection spans the dates 1701-1889, with the bulk of the material dating from between 1701 and 1751. The collection was formerly stewarded by the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library and was transferred to Manuscripts and Archives in 2018.

Colossal Keepsake Motion Picture Film by Peter Hentschel and William Richardson (RU 1161)

16mm motion picture film “Colossal Keepsake,” which documents the creation and gifting to Yale University of the “Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks” sculpture by Claes Oldenburg. The film was shot in 1969 by Peter Hentschel and William Richardson, graduate students at the Yale School of Architecture.

Herbert E. Pickett, Jr. Class of 1913, Yale College, Scrapbook (RU 1164)

The collection contains a scrapbook of ephemera collected from athletic events and other activities by Herbert E. Pickett, Jr., Yale College, Class of 1913.

Yale China Group, Yale University, Records (RU 1169)

1974 joint report of the Yale China Group’s visit to China.

Additions to existing collections

Accession 2018-M-0032 of the Bert Hansen Papers (MS 2042)

This accession, totaling 2.75 linear feet, contains Bert Hansen’s subject files on various topics related to his research on the LGBT community. The bulk of the materials date from 1970 to 1996. They include magazines, news clippings, annotated research papers, conference schedules, and informational pamphlets. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) organizations represented include the Lesbian Herstory Archives, the Committee on Lesbian and Gay History of the American Historical Association (CLGH-AHA), the National Gay Task Force (NGTF), and Senior Action in a Gay Environment (SAGE). Many of the subject files also contain materials related to various medical and academic organizations, including The Journal of Psychology, as well as the Sex Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS). Others focus on the intersection between both communities; examples of these organizations include the Gay Academic Union and the Center for Homosexual Education, Evaluation, and Research (CHEER).

Accession 2018-M-0036 of the William Sloane Coffin, Jr. Papers (MS 1665)

This accession, totaling 2.33 linear feet, primarily contains notebooks and notes by William Sloane Coffin on religion, philosophy, and current events, 1940s-circa 2006, apparently used for his sermons and other writings. It also contains two address books kept by Coffin, undated; a card with a quotation by him, 2006; and notes on religious schedules and events, undated.

Accession 2018-M-0059 of the Eli Whitney Papers (MS 554)

This accession contains a promissory note to buy a parcel of land in New Haven, 1806 February 20.

Accession 2019-M-0018 of the Jules David Prown Papers (MS 1749)

The accession, totaling 2.92 linear feet, consists of correspondence and subject files pertaining to Jules David Prown, his work, his colleagues, former students, and teachings at Yale University. The accession also contains graduate and doctoral student correspondence and grades. The bulk of the accession is open for research. Student records are restricted until 2093 as established by Yale Corporation regulations.

Accession 2019-M-0041 of the Sylvanus Dyer Locke Papers (MS 327)

This accession, totaling 3 linear feet, comprises correspondence and financial records of Sylvanus Dyer Locke related to his patents and use of machinery, 1855-1896.

Accession 2019-M-0057 of the Charles Hill Papers (MS 2070)

The accession, totaling 1.08 linear feet, consists of the personal papers of Charles Hill. Materials include Hill’s correspondence with academic colleagues and with former United States secretary of state Henry Kissinger. The accession also consists of Yale University course materials and writings, including book reviews and commentary articles on United States foreign policy. The bulk of the materials are open for research; correspondence with Henry Kissinger is closed until 25 years after the date of Kissinger’s death.

Accession 2020-M-0014 of the David Benjamin Mixner Papers (MS 1862)

David Benjamin Mixner is an activist, consultant, and author. This accession, totaling .83 linear feet, includes printed email messages between March and September 2019. Also includes an undated thank-you card and two copies of a program for a 2018 production of David Mixner’s “Who Fell in the Outhouse?,” a fundraiser for the Ali Forney Center. The papers are closed until January 1, 2031, unless researchers receive permission in writing to access them from the donor, the person holding power of attorney for the donor, or the executor of the estate of the donor. Researchers wishing to request access should email mssa.assist@yale.edu requesting specific box numbers in order to initiate the permission process, which may take several weeks.

Accession 2020-A-0028 of To Be A Man motion picture film, Yale University (RU 845)

The accession, totaling 2.25 linear feet, includes production files and reviews for the film and transcripts, 1963-1980 and undated.

R.I.P. “Manuscripts and Archives Digital Images Database” (MADID) – Hello “Manuscripts and Archives Digital Library” Collection in FindIt

Screen capture of main Yale Library Digital Collections page (FindIt)After many years of faithful service our beloved Manuscripts and Archives Digital Images Database (MADID) will retire in January 2020. MADID’s happy retirement is made possible by the migration of the MADID images to FindIt, Yale University Library’s central digital collections search engine.

Staff and researchers, especially frequent MADID users, are encouraged to explore FindIt, where they will find digitized Manuscripts and Archives content along with content from other Yale Library repositories. You can browse using the facets, including Repository, Digital Collection, and Call Number (see “Limit your search”) or enter the old MADID number in the search box. All images from MADID are now in FindIt. Not finding what you need? Contact us at mssa.assist@yale.edu. We are happy to assist you.

New Collections and Additions at Manuscripts and Archives, July-September 2019

The following information on recently acquired and processed collections was assembled by Alison Clemens, assistant head of arrangement and description.

Manuscripts and Archives has recently acquired and made available the following collections and additions to existing collections:

New collections

James Gustave Speth Papers (MS 2068)

James Gustave Speth (1942-) is a lawyer, activist, author, and advocate for the environment. His papers, totaling 40.25 linear feet, consists of his professional papers from 1977 to 2013, with the bulk falling between 1977 and 2000, and cover much of his career in environmental law. This material also documents his career in global development, particularly in facilitating the development of third world countries and creating international policies both on the behalf of the environment and the elimination of poverty.

