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Contact information: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.contact
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm92080712
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 Owen Lattimore, Orientalist, author, historian, and educator, were deposited in the Library of Congress by the Lattimore Institute for Mongolian Studies in October 1990. An addition was given by Robert Newman in 1997.
A description of the Lattimore Papers appears in
Items have been transferred from the Manuscript Division to other custodial divisions of the Library. Books and an opera playbill have been transferred to the Asian Division. A map has been transferred to the Geography and Map Division. A motion picture film has been transferred to the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division. Some photographs have been transferred to the Prints and Photographs Division. All transfers are identified in these divisions as part of the Owen Lattimore Papers.
Researchers may wish to consult collections of Lattimore's papers preserved at other depositories, including the archives of Johns Hopkins University, University of Leeds, and Dartmouth College. Records documenting Lattimore's association with the American Institute of Pacific Relations and its journal
The status of copyright in the unpublished writings of Owen Lattimore is governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.).
The papers of Owen Lattimore 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 or reel number, Owen Lattimore Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The papers of Owen Lattimore (1900-1989) span the years 1907-1997, with the bulk of the items concentrated in the period from 1950 to 1989. The collection relates to both private and professional matters and is arranged in seven series, the largest of which--constituting one-third of the collection--is General Correspondence . The Wartime Activities series includes records documenting Lattimore's service as a political advisor to Chiang Kai-shek, director of the Pacific Operations of the United States War Information Office, and a member of the United States Reparations Mission to Japan. Another large series, Senate Hearings , contains correspondence and records documenting Lattimore's defense against Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy's charges that he participated in communist espionage during the 1940s. Also in the collection is a Speeches and Writings series that includes articles, book reviews, and texts of Lattimore's speeches and lectures. Notable in the Miscellany series are Lattimore's handwritten journals on his pioneer trips to the inner-Asian borderlands during the 1920s and 1930s. The remaining series are titled: Subject File , Eleanor Holgate Lattimore File , Addition , and Oversize .
Records in the collection chronicling Lattimore's field research and travels in Peiping (China), Mongolia, and Manchuria during the 1920s and 1930s are particularly comprehensive. In addition to the aforementioned journals, the Subject File contains transcribed notes of Lattimore's ethnographic, historical, and cultural observations made during his travels, including information on the languages and dialects of the region. Lattimore's extensive travels in Asia provided the basis for many of his writings, which together with the related correspondence with publishers, form another strong element of the collection. Among these writings is an unpublished and incomplete autobiographical sketch, "Happiness Is Among Strangers."
Another integral component of the collection is Owen and Eleanor Lattimore's expansive correspondence , both incoming and outgoing, with colleagues, family, and friends. Many Oriental and Asian scholars, publishers, and professional colleagues are represented, including Isabel Casseres, Lauchlin Bernard Currie, Diluv Khutagt, Ildikó Ecsedy, Else Glahn, Elvebeuck Grebenik, Walther Heissig, Caroline Humphrey, Fujiko Isono, John Ulric Nef, Robert P. Newman, Urgunge Onon, Edgar B. Snow, Vilhjalmur Stefansson, and Arnold Joseph Toynbee. There is also considerable correspondence of many of Lattimore's personal friends and advisors, including Joseph Barnes, Robert LeMoyne Barrett, Arnold Bernhard, Stanley H. Burton, Rosemary Carruthers, G. Herbert Childs, John King Fairbank, Joseph Needham, Gerard Piel, and Margaret L. Richards. There is lengthy correspondence with his son David and his brother Richmond, as well as letters of his lawyers and accountants, especially William Dill Rogers and Nancy K. Mintz, which document his investments, estate settlements, establishment of the Lattimore Institute for Mongolian Studies, and litigious fallout from his Senate investigations.
Material documenting Lattimore's appointment by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as an advisor to the Chinese Nationalist government in Chungking during World War II is scant. Although there are summaries of conversations, biographical assessments, and advisory reports prepared for Chiang Kai-shek, these files are incomplete. Of particular importance, however, is the considerable correspondence between Lattimore and Lauchlin Bernard Currie of the State Department concerning the war against Japan and the problems of American assistance to the Chinese war effort. There is evidence that late in his life Lattimore, with the assistance of his lawyers and Robert P. Newman, sought to obtain through the Freedom of Information Act copies of government records documenting his tenure in Chungking, to supplement and complete his personal papers.
