Scope and Content Note
The papers of W J McGee (1853-1912) include correspondence, letterbooks, speeches, articles, and lectures, notes, notebooks, scrapbooks, bibliographical notes, and memorabilia spanning the years 1880-1916, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1885-1905. Included are numerous copies of McGee's letters. The focus is on his career as geologist with the United States Geological Survey and ethnologist in charge in the Bureau of American Ethnology. At the geological survey he was given charge of the branch dealing with the geology of the Atlantic Coastal Plain, and during 1883-1894 he conducted important studies in this area. The collection is organized into seven series: General Correspondence , Special Correspondence , Letterbooks , Articles and Notes , Miscellany , Scrapbooks , and Oversize .
The Special Correspondence consists of copies of letters sent when McGee was director of the anthropological and historical exhibit of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in Saint Louis in 1904. Also documented in the collection is his work as director of the Saint Louis Public Museum and his role in 1904 as chairman of the committee of the International Geographical Congress in Washington, D.C.
Principal correspondents are Franz Boas, Richard Ellsworth Call, Frank Moore Colby, Robert Hay, Florence Hayward, Robert Thomas Hill, Jerome F. Johnson, Lawrence C. Johnson, Willard D. Johnson, S. P. Langley, Samuel M. McCowan, F. J. V. Skiff, Frederick Starr, George Huntington Williams, and Henry Shaler Williams.