Christopher and Kathleen Murray Diary Documenting Life at Yale University (RU 1155)

Christopher Murray was a graduate student in the Department of Theatre History, and Kathleen Murray was an employee of Yale University Press, circa 1965-1970. They moved to New Haven from Cobh, Ireland in 1965 and returned to Ireland in 1970. The diary documents their life in New Haven with observations on events and changes at Yale University during the late 1960s, including topics such as acting companies and theaters, American writers, the civil rights movement, and the Vietnam War. The collection also includes an epilogue written by the Murrays in 2016, personal correspondence with family and a former professor after their time in New Haven, and newspaper clippings documenting events at Yale University.

Additions to existing collections

Accession 2019-M-0015 of the Harold C. Conklin Papers (MS 1956)

This accession, totaling 2.83 linear feet, comprises Harold Conklin’s files from Yale University while he was a professor in the Department of Anthropology and the Department of Linguistics, and a curator for the Peabody Natural History Museum. The files document Conklin’s administrative activities, events related to Southeast Asia studies, museum collections, and Conklin’s correspondence with professional colleagues. The accession also includes student gradebooks and notes from courses Conklin taught at Columbia University and Yale University. The bulk of the materials is open for research, but Yale University student, personnel, and administrative records are restricted as established by Yale Corporation regulations.

Accession 2019-A-0029 of the Department of Athletics, Yale University, Records Documenting Baseball (RU 61)

This accession includes two books containing scores for Yale baseball games, 1921-1926, scores for Phillips Andover baseball games, 1919-1920, and scores for east coast semi-professional and professional teams, 1919-1926.

Accession 2019-M-0053 of the David Benjamin Mixner Papers (MS 1862)

David Benjamin Mixner is an activist, consultant, and author. This accession, totaling 1 linear foot, includes printed email messages between August 2018 and February 2019. Also includes correspondence and material documenting the initial transfer of the Mixner papers to Yale University in 2005, event memorabilia, a to do list, and computer files. The papers are closed until January 1, 2031, unless researchers receive permission in writing to access them from the donor, the person holding power of attorney for the donor, or the executor of the estate of the donor. Researchers wishing to request access should email mssa.assist@yale.edu requesting specific box numbers in order to initiate the permission process, which may take several weeks.

Accession 2019-M-0039 of the Coalition to Stop Trident Records (MS 1696)

News clippings, newsletters, brochures from peace organizations, and protest posters, 1983-2004 and totaling 2.75 linear feet, from the Coalition to Stop Trident, a group established to resist the construction of the Trident submarines in Connecticut.

Accession 2018-A-0083 of the May Day Rally and Yale collection (RU 86)

This accession, totaling .25 linear feet, includes a typescript of “Nature and history of the Black Panther Party,” additional copies of “Strike Newspaper,” and a copy of “The Yale Graduate Professional.”

The Demise of the Crocodile Club: A Town/Gown Tragedy at Yale

The following post was authored by Camila Tessler, archivist in Manuscripts and Archives. All references to archival collection material are to items from the William Henry Anderson Correspondence Regarding the Crocodile Club (MS 2018).

Image of William Henry Anderson letter to his father, 1858 January 9. (MS 2018, Box 1, folder 5).

William Henry Anderson letter to his father, 1858 January 9. (MS 2018, Box 1, folder 5).

On January 9, 1858, William Henry Anderson (Class of 1859) wrote to his father that the Crocodile Club, a Yale undergraduate group, was flourishing. In fact, he wrote, “I think I can safely say that [the Crocodile Club] is … the most popular club of all.” (MS 2018, Box 1, folder 5). A little more than a month later, on February 21, Anderson again wrote to his father, admitting that the faculty were recommending that the club disband. In a month’s time, how did Yale College’s “most popular club” fall so low as to be forced to disband by the faculty?

The Crocodile Club was a popular eating club, which provided a way for students to socialize and dine together. These eating clubs still exist at other Ivy League institutions, such as Princeton, but at Yale the only modern equivalents are the senior societies. The Crocodile Club was apparently successful, racking up bills of “nearly a thousand dollars” (Box 1, folder 4), which is the rough equivalent of $30,000 in today’s money. The club appears to have been comprised of many students who could afford to both eat out and board with the other “crocodiles.”

On the night of Feburary 9, 1858, following several nights of tension between New Haven firefighters stationed near the campus and groups of students, members of the Crocodile Club encountered a group of New Haven firemen while on their way back from dining. As an altercation between the two groups spiraled out of control, the leader among the group of firemen, a man named William Miles, was shot by one of the Yale students. (Lyman Hotchkiss Bagg, Four Years at Yale, New Haven: C.C. Chatfield & Co., 1871, pages 510-511).

Image of Letter from William Henry Anderson to his father, 9 February 1858 (MS 2018, Box 1, folder 6).

Letter from William Henry Anderson to his father, 9 February 1858 (MS 2018, Box 1, folder 6).

William Anderson was present and wrote to his father about the incident, his arrest, and the subsequent trial. He stated in a letter dated February 19, ten days after the incident, that “suspicion of course fell upon the club and perhaps justly and we were all implicated and are as much guilty as another in the eye of the law” (Box 1, folder 6). In the same letter, Anderson went on to relate to his father that “counsel advised me not to answer anything that would show I was there … and he advised all the rest to the same”. Their refusal to testify landed the boys in jail, but only nominally. Anderson claimed that he spent most of his jail time studying and did not suffer any inconvenience, though it is not altogether clear whether this is a fact, or something added to reassure a potentially concerned parent. Anderson’s letters are rife with reassurances to his parents that everything at Yale is fine, so playing down his jail time wouldn’t be completely out of character or context.

