Scope and Content Note
The papers of Clara Barrus (1864-1931) and John Burroughs (1837-1921) span the years 1877-1981, with the bulk of the material dating from 1920 to 1958. The collection consists of correspondence, estate papers, printed matter, writings, and miscellany.
The correspondence dates from 1877 to 1976. A letter written by John Burroughs in 1903 describes meeting President Theodore Roosevelt and traveling throughout Washington state. Most of Burroughs’s correspondence consists of incoming letters, chiefly from Ernest Thompson Seton and George Augustus Warburton. Writing between 1912 and 1917, Warburton discusses politics, travels, poetry, and philosophy. Seton wrote between 1914 and 1920 about nature conservation issues. After Burroughs’s death, Warburton continued to correspond with Barrus and her sister, Adeline Barrus Johnson. Clara Barrus’s outgoing correspondence describes her travels, publishing endeavors, and family matters. Letters written to Barrus from Clyde Fisher between 1921 and 1930 pertain primarily to their lectures and the John Burroughs Memorial Association. Between 1921 and 1931 Barrus corresponded frequently with editors at the Houghton Mifflin Company in her capacity as John Burroughs’s literary executor. Other correspondents include Frederick Samuel Dellenbaugh, Clara Bryant Ford (wife of Henry Ford), Hamlin Garland, William Temple Hornaday, Robert Underwood Johnson, William Sloan Kennedy, John Muir, Carl Sandburg, and Ida M. Tarbell. After Barrus’s death in 1931, the correspondence pertains primarily to Adeline Barrus Johnson and relates to estate and family matters.
The estate papers consist of copyright documents, inventories, publication contracts, sale lists, and wills. The inventories, primarily listing the property of Clara Barrus, were created to aid her executors. Sale lists document the sale and distribution of property once belonging to Burroughs and Barrus. Some of the property included letters written by or pertaining to Walt Whitman and other Whitmania.
Miscellany includes astrological data, biographical information, and photographs. Additionally, there are two scrapbooks. One, compiled by Barrus in 1909, commemorates her trip to Hawaii. The other contains letters of condolence received by Adeline Barrus Johnson upon the death of Clara Barrus in 1931.
Printed matter consists of memorial booklets pertaining to Burroughs and Barrus, newspaper clippings, and newsletters and brochures produced by the John Burroughs Memorial Association.
Writings contain articles, essays, books, lectures, poetry, and travel narratives by Clara Barrus, John Burroughs, and other persons.