Scope and Content Note
The papers of David Beers Quinn (1909-2002) span the years 1109-1994, with the bulk of the material dating from 1935 to 1987. The major portion of the collection consists of Quinn's research and writings on sixteenth-century Ireland and on British exploration and settlement of North America from the late fifteenth century to the early seventeenth century. The earliest material consists of photoreproductions and transcriptions of manuscripts, drawings, maps, and printed material, the originals of which date from the twelfth to the nineteenth century. The papers also document Quinn's teaching career and membership on historical and editorial committees. The collection is arranged in seven series: General Correspondence, Subject File, Research Files, Lectures and Papers, Writings, Microfilm, and Oversize.
The General Correspondence series, 1923-1994, documents virtually every aspect of Quinn's career as an historian, including his teaching, research and writing, and membership in historical societies and on committees. A significant portion of Quinn's correspondence from 1939 to 1944 deals with his efforts to promote research and publications in Irish history. A large percentage of his correspondence after 1940 consists of transatlantic exchanges with historians investigating early modern exploration and colonization. The series contains correspondence from prominent British, Irish, and American historians including Kenneth R. Andrews, J. C. Beckett, Nicholas P. Canny, R. Dudley Edwards, Steven G. Ellis, Christopher Hill, T. W. Moody, Samuel Eliot Morison, and J. E. Todd. Correspondence with these and other historians can also be found in the Subject File, Research Files, and Writings series.
The Subject File, 1925-1994, largely concerns Quinn's professional and political activities. The series includes correspondence and minutes chronicling the activities of the Hakluyt Society from 1959 to 1987 when Quinn served as vice president and then president. The series also contains material from Quinn's membership on the Thomas Harriot and the New History of Ireland editorial committees. Quinn's long association with the United States is well represented and includes material from his expedition to the Outer Banks of North Carolina in 1948, his Fulbright lecture tour in 1986 and 1987, his consultation on the “Histoire Naturelle des Indes” manuscript for the Pierpont Morgan Library, and his participation in events commemorating the founding of European colonies at Roanoke Island, North Carolina, and St. Mary's City, Maryland.
Material relating to Quinn's other activities is also contained in the Subject File series. His political interests are reflected in Labour and Communist party ephemera and membership cards, largely from the 1940s. Files from Quinn's work for the Czechoslovakian Section of the British Broadcasting Corporation in 1943 include transcripts of broadcasts edited by him. Biographical information is available through autobiographical sketches and appointment calendars, although these diaries are at times sparsely entered. Other autobiographical accounts can be found in the Lectures and Papers series and in the Writings.
The Lectures and Papers series, circa 1565-1994, includes drafts of lectures, speeches, and papers delivered at conferences, universities, exhibitions, historical societies, and civic meetings and on radio programs. Information identifying the dates and places where Quinn lectured has been supplied where possible, often by relying on Quinn's brief notes. Some lectures, however, remain unidentified. Many of Quinn's lectures and papers were later published as articles and pamphlets and can be found in the Writings series.
The Writings series, circa 1351-1994, covers the breadth of Quinn's prolific publishing career. Quinn published in many forms, including articles, books, pamphlets, and reviews and in encyclopedias and atlases. The series also contains a large group of unpublished and unidentified manuscripts. Drafts of Quinn's poetry, written largely in the 1930s, are included among his writings.
The collection contains extensive research files. The bulk of the research material has been kept with the lectures or published works they support and can be found in the Lectures and Papers series and the Writings series. Quinn maintained other research files separate from his writings which have been organized into a Research File series. Research files in all three series include photoreproductions of original manuscript material and early printed works from European and American repositories and libraries. The files also include typed and handwritten transcriptions as well as extensive notes. Microfilm from various archives and libraries has been organized into a separate series.
Files related to Quinn's research on Ireland focus particularly on English colonization efforts and consist of diverse materials collected from many repositories, most particularly from the British Library, Public Record Office, Bodleian Library, and the National Library of Ireland and Trinity College Library in Dublin. In his research on early British exploration, Quinn mined original archival records and printed matter in British, Spanish, and American repositories. While the breadth of this research is extensive, his files include especially significant amounts of material on the activities of Thomas Cavendish, Sir Francis Drake, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, Richard Hakluyt, Thomas Hariot, Stephanus Parmenius, Sir Walter Raleigh, and John White.