Image of excerpt from letter from William Henry Anderson to his father following his trial, 6 March 1858 (MS 2018, Box 1, folder 9).

Excerpt from letter from William Henry Anderson to his father following his trial, 6 March 1858 (MS 2018, Box 1, folder 9).

As the trial moved forward it quickly became apparent that justice favored gown over town. Even though Anderson clearly knew who shot Miles, he asserted that “I have the consciousness of knowing that I did not injure a person that night, not so much as a scratch. That consciousness, you know, will be worth worlds to me for if I knew that I had killed the man, even in self defense as what was done by whoever did it, I could hardly bear the thought” (Box 1, folder 8). Anderson continually refused to testify, as did the rest of the rest of the Crocodile Club group. Their silence bought them their legal innocence, as no one was sentenced to jail time. Anderson believed that it was “a very fair verdict” (Box 1, folder 9), since there were no legal consequences.

That lack of legal punishment did not, however, free the Crocodile Club members from consequences at Yale. In a letter to his father dated March 24, almost a full month after the end of the trial, Anderson revealed that “[the faculty] talked it over till noon and there decided to separate from the college three members of the club, Carrington, Smith, and Lorichell. This separation is about equivalent to a dismissal” (Box 1, folder 11). This dismissal was accompanied by a reference to any other college of their choice, so the dismissal, while a bold action on the part of the faculty, was one with a golden parachute.

Events where town and gown were diametrically opposed were common in the 1850s, and they are equally common today. The details of this case were so odd though, and the first-hand testimony in letters home from one of the participants so palpable, that the incident is worth exploring. Looking over historical cases such as the rise and fall of the Crocodile Club can help us to contextualize and have a clearer understanding of the relationship between Yale and New Haven over time. In this case Yale students were absolved Yale of a terrible crime through silence, and did serious damage to the town-gown relationship. We struggle with similar incidents today and can use the rise and fall of the Crocodile Club as one lens for examining accountability and justice in the ongoing, evolving relationship between the communities of Yale and New Haven.

“Dead-end street…”: Chester Bowles on Vietnam in 1968

This is a guest post by Marc A. Reyes, a doctoral student in the Department of History at the University of Connecticut in Storrs. His research interests include foreign relations history, economic and political development, South Asian studies, and histories of science and technology. He is spending 2019 in New Delhi, India, as a Fulbright-Nehru Fellow conducting dissertation research.

“I continue to feel that the Vietnam situation, to put it mildly, is a dead-end street…”

Don Corsetti, autographed pencil sketch of Chester Bowles, accompanying letter dated 22 July 1966. Chester Bowles Papers (MS 628), Box 328, Folder 47.

Don Corsetti, autographed pencil sketch of Chester Bowles, accompanying letter dated 22 July 1966. Chester Bowles Papers (MS 628), Box 328, Folder 47.

In 1968, Ambassador Chester Bowles finally expressed what he had been thinking for years: the Vietnam War would not end well for the United States. In an April 2, 1968, letter to former aide and future U.S. Ambassador to India Richard Celeste, Bowles asserted that the war had cost the U.S. dearly. Two days earlier, President Lyndon Johnson’s announcement that the United States would halt its bombing campaign to start negotiations to end the war had stunned everyone, and Bowles confided to Celeste that such talks would be “extremely difficult.” The U.S.’s options were not likely to produce a favorable outcome. Like many Americans, Bowles had serious concerns about the war, but initially he sincerely believed the war would produce a stable government for South Vietnamese citizens and eventually a more just South Vietnamese society. Now Bowles concluded the war was “a dead-end street.”

Chester Bowles would readily admit he was the Ambassador to India, not Southeast Asia, but his second stint as the U.S.’s Ambassador to India, from July 1963 to April 1969, allowed him a greater opportunity to better understand India and its evolving role in a wider range of Asian affairs. His first term, in the Truman administration, had been only for eighteen months and focused primarily on obtaining U.S. economic aid for India. Given the chance to return to New Delhi, Bowles threw himself into all matters of U.S.-Indian relations, and worked to understand one of the larger issues facing Asia during this period: the Vietnam War. Bowles thought deeply about the war and how it affected U.S. foreign policy in Cold War Asia.

U.S. Ambassador Chester Bowles at the American Embassy in New Delhi, India, cover of Span magazine, Volume VIII, number 4 (April 1967). Chester Bowles Papers (MS 628), Box 341, Folder 327.

U.S. Ambassador Chester Bowles at the American Embassy in New Delhi, India, cover of Span magazine, Volume VIII, number 4 (April 1967). Chester Bowles Papers (MS 628), Box 341, Folder 327.

Reading through the Chester Bowles Papers at Manuscript and Archives, researchers discover how much Vietnam weighed on Bowles. His personal papers provide glimpses into his thinking about nationalism, Third World revolution, and the balance of power in Asia. When he was not working on US-Indian issues, such as food aid to India and negotiating a settlement between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, Bowles analyzed India’s role in Asian affairs. He believed India could lead a coalition of non-Communist Asian nations, serving as a bulwark against the expansion and influence of China. Bowles specifically argued that India itself had seen up close the threat of Communist aggression (in its 1962 war with China) and the fight in Vietnam was another example of a non-Communist country resisting Communist domination.

Bowles’ Vietnam War concerns did not appear out of nowhere and steadily grew during the course of his second stint as ambassador. His papers document his disillusionment with the U.S.’s campaigns to repel North Vietnam forces and their South Vietnamese sympathizers and to build up a functioning South Vietnam. Mirroring a process similar to that experienced by many Americans, Bowles went from supporter to critic of the war, speculating what the war was costing the U.S. and what a post-Vietnam War world should look like for India, Asia, and the United States.

