Scope and Content Note
The collection of Carl Brent Swisher (1897-1968) spans the years 1836-1962 and consists mostly of research material used for the writing of a history of Roger Brooke Taney's period on the Supreme Court of the United States. Included are reproductions of letters, reports, records, and newspapers, 1836-1864, gathered from repositories such as the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, University of Virginia, Chicago Historical Society, Clements Library of the University of Michigan, Maryland Hall of Records, Duke University, Maine Historical Society, and the National Archives and Records Administration.
Correspondence and other papers in the collection relate to Jeremiah S. Black, James Buchanan, Richard Peters, Martin Van Buren, Daniel Webster, and Gideon Welles, as well as to Taney's contemporaries on the court— Justices John Catron, Salmon P. Chase, Nathan Clifford, David Davis, John McLean, and Joseph Story. Subjects include the Bank of the United States, censorship, the Civil War, currency, Indians, international relations, slavery, the slave trade, emancipation, the Supreme Court, and various court cases.
Swisher's correspondence and notes, dated 1958-1962, chiefly contain administrative files pertaining to the Permanent Committee for the Oliver Wendell Holmes Devise and efforts to uncover original source material. Correspondents include editor-in-chief and administrative editors Paul A. Freund, Joseph P. Blickensderfer, and Lloyd Dunlap; representatives of private and public repositories; and individuals with expertise in the Taney period.