Scope and Content Note
The papers of Solon Justus Buck (1884-1962) span the years 1778-1962, with the bulk from 1934 to 1957, and consist mainly of correspondence and related matter concerning Buck's career at the National Archives and Library of Congress. While director of Research at the National Archives, 1935-1941, Buck served also as secretary of the National Historical Publication Commission, delegate to the Eighth International Congress of Historical Science, and chairman of the United States delegation to the Fourteenth International Federation for Documentation. As archivist of the United States he served in 1948 as representative of the United States at the International Conference of Expert Archivists. The papers testify to these activities and to his wide associations in the fields of scholarship and public affairs. The collection is organized in four series: Correspondence and Other Papers, Miscellaneous Correspondence, Miscellany, and Addition.
During his tenure at the National Archives, Buck corresponded with President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt as well with President Harry S. Truman. Other correspondents include James Truslow Adams, Charles Austin Beard, Bernard Augustine De Voto, Everett Dimuson, Morris Fishbein, John Donald Hicks, Harold L. Ickes, William L. Langer, Archibald MacLeish (1892-1982), Douglas C. McMurtrie, Arthur M. Schlesinger (1888-1965), and Robert A. Taft. As chief of the Manuscript Division and assistant librarian of the Library of Congress, Buck corresponded with Oscar Handlin, Burl Ives, Herman Kahn (1907-1975), and Samuel Eliot Morison, among others.
The Buck Papers also contain a partial typescript of his unpublished "Bibliography of American Travel and Description, 1750-1830" and correspondence accumulated during its production, miscellaneous professional papers, a volume of letters of appreciation that he received when he retired from the Library of Congress in 1954, and correspondence following his retirement.
The Addition to the collection contains correspondence and related matter, speeches and writings, and miscellaneous material. The transcript of a journal kept by Lucien Cyrus Boynton, 1835-1853, used as a working copy for an article by Buck, provides information about life in New England and Virginia during that period.