Scope and Content Note
The papers of Henry Martyn Robert (1837-1923) span the years 1853-1937, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1880-1923. The collection has been organized into Diaries and Memoranda Books , General Correspondence , Letterbooks , Subject File , and Miscellany .
The Diaries and Memoranda Books include engineering notes on New Bedford, Massachusetts, in the 1860s, the Delaware River in the 1880s, and the Cumberland River in the 1890s. There are also membership rosters of Baptist congregations in Milwaukee and Philadelphia in the 1880s.
Much of the General Correspondence consists of letters about Robert's Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies, commonly referred to as Robert's Rules of Order. There are letters from the publisher, S. C. Griggs & Company, and numerous letters of inquiry about points of order. Officials of many organizations, including women's organizations, wrote to Robert for guidance on parliamentary procedure. For the years that Robert served as engineer commissioner of the District of Columbia, 1890-1891, there are papers relating to the enforcement of laws pertaining to gambling, prostitution, and saloon-keeping. Among the engineering projects represented are the Delaware breakwater, chiefly in the 1880s, the seawall, causeway, and bridge at Galveston, Texas, principally 1906-1910, and the Port of Frontera, Mexico, about 1911-1914. Corps of Engineer officers from whom Robert received letters include William P. Craighill, about 1895-1901 and John M. Wilson, about 1897-1901, both of whom served as chief of engineers. Beginning about 1899 are letters from Robert to his son Henry M. Robert, Jr.
The Letterbooks contain copies of letters sent. Items concerning rivers and harbors in the Corps of Engineers Milwaukee District are in the letterbook for 1875-1876; items revealing efforts to locate a site for a deep-water harbor on the northwest coast of the Gulf of Mexico are in the letterbook for 1889-1901. Transcript letterbooks dating 1885-1889 pertain largely to harbors on the Texas coast. In the letterbook for 1890-1899 are the constitution and bylaws of the Berean Baptist Church, West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Additional material on the Baptist Church, the government of the District of Columbia, and Robert's Rules of Order is in the Subject File . The Miscellany includes reviews of Robert's Rules of Order, clipped from newspapers, as well as biographical information, maps, and photographs.
Correspondents include Newton R. Collamer, Mary Innis Denton, Persifor Frazer, James Allen Hardie, Lewis M. Haupt, A. A. Humphreys, Edward Judson, George H. Mendell, Joseph Thomas Robert, Joseph Gilbert Totten, Edward Thomas Townsend, John M. Wilson, and S.C. Griggs & Co.