Files documenting the Senate's investigation of espionage and conspiracy charges against Lattimore are extensive. In 1950 Joseph R. McCarthy described Lattimore as the "chief architect" of a United States foreign policy that resulted in the Communist party's conquest of mainland China. McCarthy accused Lattimore of being the "top Soviet agent in the United States." Lattimore denied the charges, and a Senate committee initially vindicated him. Additional accusations were made a year later, however, and the Justice Department twice brought indictments against Lattimore on perjury charges stemming from his earlier testimony. The indictments were later dismissed in federal court. Preserved in the Senate Hearings series is correspondence with Lattimore's legal advisors, academic colleagues, and the public concerning the testimony. Also available are an extensive file of newspaper clippings and magazine articles, reports, hearing transcripts, motions, memoranda, opinions, and other documents relating to the perjury charges and Congressional investigation.
The collection is arranged in nine series:
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm92080712
Professional and personal correspondence, both incoming and outgoing.
Arranged alphabetically by name of individual or corporate entity, and thereunder by date in reverse chronological order. Note that correspondence of an individual may be found either under the person's name or under the names of organizations which the person represented. An alphabetical listing of all correspondents is filed at the beginning of this series.
Primarily research notes on Chinese and Mongolian history and linguistic studies and vocabularies of Mongol dialects. Additional material on the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Movement, World Youth Festival, and Joint Gobi Expedition. Of particular interest is a copy of Douglas Carruthers's journals, 1907-1911.
Arranged alphabetically by topic.
Correspondence, reports, summaries of conversations, biographical assessments, copies of diary pages, speeches, American and Chinese newspaper clippings, personnel records, and printed materials concerning Chiang Kai-shek, United States Office of War Information, and United States reparations mission to Japan, principally during and after World War II.
Arranged alphabetically by name of person, topic, or type of material.
Correspondence with Lattimore's legal advisors, academic colleagues, and the public; published transcripts of hearings, Federal Bureau of Investigation reports, press releases, public statements, speeches, interviews, background files, newspaper clippings, brochures, and published articles, all pertaining to hearings held by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the Internal Security Subcommittee, and the Subcommittee Investigating the Institute of Pacific Relations; and briefs, summaries, motions, decisions, and other legal records relating to
Correspondence arranged alphabetically by name of correspondent, and thereunder by date in reverse chronological order; transcripts arranged alphabetically by name of person or organization, topic, or type of material; and briefs and legal records arranged chronologically by month and year and alphabetically by type of material therein.
Drafts or prints of journal, magazine, and newspaper articles authored by Lattimore, reviews of his writings, and some correspondence with publishers; transcriptions, notes, related correspondence, newspaper clippings, and published critiques on speeches, lectures, and films made by Lattimore; and drafts or prints of book reviews written by Lattimore for journals, magazines, and newspapers.
Publications arranged alphabetically by title of article; speeches, lectures and films arranged chronologically; book reviews arranged alphabetically by name of author reviewed, or first author listed in case of works having joint and multiple authors
Appointment books, biographical sketches, holograph journals with transcriptions, bibliographies, resumes, collection registers, newspaper clippings, passports, awards, degrees, printed matter, photographs, marriage certificate, wills and codicils, address books, and exhibit labels.
Arranged alphabetically by topic or type of material.
Papers of Owen Lattimore's wife. Correspondence, book reviews, booklets, journal and magazine articles, newspaper clippings, employment records, obituaries, death certificate, and photographs.
Arranged alphabetically by type of material.
A photocopy with ribbon and carbon ribbon pages of "Happiness Is Among Strangers." Although incomplete, this is a fuller version of Lattimore's autobiographical sketch than the original in Speeches and Writings.
Scrapbook of war reparations mission to Japan, magazine article on Chiang Kai-shek, posters, an award, honorary degree, two magazine articles authored by Eleanor Holgate Lattimore, and a list of contributors to the Owen Lattimore Defense Fund, on 3x5 cards.
Arranged and described according to the series, boxes, and folders from which the items were removed.