Chester Bowles, "What Hope for Peace in Vietnam?", American Reporter, issue of December 21, 1966, reprint. Chester Bowles Papers (MS 628), Box 341, Folder 342.

Chester Bowles, “What Hope for Peace in Vietnam?”, American Reporter, issue of December 21, 1966, reprint. Chester Bowles Papers (MS 628), Box 341, Folder 342.

As early as 1964, before the United States’ Rolling Thunder campaign and massive deployment of American troops, Bowles doubted that Vietnam could be resolved through purely military means. In a February 1964 letter to New York Times reporter James Reston, Bowles claimed that since his visit to Southeast Asia in 1952, “it was evident that the military approach would never work unless it was supported by a sensitive political effort to deal with the people.” Bowles lamented that since 1950 the U.S. had spent an “unbelievable” $6 billion dollars in Southeast Asia and had little to show for it. He recognized history repeating itself in that the Republic of China’s leadership, before its defeat by Mao Zedong’s Communist Army, had also believed a military victory had to precede any political and state-building reforms. Bowles recognized that these breakthroughs had to be connected, and were not separate issues to be dealt with in the future. Bowles’ reference to earlier mistakes was not a one-time occurrence, either. In a 1966 letter to Senator George McGovern, Bowles said the U.S. had failed when it allowed the French to resume control of their Southeast Asia colonies, and speculated that if FDR had lived to see the end of the war he would have challenged France’s colonial rule.

Hoping to receive some kind of Indian support for the U.S.’s war effort in Vietnam, Bowles traveled to Thailand, Laos, and South Vietnam in August 1966. While there, he met with government leaders, ambassadors, and military commanders to learn more about the U.S.’s Vietnam mission. If Bowles, a trusted voice to Indian leadership, witnessed and reported back signs of U.S. progress, perhaps India could offer moral support for the U.S. mission or at least refrain from criticizing the war.

First page of the itinerary outline for Ambassador Bowles' trip to Southeast Asia, 5-12 August 1966. Chester Bowles Papers (MS 628), Box 343, Folder 360.

First page of the itinerary outline for Ambassador Bowles’ trip to Southeast Asia, 5-12 August 1966. Chester Bowles Papers (MS 628), Box 343, Folder 360.

During his week-long visit, Bowles heard of South Vietnamese villages pacified, of schools built, and markets reopened. It was apparent, however, that the security situation was still fraught. Armed guards were posted throughout supposedly safe villages and U.S. officials described areas as unsafe at night, even in places without much of a North Vietnamese presence. In his reporting, Bowles acknowledged that there were U.S. military successes worth celebrating, but his analysis also revealed concerns about the growing costs of the war and the effectiveness of the U.S.’s North Vietnamese bombing campaign. While Bowles thought U.S. military successes were important, he placed a lot of faith in South Vietnam’s September 11th, 1966, Constitutional Assembly elections. He reasoned that successful elections like these would help win over skeptical South Vietnamese citizens and propel momentum for a favorable settlement to the war.

Within a year though, Bowles’ Vietnam anxieties returned. Writing to Vice President Hubert Humphrey in May 1967, Bowles remarked that it was “impossible for the United States to win a ground forces numbers game in Southeast or East Asia.” Bowles’ past support for the war rested on his conviction that the fight would be limited, but would also produce a functioning government that represented the best interests of the South Vietnamese people. What Americans saw, including Bowles, was just the opposite: a wider war and a corrupt South Vietnamese government. Bowles grumbled that the 1966 South Vietnamese elections had not produced any political breakthroughs and the ruling government had taken no steps to establish “a stable, just and peaceful society.”

Bowles reached his breaking point on Vietnam in April 1968. Not long after the Tet Offensive, and two days after President Johnson’s announcement of immediate peace talks, Bowles lamented that the war had cost the U.S. too much. In his April letter to Richard Celeste, Bowles called years of U.S. military reports “dismally wrong.” The retreating and weakened North Vietnamese enemy described in such reports did not match the one American soldiers found on the battlefield. Bowles’ biggest worry, though, was that the United States had “no realistic way out” of their Vietnam impasse.

Ernie Newhouse, photographer. Chester Bowles and other panelists on the set of the WRC-TV show Meeting of the Minds, Washington, D.C., 17 April 1966. Chester Bowles Papers (MS 628), Box 334, Folder 145.

Ernie Newhouse, photographer. Chester Bowles and other panelists on the set of the WRC-TV show Meeting of the Minds, Washington, D.C., 17 April 1966. Chester Bowles Papers (MS 628), Box 334, Folder 145.

As much as Chester Bowles wrestled with the Vietnam War and its immediate impact on U.S. foreign relations, he also imagined a world after the war. Bowles, in two 1966 letters, hoped that once the fighting stopped funds once earmarked for war could be utilized for development work abroad. Besides increased funds, Bowles thought future U.S. foreign policy would be different, even peaceful, because the true takeaway of the Vietnam War was that the U.S. could not kill its way out of trouble. Bowles declared: “every American military man and civilian, from generals and ambassadors down to privates and office boys, has witnessed at first hand the limitation of military power in a revolutionary situation.” Speculating what the United States could do with just half the money set aside for wars, Ambassador Bowles believed those financial resources “could create a new world.” If a third of the funds went overseas for development, and the other two-thirds went to develop American cities, Bowles thought the future, both for the U.S. and the world, “would look a lot less bleak.”

