Scope and Content Note
The papers of Harry Augustus Garfield (1863-1942) extend from 1855 to 1961, with bulk of the material from 1888 to 1934. The collection focuses on his career as a lawyer, professor, and university administrator, his interest in politics and international affairs, and his associations as the son of President James A. Garfield. The papers contain fourteen series: Diaries ; Letterbooks ; Family Papers ; General Correspondence ; Special Correspondence ; Legal File ; Subject File ; Speech, Book, and Article File ; Financial Records ; Biographical File ; Scrapbooks ; Printed Matter and Newspaper Clippings ; Photographs ; and Oversize .
Garfield's career as an educator began in 1885 after his graduation from Williams College when he taught for a year at St. Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire, and continued in Cleveland, Ohio, where he taught at Western Reserve University while practicing law. In 1903, at the request of Woodrow Wilson, he left private law practice to become professor of politics at Princeton University. Most of the record of this part of his life, 1903-1908, is in the correspondence, few lecture notes having been preserved. Garfield continued to teach after becoming president of Williams College in 1908. His support of curriculum reform, increases in professors' salaries, the classics, the de-emphasis of athletics, and his role in the establishment of the first Institute of Politics held at Williams College in 1921 are documented in the collection, particularly in the various correspondence series and in speech and subject files.
Garfield's work as a member of the law firm of Garfield and Garfield, established in Cleveland in 1888 with his brother, James Rudolph Garfield, is evident from material preserved in the collection. While living in Cleveland, Harry Garfield became involved in the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, the Cleveland Municipal Association (he was its first president), municipal reform in general, and in a number of other civic, religious, and charitable organizations. It was during this period that he became intensely interested in consular reform.
Prominent throughout the collection are files relating to the Institute of Politics, which he established and directed at Williams College, and his interest in international cooperation and world peace. The manuscript of Lost Visions, published posthumously by his widow, numerous speeches in the Speech, Book, and Article File series, and intermittent "daily notes" on his reading reflect an especially strong concentration on international affairs and the prevention of war after 1919.
From 1917 to 1919, Garfield served as the United States fuel administrator, attempting to make the best use of the available fuel in this country during World War I. Much of his correspondence with Woodrow Wilson, in the Special Correspondence series, is concerned with his own work and with other problems of the war. Other correspondence series and the subject and speech files contain pertinent material on the United States Fuel Administration.
Of particular importance to biographers is the family correspondence, especially the letters exchanged with his mother, Lucretia Rudolph Garfield. In her letters are reflected mutual interests in politics and intellectual pursuits as well as personal and family relationships and activities. The Biographical File series includes autobiographical notes of Lucretia Garfield addressed to Harry Garfield as the eldest son of the president, correspondence and printed matter about President Garfield, and correspondence about his papers. Scrapbooks and printed matter contain other information about the president and his oldest son. Material relating to the biography of Harry Garfield by his daughter, Lucretia Garfield Comer, is also included.
Correspondents include Newton Diehl Baker, William Jennings Bryan, Calvin Coolidge, John Hay, Herbert Hoover, Charles Evans Hughes, William McKinley, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, William H. Taft, and Woodrow Wilson.