Andrew Dickson White papers

Collection — Multiple Containers

Identifier: 1-2-2

COLLECTION DESCRIPTION

Collection consists of incoming correspondence, manuscripts of lectures, speeches and articles; manuscripts of presidential reports; manuscripts of books; copies of publications; financial records; clippings; photographs, engravings, diplomas and memorabilia; family documents and diaries. Also, some of White's outgoing correspondence including his letters to Charles Kendall Adams, Cornell University's second president, and William Channing Russel, Andrew D. White's vice president; correspondence and dispatches from White during his service as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Germany, and later as Ambassador to Russia; diplomatic instructions from the U.S. Department of State; correspondence from George Frederick William Holls on various topics of state, national and international politics, and correspondence pertaining to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Also, correspondence relating to family affairs and finances, White's college days at Hobart College and Yale University, his professorship at the University of Michigan, his service in the New York State legislature, the founding and administration of Cornell University, educational ideas, civil service reform, the policies and activities of the Republican Party, the proposed annexation of Santo Domingo, and the study and writing of history and the study of art and architecture.

Personal correspondence includes letters from or about many family members, including Andrew White Newberry, Arthur Cleveland Newberry, Clara White Newberry, Spencer B. Newberry, Emily Outwater, Lucia Phillips Outwater, Andrew Danforth White, Andrew Dickson White II, Andrew Strong White, Ann Bruce White (Mrs. Frederick Davies), Frederick Davies White, Hamilton Salisbury White, Helen Magill White, Hilda White, Horace Keep White II and Horace Keep White III, Karin Andreevna White, and Mary Outwater White. Also, drafts of White's will drawn by Mynderse Van Cleef. Other correspondents include people involved with Cornell University such as Liberty Hyde Bailey, George Lincoln Burr, Ezra Cornell, Hiram Corson, Daniel Willard Fiske, Francis Miles Finch, Hiram Sibley, Henry W. Sage, Goldwin Smith, Robert H. Thurston, Moses Coit Tyler and other members of the Board of Trustees and faculty; historical and literary figures such as Lord Acton, Herbert Baxter Adams, Lord Bryce, Andrew Carnegie, Theodore Dreiser, Charles William Eliot, Ulysses S. Grant, Justin Smith Morrill, Theodore Roosevelt, Leo Tolstoy, Hendrik Willem van Loon, Queen Victoria, Booker T. Washington and Woodrow Wilson.

Letter from White to the Cornell University Board of Trustees about the placement of the White Library, 1887.

Also, miscellaneous notes and lists on the French Revolution and Napoleon Collection; list of contemporary imprints; index to autographs; and various prose miscellany. Includes a White family genealogy. Also, a letter from Andrew Dickson White to Rabbi Joseph Krauskopf, March 27, 1911.

Dates

1832-1919.

Creator

White, Andrew Dickson, 1832-1918. (Person)

Language of Materials

Collection material in English

Access Restrictions:

Access to MU-1985 by permission of the University Archivist.

Restrictions on Use:

Boxes 247-252 (MU-1935-1984) require staff member to be present.

Biographical / Historical

Educator, diplomat, president of Cornell University. Andrew D. White was born in 1832 in Homer, New York. He attended Geneva College (now Hobart College), Geneva, New York, and Yale University, graduating in Yales class of 1853. After teaching history and English literature at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, he was elected to the New York State Senate, and served as senator for the Syracuse area from 1864 to 1867. There he met Ezra Cornell, and as chairman of the Senate Education Committee, he became involved in efforts to charter Cornell University as the states land grant college. The bill chartering Cornell University was passed in April 1865; White became the Universitys first president in 1866. White was instrumental in developing the history and political science departments at Cornell, and took special interest in the library and the architecture of the new university. His 20-year tenure as University president was interrupted by a visit to Santo Domingo with a Presidential commission in 1871, by a European tour from 1876 to 1878, and by a term as United States Minister to Berlin from 1879 to 1881. White resigned the University presidency in 1885, and traveled extensively in Europe. After the death of his first wife, Mary Amanda Outwater, he gave a lecture tour in the United States, returned to Europe, and finally joined Willard Fiske for a journey to Egypt, Greece and Turkey.

Biographical / Historical

In September 1890, White married Helen Magill, the daughter of Swarthmore College President Edward Hicks Magill, and the first woman to receive the Ph.D. in the United States. White served in many diplomatic roles, as Minister to Russia from 1893 to 1894 and Ambassador to Germany from 1897 to 1902. In 1896, he served on the Venezuela Boundary Commission. He was president of the American delegation to the Peace Conference at The Hague in 1899. White returned to Ithaca in 1904, where he remained until his death in 1918. He authored many books, including A HISTORY OF THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE WITH THEOLOGY IN CHRISTENDOM, and other articles and essays.

Extent

105.2 cubic feet. (105.2 cubic feet.)

149 microfilm reels. (149 microfilm reels.)

Additional Description

Abstract

Collection consists of papers relating to White's activities as educator, politician, and diplomat.

SERIES LIST

Series I. Correspondence

Series II. Manuscripts, Documents, and Items

Series III. Diplomatic Documents

Series IV. Diplomas, Degrees, and Certificates

Series V. Photographs

Series VI. Engravings and Lithographs

Series VII. Printed Pamphlets and Articles by A.D. White

Series VIII. Pamphlets and Booklets

Published in the United States

European and South American publishers

Rare Books and Antiquities Catalogues

Series IX. Objects and Memorabilia

RELATED MATERIALS

Includes collection 1-2-531, Albert Hazen Wright's research material on White.

Related Materials

A large portion of White's correspondence was microfilmed and the reels subsquently digitized. A guide to the microfilm and the digitized content is availailbe online here: https://ecommons.cornell.edu/handle/1813/43964.

SEPARATED MATERIAL

Books - cataloged individually in the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections

A. D. White, The Warfare of Science, 1876. Gifted to W.C. Gannett, with letter from White to Gannett
Henry C. Lea, Superstition and Force, 1866. With notes by White in front and back.
A.D. White, The First Hague Conference, reprinted from White's autobiography, 1912.
The Book of Common Prayer, given to Helen Magill from her mother, 1878.
John Lord, A Modern History, 1849. Used by White as a student at the University of Michigan and later as a professor.
The New Testament, 1881. Signed by White.
Nuovo Testamento, 1875. Signed by White, 1877.
S.C. Hall, ed. The Book of British Ballads, 1847. Presented to White by President Woolsey of Yale College, for winning a competition in composition. Inscription by White on inside cover.
Les Caractere de Theophraste, 1860. Charred book found among the ruins of St. Pierre, Martinique, after the eruption of Mt. Pelee in 1902. Given to the library by White in 1907.
James O. Carr, Esq, The Dickson Letters, 1901.

SEPARATED MATERIAL

The Cornell Fashion and Textile Collections, https://fashioncollection.cornell.edu, house some items owned by White including a mortar board and fur overoat.

Physical Description

Correspondence, lectures, speeches, articles, manuscripts, financial records, clippings, photographs, engravings, diplomas, memorabilia, family documents, diaries, and other papers.