Chester Bowles’ second stint as the U.S. Ambassador to India coincided with his breaking point on the Vietnam War. He wrestled with uncomfortable facts until it was clear to see that the war’s costs were too great. The ambassador feared that the war harmed the United States’ ability to influence Asian nations and exercise power in the developing world. What the U.S. was losing – in lives, money, and respect – was far greater than what could be earned by continuing the U.S. presence in Southeast Asia. Bowles represented a generation of diplomats who truly believed the U.S. had the power to remake the world into something better and more just. Bowles’ voice was ignored and his post-war vision never realized, instead the tragic reality resembled what Bowles had feared all along.

New Collections and Additions at Manuscripts and Archives, April-June 2019

The following information on recently acquired and processed collections was assembled by Alison Clemens, assistant head of arrangement and description. Manuscripts and Archives has recently acquired and made available the following collections and additions to existing collections:

New collections

Catalunya Independence Movement Ephemera (MS 2099)

The collection (totaling 5.75 linear feet) contains ephemera related to the 2017 Catalan Independence Referendum, Declaration of Independence, and related elections. Ephemera includes cloth banners and bags, newspapers, pamphlets, stickers, and posters.

New Blue, Yale University, Records (RU 1160)

The records (totaling 10 linear feet) consist of tour records, performance events, scrapbooks, photographs and musical recordings from New Blue, the first women’s a cappella group at Yale University. Access to the records requires permission from the archivist of New Blue.

Additions to existing collections

Accession 2016-M-0089 of the Harold C. Conklin Papers (MS 1956)

This accession (totaling 50.75 linear feet) comprises Yale University administrative and teaching files, topical files, professional service files, and correspondence documenting Harold Conklin’s professional responsibilities at Yale University and in professional organizations. The Yale University files document Harold Conklin’s tenure at Yale University, including trips with the Association of Yale Alumni, teaching and research records from the Anthropology and Linguistics departments, and curatorial files from the Peabody Museum of Natural History. The records also document Conklin’s professorial and administrative responsibilities at Yale, particularly in the Department of Anthropology, such as his chair and committee service, courses and exhibitions, the Agrarian Studies Program, Southeast Asia Studies activities, and the development of Human Relations Area Files. The bulk of the collection is open for research. Access to Yale University administrative files is prohibited for 35 years from creation of the records. Access to student and personnel files is prohibited for 75 years or life plus five years (whichever is longer).

Accession 2018-M-0030 of the Hadley Family Papers (MS 985)

This accession (totaling 3.58 linear feet) consists of correspondence between members of the Hadley and Morris families and includes letters by and to Helen Hadley, Arthur Twining Hadley, and their children. Also includes studio portraits of family members and memorabilia, including documentation of academic achievements and family finances.

Accession 2018-M-0058 of the Louis H. Pollak Papers (MS 1989)

This accession includes a notebook of mementos prepared for the twentieth anniversary of Judge Louis H. Pollak’s appointment to the federal bench as judge for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Also includes other documentation related to his anniversary celebration.

Accession 2018-A-0082 of the Yale University Press Records (RU 554)

This accession comprises acquisition files for the Yale University Press, 1982-2016. Access to the materials is restricted until January 1, 2052.

Accessions 2019-M-0004 and 2019-M-0024 additions to the Duncan Chaplin Lee and John Lee Papers (MS 2062)

Accession 2019-M-0004 contains the personal papers of Duncan Chaplin Lee and includes personal and family photographs and albums; correspondence between Duncan Chaplin Lee, family, friends, and colleagues; and clippings. Accession 2019-M-0024 consists of the personal papers of Duncan Chaplin Lee, including correspondence with his son John Lightfoot Lee and other family members, and biographical material of the Lee family, including written accounts by Duncan Chaplin Lee. Accession 2019-M-0024 also contains a photograph album documenting Duncan Chaplin Lee’s time in Burma during World War II.

Accession 2019-A-0017 of the Ravi D. Goel Collection on Yale (RU 1081)

This accession (totaling .5 linear feet) consists of letters and legal documents, 1726-1799, documenting Yale affiliated individuals and organizations, collected by Ravi D. Goel.

Accession 2019-M-0020 of the G. Evelyn Hutchinson Papers (MS 649)

This accession (totaling .25 linear feet) comprises correspondence to and from G. Evelyn Hutchinson, including letters written by Hutchinson to Yemaiel Oved Aris, who resided with the Hutchinsons in New Haven during World War II. It also includes letters between Hutchinson’s colleagues regarding Hutchinson, class lecture notes taken in Fall 1953 by Estella B. Leopold (born 1927; Yale PhD 1955) for Hutchinson’s Ecological Principles class, and photographs of Hutchinson family members.

Accession 2019-M-0025 of the Henry Lewis Stimson Papers (MS 465)

This accession is a guest book for Highhold, Henry L. Stimson’s house in West Hills, Huntington, New York, 1905-1937.

Accession 2019-A-0025 of the Employee Unions and Strikes, Yale University, Records (RU 105)

This accession (totaling .25 linear feet) contains correspondence, promotional material, and ephemera documenting faculty and graduate student support of the 1984 Yale University clerical and technical employees strike.

Accession 2019-M-0033 addition to the John Glines Papers (MS 1895)

This accession (totaling 1.92 linear feet) consists of the writings of playwright John Glines, including scripts of productions performed at The Glines Theatre in New York City, personal and autobiographical writings, and a daily journal. The papers also include correspondence and recordings of author Erlo Van Waveren and production materials from Glines’s play Butterflies and Tigers, including video and audio recordings.

Accession 2019-A-0031 of the Yale University Buildings and Grounds Photographs (RU 703)

This accession contains a photogravure of a circa 1906 bird’s-eye view of Yale University, drawn and signed by Richard Rummell (1848-1924) and published by F. D. Nichols of Boston.

