Scope and Content Note
The papers of Kenyon Leech Butterfield (1868-1935) span the years 1889-1970. The collection consists mainly of correspondence, diaries, memoranda, studies and surveys, speeches and articles, manuscripts of books, and printed matter relating to Butterfield's work with the American Country Life Association, U.S. Country Life Commission, foreign Christian missions, and agricultural colleges. The papers are organized into nine series: Diaries; Family Correspondence; Special Correspondence; General Correspondence; Subject File; Speech, Article, and Book File; Miscellany; Addition I; and Addition II.
The Diaries contain brief and scattered entries for the years 1918-1934. In the Family Correspondence are letters exchanged with his wife, his father, one of his sons, Victor L. Butterfield, and his daughter-in-law. A relatively small group of Special Correspondence contains numerous letters of Ray Stannard Baker, Charles W. Garfield, and Henry Cantwell Wallace. Other correspondents include Calvin Coolidge, H. Paul Douglass, William Ernest Hocking, Cyrus Hall McCormick, Walter Hines Page, Franklin D. Roosevelt, William H. Taft, and Henry A. Wallace.
The Subject File comprises the bulk of the papers and treats Butterfield's career in detail. Included is correspondence, memoranda, research studies, articles, and printed matter. Prominent topics concern Butterfield's work with the American Country Life Association and the U.S. Country Life Commission, his activities in the field of Christian missionary work abroad, and the innovations that he brought to the curricula, services, and administration of agricultural colleges. Notable individuals referenced throughout the series include Ray Stannard Baker, Ernest De Witt Burton, Frank Charles Laubach, Frank O. Lowden, Albert Mann, John R. Mott, Theodore Roosevelt, and Henry A. Wallace.
Addition I and Addition II complement previous series with correspondence, subject file material, writings, printed matter, clippings, an account book, and photographs.