Converted to EAD3 : Encoded Archival Description (EAD), Version 3 : Release: 1.1.1 : Release Date: 2019-12-16. Validating against latest version of schema.
Contact information: https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.contact
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm78037226
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 J. G. Randall, author, historian, and educator, and Ruth Painter Randall, biographer, were given to the Library of Congress by Ruth Painter Randall in 1953, 1955 and 1965. Additional material was received from Ruth Painter Randall's estate via David H. Donald in 1971, and from James G. Randall, also via David H. Donald, in 1981.
The papers of J. G. Randall and Ruth Painter Randall were processed in 1967 by Lloyd A. Dunlap. Additions and revisions were made in 1979 by Len Hawley and Paul Colton, by William Parham in 1982, by David Mathisen in 1988, and by John Monagle in 1994. The finding aid was revised in 2010. The finding aid was updated in 2023 by Maria Farmer as part of a division-wide remediation project by the Inclusive Description Working Group.
Copyright in the unpublished writings of J. G. Randall and Ruth Painter Randall in these papers and in other collections of papers in the custody of the Library of Congress has been dedicated to the public.
The papers of J. G. Randall and Ruth Painter Randall 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, J. G. Randall and Ruth Painter Randall Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The papers of James Garfield Randall (1881-1953) and Ruth Painter Randall (1892-1971) span the years 1779-1970, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1916-1970. Included in the collection are photocopies and transcripts of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century documents dating between 1779 and 1865.
The papers consist of correspondence, diaries, notes, memoranda, drafts, proofs, outlines, printed matter, and photocopies. They relate primarily to J. G. Randall's exhaustive study of the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln, but they also include the private diary of Ruth Painter Randall and correspondence relating to the Randall's courtship and marriage. Another focus is on J. G. Randall's long tenure as professor of history at the University of Illinois, Urbana, and there is considerable material pertaining to Ruth Painter Randall's extensive research and writing on Mary Lincoln, especially her book
The correspondence includes letters to and from the Randall's professional contemporaries. Among them are Paul M. Angle, William E. Baringer, Roy P. Basler, Howard K. Beale, Henry Steele Commager, Avery Craven, Bernard Augustine De Voto, David Herbert Donald, Frank Burt Freidel, William Best Hesseltine, Reinhard H. Luthin, David C. Mearns, George Fort Milton, Jay Monaghan, Jeannette Paddock Nichols and Roy F. Nichols, Theodore Calvin Pease, David Morris Potter, Henry E. Pratt, Milo Milton Quaife, Carl Sandburg, Wendell Holmes Stephenson, Bell Irvin Wiley, and T. Harry Williams.
The collection is arranged in seven series:
Letters sent and received, printed matter, drafts, memoranda, and lists.
Arranged alphabetically by name of person or subject.
Photocopies, correspondence, printed matter, and notes relating to persons or events involving J. G. Randall's research on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War.
Arranged alphabetically by name of person, topic, or type of material.
Letters sent and received.
Arranged alphabetically by name of person.
Proofs, typescripts, outlines, memoranda, drafts, correspondence, and printed matter relating to writings by the Randalls.
Arranged by title of writing.
Printed matter, clippings, awards, and diplomas.
Arranged by type of material.
General, family and personal, and business correspondence; financial records; drafts and galleys; card file; and awards, souvenirs, and diplomas.
Arranged by type of material.
Correspondence, research material, drafts and manuscripts, clippings, miscellany, and printed matter.
Arranged by type of material.
Diaries kept by Ruth Painter Randall and a log of a trip kept by a nephew, Ralph. Also diaries of J. G. Randall.
Arranged by name of author and chronologically therein.
Letters between family members.
Arranged chronologically.
Mainly letters between J. G. Randall and Ruth Painter Randall before their marriage.
Arranged chronologically.
Certificates, biographical items, printed matter, and a photocopy of a dispatch from Abraham Lincoln to Ulysses S. Grant, Apr. 7, 1865, with notation and signature by Grant.