Accession 2019-A-0032 of the Yale Diploma Collection (RU 150)

This accession contains the 1856 BA, 1859 MA, and 1863 PhD diplomas of Lewis Richard Packard, classics scholar and Yale professor of Greek.

Accessions 2019-A-0034, 2019-A-0035, and 2019-A-0050 additions to the Yale Course Lectures Collection (RU 159)

These small additions to the Yale Course Lectures Collection include art history course materials and notebooks of Susan P. Casteras (1973 MA, 1975 MPhil, and 1977 PhD); course notes, examinations, and papers of Mark Hubert Curtis (1942 Yale College, 1953 PhD); and a 1966-1967 Math 131 lecture notebook titled “Natural Function Algebras” of professor Charles E. Rickart.

Accession 2019-A-0048 of the Whim ‘n Rhythm, Yale University, Records (RU 210)

This accession consists of a diary written by Charlotte Juergens during the 2016 Whim ‘n Rhythm world tour.

Accession 2019-A-0054 of the Yale Events and Activities Photographs (RU 690)

This accession comprises a New York Graphic article depicting four Yale secret society buildings: Skull and Bones, Scroll and Key, Delta Kappa Epsilon, and Phi Upsilon, 1886 June 19.

Accession 2019-A-0055 of the Yale College records of Classes (RU 491)

This accession contains a photograph album for the Yale College class of 1865.

2019 Manuscripts and Archives Diane Kaplan Memorial Senior Essay Prizes Awarded

Young Americans for Freedom brochure, 1969

Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) brochure, 1969. William F. Buckley, Jr. Papers (MS 576), Part I, Box 67, Folder: YAF, Oct-Dec 1969.

We are pleased to announce the two winners of the 2019 Manuscripts and Archives (MSSA) Diane Kaplan Memorial Senior Essay Prize. The prize recognizes outstanding senior essays on any topic, including Yale, based substantially on research using Manuscripts and Archives collections. More information, including a list of prize winners since the prize’s inception in 2003, can be found on the MSSA Prize website. Up to two prizes are awarded each year based on essays self-submitted for prize consideration by Yale College seniors. One-semester and two-semester essays from any department are eligible for consideration. Faculty and others may encourage submissions, but students must submit the essays themselves for prize consideration. Prize winning essays are published in EliScholar.

Samuel Bennett, a senior History major from Ezra Stiles College advised by Professor Beverly Gage, was awarded one of this year’s prizes for his essay ‘A Critic Friendly to McCarthy’: How William F. Buckley, Jr. Brought Senator Joseph R. McCarthy into the American Conservative Movement between 1951 and 1959. Bennett’s essay explores the fluctuations in the embrace of McCarthy by Buckley, a leader of movement conservatism in the U.S. and after 1955 the founder and editor of the influential conservative journal National Review. The essay examines the turbulent 1950s, during McCarthy’s efforts to expose what he regarded as Communist influences in the administrations of U.S. presidents Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower.

Telegram from William F. Buckley, Jr. to Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, 20 December 1956

Telegram from William F. Buckley, Jr. to Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, 20 December 1956. William F. Buckley, Jr. Papers (MS 576), Part I, Box 3, Folder: McCarthy.

Bennett deftly uses correspondence, editorials, and speeches from the William F. Buckley, Jr. Papers (MS 576) in Manuscripts and Archives to show how Buckley de-emphasized his public embrace of McCarthy following the senator’s rebuke by the U.S. Senate in December 1954, a crucial time for the launch of the National Review. The essay also explores the period immediately following McCarthy’s death in May 1957, when Buckley became a forceful and vociferous champion, in print and in speaking engagements, of the late senator’s fight against Communism. Judges in this year’s senior essay competition found Bennett’s thesis to be quite clearly articulated, and the structure of the essay clear and easy to follow. He made effective use of the secondary literature on the topic of Buckley and McCarthy, and did an excellent job at weaving in extensive citations from primary sources in the Buckley papers to bolster his arguments.

Letter from Jean McCarthy to William F. Buckley, Jr., 11 July 1957

Letter from Jean McCarthy to William F. Buckley, Jr., 11 July 1957. William F. Buckley, Jr. Papers (MS 576), Part I, Box 3, Folder: McCarthy.

Ethan Swift, a senior History major from Pierson College, also advised by Professor Beverly Gage, was awarded the other of this year’s prizes for his essay Young Americans for Freedom and the Anti-War Movement: Pro-War Encounters with the New Left at the Height of the Vietnam War.  Swift’s essay also drew heavily on the Buckley papers, though focused on a later era during the anti-war protests of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Coincidentally, this is the first time since the inception of these prizes in 2003 that both prize-winning essays utilized the same archival collection, which serves as a great indicator to future Yale senior essayists that there are many successful angles from which to approach an archival collection. Swift seeks to fill a gap in the historiography of the time period, much of which focuses on the efforts and tactics of anti-war activists. He mines the Buckley papers, especially materials relating to Buckley’s support in the founding in 1960 of Young Americans for Freedom (YAF), a conservative political group with chapters on U.S. college and university campuses. In addition, Swift explores the fascinating interplay between articles in the YAF monthly journal New Guard and correspondence over more than a decade with YAF leadership in the Buckley papers. He also makes and illustrates a novel and important point regarding the way that YAF members, in their brochures and advertising, co-opted for pro-war and recruitment purposes some of the tactics and graphical symbolism used by the New Left. Members of the judging committee were impressed by Swift’s sophisticated use of primary source materials, the logical and clear organization of his essay, and the new insights he contributes to the history of a very contentious time in American politics.

Advertisement for YAF paraphernalia, New Guard, Vol. IX, No. 1, p. 26, January 1969

Advertisement for YAF paraphernalia, New Guard, Vol. IX, No. 1, p. 26, January 1969. William F. Buckley, Jr. Papers (MS 576), Part I, Box 67, Folder: YAF, Jan-Feb 1969.

