Richard Brown Baker Family Papers (MSS 1117)

This collection has been organized into 5 series.

Series 1: RBB Diaries

Series 2: RBB Correspondence received

Subseries 1: family

Subseries 2: friends and associates (some of the folders also include letters sent by RBB)

Series 3: RBB Writings

Series 4: RBB Subject Files

Series 5: Family Materials

Subseries 1: Individuals

Subseries 2: Subject files

Series 1: RBB Diaries contains copies of the diaries kept by Richard Brown Baker 1926- 1998. The original diaries were donated to Yale University. The only original diary at the RIHS is the one he kept in 1926. The copies were used to edit the diaries for possible publication. As a result there are frequent editorial corrections and the copies are not a complete set. The folder titled Lorenzo's notes are comments made by one of the people helping Richard edit the diaries and are useful as a quick index to events for the 1960-1971 period.

The diaries are a very insightful record of personal and world events. Richard travels extensively and his descriptions of the sights and sounds of new places are worth the trip. He also comments often on the political situation of the countries he visits. Of note are his comments on the situation in Germany during the summer of 1934 and his opinions on the possibility of war in Spain during the spring of 1936. The diaries also include information about his frequent trips back to Rhode Island to visit his family and also to participate in the local art scene focusing around his work for the Rhode Island School of Design

Series 2: RBB Correspondence received consists of all the letters that Richard received from his family, friends and associates. The folders of correspondence from friends and associates also often includes copies of letters written by RBB in reply. Some of the correspondence is written in languages other than English and that has been noted in parentheses next to the name of the correspondent. Of note is the correspondence from Gerd Sommerhof, a German national who was living in England at the beginning of World War II. He, along with many foreign nationals in England, was rounded up by the British government and sent to Canada where he spent at least two years in an internment camp.

Series 3: RBB Writings has been divided into two sections - one for papers he wrote while a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University and the other section for his other literary works. This series includes clippings of short stories RBB wrote as a child and had published in the Providence Journal. It also contains the writing exercises he created during the spring of 1948 when he had first committed to writing as a profession. Drafts of his two published works are also represented in this series.

Series 4: RBB Subject Files contains materials and some correspondence he collected while studying in Geneva Switzerland in 1932, Yale University, Oxford University and working at the U.S. Embassy in Madrid, Spain. This series also contains information about some of the many trips he took throughout his life.

Series 5: Family Materials focuses on the correspondence and documents which were received and belonged to members of Richard Baker's family. The majority of correspondence in this series was written by RBB to his mother Marion (Brown) Baker. He writes to her frequently and the correspondence complements and fills in gaps left by Richard's diaries.

Of note is an item Richard included in a letter to his mother from Germany in June, 1934. Richard describes the item as a "Postbill attacking the Jews, which, with hundreds like it, appeared in Kothen, Anhalt, at the end of June, 1934, and was posted thickly in the most frequented streets of the town." The postbill reads: "Vorsicht! Trau' keinem Fuchs auf gruner Heid' Trau keinem Jud' bei seinem Eid!" Richard also included a clipping from the newspaper Stadt Kothen regarding the postbills dated June 29, 1934.