Don Edward Fehrenbacher papers, 1928-1997

Collection context

Summary

Creators:
Fehrenbacher, Don Edward, 1920-1997.
Extent:
11.5 Linear feet (25 boxes)
Language:
The materials are in English .

Background

Scope and content:

These papers document Fehrenbacher's career as historian, writer, and professor at Stanford University. Included are his incoming and outgoing correspondence, 1945-1997; syllabi, lectures, and examinations from his classes; manuscripts, drafts, and some research files from his books The Dred Scott Caseand The Minor Affair;reference files, notes, lectures, and published articles (largely from his research on Abraham Lincoln), ca. 1948-1988; and reviews of his published works.

The correspondence, arranged chronologically, is with other historians, publishers, professional associations, Stanford colleagues, and his students, with some family letters included. Correspondents include McDonald Forrest, Bernard Weisberger, William T. Hutchinson, Lionel E. Fredman, Norman Graebner, Michael Burlingame, Carl N. Degler, David M. Potter, George H. Knoles, Richard W. Lyman, and Earl Pomeroy.

Biographical / historical:

Don Edward Fehrenbacher, noted Lincoln scholar and winner of the Nobel Prize in history in 1979 for his book The Dred Scott Case,was the William Robertson Coe Professor of History and American Studies at Stanford University. He earned his B.A. at Cornell University in 1946 and his graduate degrees at the University of Chicago (M.A. 1948 and Ph.D. 1951). He taught at Coe College in Iowa, 1949 to 1953, before coming to Stanford in 1953.

His awards included a Guggenheim fellowship in 1959-60, a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship, 1975-76, and the Lincoln Prize for Civil War studies in 1997. He was the Harmsworth Professor of American History at Oxford University, 1967-68, and the Harrison Professor of History at the College of William and Mary, 1973-74.

His other books included Prelude to Greatness: Lincoln in the 1850s,A Basic History of California,and The Era of Expansion 1800-1848.With his Stanford colleague David Potter, he coedited The South and the Concurrent Majority.

Fehrenbacher was appointed Professor Emeritus in 1984; he continued to lecture and publish during his retirement and was a consultant on Ken Burns' epic film The Civil War,which aired in 1990. He died in December 1997.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Indexed terms

Subjects:
Slavery--Law and legislation--United States.
Manuscripts (for publication).
Names:
Stanford University. Department of History. -- General subdivision--Faculty.;
Burlingame, Michael,, 1941-
Degler, Carl N.
Fredman, Lionel E.
Graebner, Norman A.
Hutchinson, William T., (William Thomas), 1895-1976.
Knoles, George Harmon.
Lyman, Richard W., 1923-2012.
McDonald, Forrest.
Pomeroy, Earl S., (Earl Spencer), 1915-2005.
Potter, David Morris
Weisberger, Bernard A.,, 1922-
Places:
United States--History--Study and teaching.
Indexes:

PARTIAL INDEX TO CORRESPONDENTS

The following is a partial listing of correspondents in Series 1 and the year(s) where their letters may be found.

Craven, Avery 1962, 1963, 1965
Degler, Carl N. 1963
Fleming, Donald 1966
Frankenstein, Alfred 1957
Fredman, Lionel E. 1958
Graebner, Norman 1959, 1960, 1961, 1963, 1966
Hutchinson, William T. 1957, 1958, 1961, 1962, 1969, 1970
Knoles, George H. 1968, 1972
Littell, C. F. (Judge) 1958, 1961, 1962, 1965
Lyman, Richard 1968
McDonald, Forrest 1957, 1958
Pomeroy, Earl 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972
Potter, David 1962, 1963, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1970
Sharp, William F. 1965
Weisberger, Bernard 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1962, 1965, 1968, 1970

Access and use

Location of this collection:
Stanford University Archives, Green Library
557 Escondido Mall
Stanford, CA 94305-6064, US
Contact:
(650) 725-1022