Members of the 2019 judging committee for the Manuscripts and Archives Diane Kaplan Senior Essay Prize were: Mary Caldera, Christine Connolly, James Kessenides, Bill Landis, Michelle Peralta, and Camila Tessler. The prize, a certificate and check for $500.00, is awarded to each winner at his or her residential college Commencement Day ceremonies.

New Collections and Additions, January-April 2019

The following information on recently acquired and processed collections was assembled by Alison Clemens, assistant head of arrangement and description.

Manuscripts and Archives has recently acquired and made available the following collections and additions to existing collections:

New collections

Edison Price Papers (MS 2015)

  • The collection is comprised of business and design records generated by the two lighting design, manufacturing, and consulting companies founded by Edison Price in New York, New York: Edison Price, Inc. (founded in 1952) and Nulux, Inc. (founded in 1990). Papers include both project and product records, as well as research files, patent documents, and general documentation about the firms. Project records consist of drawings, correspondence, and notes relating to lighting designs, including such projects as the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, the Whitney Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, and the J. Paul Getty Center in Los Angeles. Product records consist of drawings, photometric reports, and other information for a range of fixtures designed and manufactured by Edison Price, Inc. and Nulux, Inc.

James F. Ahern Papers (MS 2086)

  • The collection (totaling 11.34 linear feet) consists of the personal papers of James F. Ahern, documenting his position as chief of police for New Haven, Connecticut. Included are materials related to student and police activities during May Day 1970 at Yale University, wiretapping by the New Haven police, and Ahern’s role as a member of the President’s Commission on Campus Unrest in 1970. Also included are photographs of Ahern, posters, magazine articles authored by and concerning Ahern, audio and visual recordings of Ahern’s media appearances, scrapbooks with speeches and news clippings, correspondence by Ahern and family, and Rolodex cards with names and contact information for Ahern’s colleagues in police administration.

Arthur Bostwick Van Buskirk World War I Diaries (MS 2091)

  • Collection consists of two diaries by Arthur Botswick Van Buskirk documenting his military experience during World War I. Newspaper clippings, correspondence, tickets, and other ephemera were originally inserted between diary pages. Several pages in volume II detail the Armistice of November 11, 1918 in Paris, France.

John Lewis Gaddis Papers (MS 2092)

  • The collection contains the personal diaries of John Lewis Gaddis. Subjects include his academic and publishing activities, events in his personal life, his transition to Yale University from Ohio University in the late 1990s, and the founding of the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy at Yale University. The majority of the diary entries are typed; some are handwritten.
  • Access to the collection is restricted until 1 January 2050 by donor request.

Felipe Lorenzo Famoso Diary (MS 2100)

  • Diary covering the career of Felipe Lorenzo Famoso, a Spanish soldier in Morocco and Spain, from 1923-1949.

Mas Yebra Family Correspondence (MS 2101)

  • Correspondence of the Mas Yerba family, a prominent political family in Barcelona. The correspondence includes one hundred thirty-three letters exchanged among the family members and their associates during the Spanish Civil War. Also includes a small amount of the family’s legal and financial papers.

Ramon Llado Correspondence (MS 2102)

  • Eleven letters between Ramon Llado, a Republican soldier in the Spanish Civil War, and his family. Seven letters are from Ramon to his wife, Concepcion. Three letters are from Concepcion to Ramon, and one letter is to Ramon from his sister, Dionisia, and his brother-in-law.

Additions to existing collections

Accession 2017-M-0002 addition to the David Brion Davis Papers (MS 1970)

  • This accession (totaling 42.58 linear feet) comprises teaching and research files, writings, correspondence, and program files documenting David Brion Davis’s work as a historian of slavery and abolition in the western world and professor of history at Yale University. The teaching files document Davis’s teaching activities and lectures at Yale University and other educational institutions. Writings document Davis’s monographs and short writings, particularly his essays and reviews for the New York Review of Books, as well as scholarly and popular writings of others that were sent to Davis for review or comment. Correspondence primarily documents Davis’s professional and research activities, and correspondence is also present throughout the research files, writings, and program files groupings. Program files include material documenting conferences Davis attended and contributed to and activities Davis undertook in the professional organizations to which he belonged. The program files also document Davis’s activities as founding director of Yale University’s Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition and as a Yale history professor working with researchers, undergraduate students, and graduate students at the university. The accession also contains Davis’s personal papers, which document his early academic work as a student at Dartmouth College and Harvard University, his written reflections on his life and work, and his professional activities and retirement.

Accession 2018-M-0051 addition to the Richard Benson Sewall Papers (MS 1413)

  • This accession (totaling 14.25 linear feet) comprises lecture notes and course materials documenting Sewall’s tenure as a Yale University professor of English; writings and research files on Emily Dickinson, the Strong family of Rochester, New York, and other areas relating to Sewall’s research interests; and correspondence regarding Sewall’s research and work at Yale. Also includes personal materials documenting Sewall’s professional life and family history.

Scrapbooks of William Bacon Bailey, Yale Class of 1894: Accession 2018-A-0063 of the Yale Student Scrapbook Collection (RU 138)

  • Three scrapbooks documenting reunion activity and related events of the Yale College Class of 1894, of which Bailey was a member, as well as Bailey’s professional life as an economist, professor, census worker, statistician, and employee at Travelers Insurance Companies.

Accession 2019-M-0007 addition to the Charles Hill Papers (MS 2070)

  • The accession (totaling 3.42 linear feet) consists of the personal papers of Charles Hill. Materials include Hill’s correspondence, including correspondence with former United States secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and George Shultz. The accession also consists of writings, including book reviews and commentary articles on United States foreign policy, and course material from Hill’s class “Oratory in Statecraft” taught at Yale University, 2006-2018.

