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Contact information: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.contact
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm76049577
Collection material in English
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the LC Catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically.
The papers of the Arthur family, consisting primarily of those of Chester Alan Arthur II (1864-1937) and Chester Alan Arthur III (1901-1972), were given to the Library of Congress by Thomas C. Reeves in 1973.
The papers of the Arthur Family were arranged and described in 1976. The collection and finding aid were revised in 2006. The finding aid was revised again in 2011.
Photographs have been transferred to the Library's Prints and Photographs Division where they are identified as part of the Arthur Family Papers.
The status of copyright in the unpublished writings of the Arthur Family is governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.).
The papers of the Arthur Family are open to research. Researchers are advised to contact the Manuscript Reading Room prior to visiting. Many collections are stored off-site and advance notice is needed to retrieve these items for research use.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, Arthur Family Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The papers of the Arthur family span the years 1817 to 1972, with the bulk of the items concentrated in the period 1874-1972. Although the collection consists largely of the papers of Chester Alan Arthur II (1864-1937) and Chester Alan Arthur III (1901-1972), it includes papers of President Chester Alan Arthur's sister, Malvina Ann Arthur Haynesworth; his brother, William A. Arthur, Jr.; Chester Alan Arthur II's first wife, Myra Fithian Andrews; his sister, Ellen Arthur Pinkerton; Chester Alan Arthur III's first wife, Charlotte Wilson Arthur, and his second wife, Esther Murphy Strachey Arthur. Other members of the Arthur Andrews, and Fifthian families are also represented in the collection. The papers are organized in ten series: Chester Alan Arthur II Papers, Myra Fithian Andrews Arthur Papers, Ellen Arthur Pinkerton Papers, Chester Alan Arthur III Papers, Malvina Ann Arthur Haynesworth Papers, William A. Arthur, Jr., Papers, Andrews Family Papers, Fithian Family Papers, Miscellany, and Oversize.
After the death of Chester Alan Arthur (1829-1886), Chester Alan Arthur II withdrew from Columbia University School of Law and sailed for Europe where he remained for over a decade. His papers for this period reveal his interest in women, horses, and cuisine. His correspondence abounds with letters from female admirers, and his diaries, scrapbooks, and general correspondence disclose his frequent participation in driving horse-drawn coaches through the French countryside. In 1897, Alan ("A-lan," pronounced as in "plan"), as he liked to be called, unsuccessfully sought appointment as United States ambassador to the Netherlands. His marriage in 1900 to Myra Fithian Andrews raised his family's hopes that he would now choose a vocation or a profession, but he preferred to live on income from investments. He belonged to clubs in England, France, New York, California, and Colorado and mingled with the social elite of two continents. He maintained a home in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where for several years he was the major stockholder in a company owning the Trinchera Estate, a 250,000 acre ranch. The company cut timber, raised cattle, mined for gold, and established a game park reserve for the preservation of bison, elk, antelope, and other rare game animals.
Chester Alan Arthur III was more interested in social and political causes than in elegant living. During the 1920s, as his correspondence documents, he joined the Irish Republican Movement. For four years, in Ireland, Paris, and New York, he contributed his services. During the years 1931-1934, under the adopted ancestral name of Gavin Arthur, he organized in the dunes near Pismo Beach, California, a commune devoted to art and literature. He founded a magazine entitled
In 1934, he joined the Utopian Society of America, and for several years thereafter he worked in its behalf. His correspondence for this period includes letters from Upton Sinclair and Herbert Agar. In the late 1930's Arthur became interested in party politics. In 1940, he accepted the post of secretary of the Democratic State Central Committee of California, but in 1941, convinced that the party had betrayed his principles, he resigned.
According to autobiographical manuscripts in the papers, he served in the United States Army and the merchant marine during World War II. After the war, he lived in New York City, where he sold books, tutored, and drew unemployment compensation. In 1949 he went to California and for a time found employment as a teacher-counselor in the state prison at San Quentin. During the 1950s he sustained himself by selling newspapers on the streets of San Francisco. Feeling handicapped by his lack of a formal education, he earned a bachelor's degree at San Francisco State College. Ultimately he became a freelance writer, a professional astrologer, and a student of the occult and of sexology.
Throughout his life, Arthur cultivated a wide variety of people, including political leaders, writers, entertainers, sexologists, and social misfits and outcasts. He was married successively to Charlotte Wilson, a dancer who was also a writer; Esther Murphy Strachey, an expatriate intellectual, the sister of Gerald Murphy, who had formerly been married to John Strachey, a leader of the British Labor Party; and, in his last years, to Ellen Janson, a longtime friend who had helped him launch
This collection is arranged in ten series:
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Arranged chronologically by year.
Arranged by type of material.
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Address books.
Family correspondence.
Arranged chronologically by month.
Arranged chronologically by decade.
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Primarily correspondence.
Arranged chronologically by month.
Correspondence and writings.
Correspondence arranged chronologically by month.
Correspondence and cancelled checks.
Correspondence arranged chronologically by month
Correspondence.
Arranged chronologically by month.
Arranged chronologically with major titles alphabetically at end.
Arranged by type of material.
Diaries.
Arranged chronologically.
Diaries, correspondence, military papers, and miscellany.
Arranged by type of material and chronologically therein.
Correspondence and miscellany, including writings of Loring Andrews.
Correspondence arranged chronologically.
Correspondence.
Arranged chronologically
Printed matter and scrapbooks.
Arranged by type of material.
Account book, guest book, literary notes, scrapbooks, and miscellaneous oversize material relating mainly to Chester Alan Arthur, II.
Arranged by type of material