Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Willson, Lawrence
- Abstract:
- The collection contains research files relating to Lawrence Willson's scholarly interests, including Henry D. Thoreau and American literature, as well as copies of his articles and reviews, correspondence, photographs, and files relating to the Thoreau Society, Phi Beta Kappa, early teaching assignments, and the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he taught in the English Department for many years.
- Extent:
- 10 linear feet (9 records cartons, 1 document boxes, 2 map cabinet folders, 1 VHS videocassette, and 1 audiocassette).
- Language:
- English
- Preferred citation:
-
Lawrence Willson Papers. UArch FacP 21. Department of Special Collections, Davidson Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The collection contains research files relating to Lawrence Willson's scholarly interests, including Henry D. Thoreau and American literature, as well as copies of his articles and reviews, correspondence, photographs, and files relating to the Thoreau Society, Phi Beta Kappa, early teaching assignments, and the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he taught in the English Department for many years.
The collection is only partially processed, with descriptions at the series and box level. Arrangement of contents is largely as found.
This collection contains the following series:
- Series I: General – incl. Bio/Personal. Autobiographical and bibliographical materials. Undergraduate and graduate papers, notes from student days at Yale.
- Series II: Academic Files. Files from before and during working at UCSB. Files from UCSB include English Department files, including Shakespeare and Animals in Art courses.
- Series III: Professional Organizations. Including extensive Phi Beta Kappa files (undergraduate honors society), Thoreau Society, and UCSB Friends of the Library.
- Series IV: Research. Files from other American writers including Faulkner and Hawthorne.
- Series V: Thoreau Files. General files, including correspondence, lectures, writings about Thoreau.
- Series VI: Writings. Copies of articles by Willson, as well as his dissertation, unpublished novel, and reviews of works by others. Boxes 9-10.
- Series VII: Oversize. Birthday Posters. Map Folders 19/11.
- Series VIII: A/V. Audiocassette and VHS videotape: "Lawrence Willson: Self Reliance" bicentennial lecture.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Lawrence Willson was born in Lancaster, New Hampshire, on May 6, 1911. He received a bachelor's degree in English from Wesleyan University in Connecticut in 1934 and earned a doctorate in English from Yale University in 1944. He taught at Delaware, Tennessee, Wesleyan, and Berkeley before coming to UCSB in 1947, where he was a professor of English, a Henry D. Thoreau scholar, and a longtime active member in the UCSB Phi Beta Kappa chapter. He retired in 1978 and died in Santa Barbara on January 28, 1996. A Lawrence Willson Memorial Lectureship was established later in 1996 and has been awarded to some of the most distinguished faculty at UCSB.
More information about Lawrence Willson's life is available in the UCSB Public Information Office Biographic Files and the Lawrence Willson oral history Down Country (OH 1), produced by David Russell for the UCSB Oral History Program.
- Acquisition information:
- Multiple donations from Lawrence Willson and family, ca. 1990-1996.
- Physical location:
- Boxes 1-10 (SRLF); Map folder (Map Cabinet 19/11); Audiovisual (Annex 2).
- Rules or conventions:
- Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: a Content Standard
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
The majority of this collection is stored offsite. Advance notice is required for retrieval.
- Terms of access:
-
Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Department of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.
- Preferred citation:
-
Lawrence Willson Papers. UArch FacP 21. Department of Special Collections, Davidson Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.
- Location of this collection:
-
UC Santa Barbara LibrarySanta Barbara, CA 93106-9010, US
- Contact:
- (805) 893-3062