Accession 2019-M-0042 addition to the Spanish Civil War collection (MS 2058)

  • The accession (totaling .42 linear feet) includes children’s materials, publications, and postcards documenting the Spanish Civil War.

A Tale of Two Archives: Tracing the life of Thomas Lawrason Riggs ’10

This is a guest post by Sarah L. Woodford, director of the Vincent Library at Saint Thomas More, the Catholic Chapel & Center at Yale University.

In his July 1983 article in The Catholic Historical Review Herbert Janick observes that Father Thomas Lawrason Riggs ’10, the first Catholic chaplain at Yale, was “both an intellectual respected for his secular accomplishments and a Catholic priest.” It then seems fitting that the two archives on campus that house his papers are Saint Thomas More, the Catholic Chapel & Center at Yale University and Yale’s Manuscripts and Archives in Sterling Memorial Library. Riggs bequeathed most of his personal and professional papers to the Saint Thomas More Corporation; but those papers and personal items, particularly pertaining to his bright college years, the immediate years afterwards, and his contributions to academic scholarship were donated to Manuscripts and Archives.

Photograph of T. Lawrason Riggs from Scroll and Key senior album, 1910. Call number: Yeg2 K61x 1910.

Photograph of T. Lawrason Riggs from Scroll and Key senior album, 1910. Call number: Yeg2 K61x 1910.

Born in 1888 to the Riggs banking family of Washington, D.C., Riggs was a graduating member of Yale University’s Class of 1910. While at university, Riggs studied English literature and French, Italian, Latin, and Greek. He was both a member of Scroll and Key and the Pundit Society, as well as the president of the Yale Dramatic Society (where he met his future roommate and musical theater collaborator, Cole Porter ’13). A renowned poet on campus, first as a contributor to the Yale Literary Magazine and then as the publication’s editor during his senior year, he penned the official class song for the class of 1910.

After Yale, Riggs pursued graduate work at Harvard University under the direction of Barrett Wendell. There he roomed with Dean Acheson ’15 (a future secretary of state in the administration of President Harry S. Truman) and Cole Porter (a future popular composer and entertainer), who were both pursuing law degrees. Neither Riggs nor Porter finished their Harvard degrees, instead they focused on the writing of See America First, a Broadway show financed by Riggs and pronounced a flop by New York critics in March 1916.

World War I brought Riggs back to the Yale. In the summer of 1917, months after the United States declared war on Germany, the twenty-nine-year-old joined The Yale Mobile Hospital Unit as a translator. After leaving the Yale Unit and gaining a foreign-language specialist position assigned to military intelligence in Paris, were he also acquired the rank of first lieutenant, Riggs decided to enter into the Catholic priesthood. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1922 and after a trip to Europe to consult with the Catholic chaplains at Cambridge and Oxford, took up residency at Yale.

One of the “designs” Riggs bequeathed to Saint Thomas More, the Catholic Chapel & Center at Yale University, circa 1938. The Fr. Riggs Papers, Saint Thomas More.

One of the “designs” Riggs bequeathed to Saint Thomas More, the Catholic Chapel & Center at Yale University, circa 1938. The Fr. Riggs Papers, Saint Thomas More.

Riggs spent his tenure as Catholic chaplain entertaining young Catholic creatives at his lavish home on Whitney Avenue, building what is now Saint Thomas More Chapel, and pursuing a book project about Joan of Arc. His book Saving Angel: The Truth about Joan of Arc and the Church, was published posthumously in 1944 by The Bruce Publishing Company of Milwaukee. Riggs died unexpectedly of a heart attack on April 26, 1943. He was fifty-five. In his will, drawn up in November 1938, he bequeathed all his “papers, books, correspondence, records and designs” that concern or have to do with Saint Thomas More, to the Saint Thomas More Corporation. All other papers, books, and correspondence that did not interest the Corporation, were to go to Sterling Memorial Library at Yale University.

Among the items Riggs bequeathed to Manuscripts and Archives were two Scroll and Key senior albums, from 1909 and 1910. The former from his brother, Francis, who graduated the year before him, and the latter from Riggs’s senior year. Both albums are leather-bound and contain black and white photos of the society’s senior members with their signatures underneath. Riggs’s 1910 album also contains a snapshot of the secret society’s ivy-covered tomb in the album’s last frame.

Recipes to prepare for injured soldiers, part of Riggs’s training for the Yale Mobile Hospital Unit, 1917. Thomas Lawrason Riggs Papers (MS 704), Box 1, Folder 9. Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.

Recipes to prepare for injured soldiers, part of Riggs’s training for the Yale Mobile Hospital Unit, 1917. Thomas Lawrason Riggs Papers (MS 704), Box 1, Folder 9. Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.

Riggs also donated a collection of his notes and papers that now make up the Riggs Papers. Items of note include his typed manuscript of Saving Angel and a notebook from 1917 that contains notes from his training for the Yale Mobile Hospital Unit. The notebook is blank in the middle and its back portion contains notes in pencil dated July 18-21. These notes instruct on how to identify contagious diseases, bandage various sprains, set broken bones, and prepare meals for the injured (poached eggs and cocoa are two items on the menu). There is also a particularly sobering section that describes the different sorts of poisonous gas a soldier could inhale, how to identify them, and which ones would prove fatal.

As Saint Thomas More, the Catholic Chapel & Center at Yale University celebrates eighty years in October 2018, the community once more considers its beginnings and the priest at the center of those beginnings. Riggs was a chaplain and a Yale man—how appropriate that like his life, the archives that continue to keep his memory reflect this as well.