Scope and Content Note
The papers of David Chambers Mearns (1899-1981) span the years 1830-1979 with the bulk dated 1940-1967. The collection is arranged in ten series that document Mearns's career as librarian and historian: Biographical and Personal Matter , Correspondence , Correspondence and Memoranda , Subject File , Speeches and Writings , Research File , Editorial File and Advisory Review Material , Miscellany , Addition , and Oversize.
A lifelong Washingtonian, Mearns cherished his relationship to Washington institutions, principally St. Albans School and the Library of Congress. He was employed by the Library before his nineteenth birthday, and he remained in its service for forty-nine years. Upon retirement he was named honorary consultant in the humanities, a position in which his only predecessor had been Robert Frost.
The Mearns Papers document in rich detail Mearns's career in the Library and in the larger world of historical scholarship. His three decades as a reference librarian are best represented in the widely varied Subject File and in the series of Speeches and Writings , many of the latter written in collaboration with Verner W. Clapp, his longtime associate and friend.
Also covered in these series are his work and publications relating to the history of the Library and to Abraham Lincoln. In 1946 Mearns was called upon to summarize the history of the Library, 1800-1946, as a preamble to the Annual Report of the Librarian of Congress. The result was The Story Up to Now (Washington, D.C., 1947). As director of the reference department, Mearns had a central role to play in the opening to the public of the Abraham Lincoln Papers in 1947. That fact, plus his wide knowledge of Lincolniana, led to his editorship of The Lincoln Papers, a two-volume selection (New York, 1948) with an introductory description of the Lincoln Papers. Notes and manuscripts for both publications are included in the Mearns Papers.
In 1949 Mearns was appointed assistant librarian, a change in activity reflected in the papers chiefly in the increasing number of occasional speeches on general Library topics. Two years later he became chief of the Manuscript Division, the position in which he served until his retirement in 1967. The correspondence series in the papers is confined entirely to the period 1949-1967 and reflects Mearns's activities as assistant librarian and as chief of the Manuscript Division. Both incoming letters and drafts or retained copies of outgoing letters are in the papers. Further documentation of these years will be found in the Subject File and in the Speeches and Writings for the period.
Among the prominent correspondents represented by substantial correspondence are David M. Barkley (son of Alben W. Barkley), David Laurence Chambers, Jonathan Daniels, Charles E. Feinberg, Carl Haverlin, Harry Miller Lydenberg, Archibald MacLeish, Earl Schenck Miers, Ralph Geoffrey Newman, Carl Sandburg, Fred Schwengel, Alfred Whital Stern, Walter Trohan, and Justin G. Turner. There is also considerable correspondence with other staff of the Library of Congress.
The Addition features correspondence, photographs, and newspaper clippings documenting Mearns's retirement celebration in 1967 and letters saved by Mearns or received after his retirement.