Guide to the Lester Frank Ward papers, 1860-1913

John Hay Library, University Archives and Manuscripts
Box A
Brown University
Providence, RI 02912
Telephone: Manuscripts: 401-863-3723; University Archives: 401-863-2148
Email: Manuscripts: hay@brown.edu; University Archives: archives@brown.edu

Published in 2017

Collection Overview

Title:	Lester Frank Ward papers
Date range:	1860-1913
Creator:	Ward, Lester Frank, 1841-1913
Extent:	11 Linear Feet
Abstract:	The Lester Frank Ward papers in the John Hay Library consists of the correspondence, manuscripts, published writings, and personal library of a noted nineteenth-century American geologist, paleontologist, and sociologist. These materials reflect virtually all aspects of Ward's professional life, including his years of service as a member of the U. S. Geological Survey staff, his activities as a professor at both Columbian College (now George Washington University) and Brown University, and his long career as a writer of scholarly monographs and articles on many subjects. The papers also contain some information concerning his personal life.
Language of materials:	English
Repository:	John Hay Library, University Archives and Manuscripts
Collection number:	Ms.90.23

Scope & content

According to the Brown University Librarian's report dated October 1915, processing of the Lester Frank Ward papers began in August of that year. Since then several attempts were made to arrange and describe the collection, which at the present is organized into twelve series. In preparation for the microfilming of selected portions of the collection, the existing arrangement has been preserved, despite several anomalies.

Series 1 contains Ward's correspondence, ca. 1863-1913. Most of the letters were written to Ward and concern professional matters; some are personal letters and some are drafts or retained copies of letters written by Ward himself. Included in this series, also, is Ward's own hand written card index to scrapbooks containing much of his correspondence and published writings.

Series 2, containing Ward's published and unpublished writings composed between 1860 and 1913, includes various notebooks, a diary, a manuscript autobiography, a bibliography, proofs, manuscript and typescript articles and book reviews, and published editions of his own works.

Series 3 comprises the scrapbooks, now disbound, into which Ward pasted reviews and press notices referring to his writings. The clippings in these volumes date from 1833 to 1911.

Series 4 and Series 5 are made up of various indexes and lists of authors, book titles, names, and subjects compiled by Ward during his lifetime primarily as personal reference tools. While these seldom contain more than a citation to a source or a few words of identification, they do reveal something of the nature of his readings and principal research interests.

Series 6 through Series 9 include a rather miscellaneous group of items collected, received, or used by Ward: Newspaper and magazine clippings (Series 6); invitations, announcements, and calling cards (Series 7 and Series 8), and, in Series 9, a box of Ward's bank books, cancelled checks, and check stubs.

Series 10 consists of a small group of slides, prints, and photographs.

Series 11 contains a metal box of objects designated "Memorabilia".

See also Ward's personal library of about seven hundred books and an equivalent number of pamphlets. Ward appears to have relied heavily on the contents of his own library for research material. Consequently the contents of his library, as well as the marginal notes and annotations that he added to many volumes, are of use for the study of his intellectual development and interests.

Access Points

Subject Names

• Durkheim, Émile, 1858-1917
• Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, 1860-1935
• Gray, Asa, 1810-1888
• Powell, John Wesley, 1834-1902
• Simmel, Georg, 1858-1918
• Spencer, Herbert, 1820-1903
• Veblen, Thorstein, 1857-1929
• Ward, Lester Frank, 1841-1913

Subject Organizations

• Geological Survey (U.S.).
• United States. Dept. of the Treasury.

Subject Topics

• Evolution
• Geology--United States
• Paleobotany--United States
• Paleontology--United States
• Sociology

Document Types

• Letters (Correspondence)

Document Types

• Diaries
• Scrapbooks

Subject Topics

• Add RIAMCO Browsing Term HERE

Arrangement

The collection consists of 11 series.

• Series 1. Correspondence, ca. 1863-1913
• Series 2. Writings, ca. 1860-1913
• Series 3. Reviews, press notices, ca. 1883-1911
• Series 4. Indexes, ca. 1869-1913
• Series 5. Lists, ca. 1865-1913
• Series 6. Clippings, ca. 1898-1913
• Series 7. Invitations, announcements, ca. 1904-1913
• Series 8. Calling cards, ca. 1892-1912
• Series 9. Bankbooks, cancelled checks, check stubs, 1875-1910
• Series 10. Slides, prints, photographs, ca. 1860-1913
• Series 11. Memorabilia, ca. 1860-1913
• Addendum 1. Ward's personal library
• Addendum 2. Reel content lists

Biographical/Historical note

Lester Frank Ward was born in 1841 as the youngest of a poor Illinois farmer's ten children. From these humble beginnings he rose to international prominence as a scientist and scholar.

Ward received little formal education until after the Civil War, when he entered government service in Washington, D.C. Subsequently he attended Columbian College, earning a B.A. degree in 1869, an LL.B. in 1871, and an M.A. in botany in 1871.

He joined the Department of the Interior's U. S. Geological Survey team in 1881 as an assistant geologist in charge of paleobotany. When he left government employment twenty-five years later, he had advanced to the rank of chief paleontologist and, concurrently, had commenced the career as a teacher and writer which in 1906 brought him to Brown University as a professor of sociology. He died in 1913.

His chief publications include Dynamic Sociology (1883), which embodies his influential evolutionary theory of human progress; Psychic Factors of Civilization (1893); Pure Sociology (1903); and a Text-Book of Sociology, co-authored with James Q. Dealey (1905). Ward's final work, a six-volume compilation of his minor writing, grandly entitled Glimpses of the Cosmos, was published after his death in 1913. Further biographical details may be found in the articles on Ward in The Dictionary of American Biography, XIX. 430-432.

Access & Use

Access to the collection:	There are no restrictions on access, except that the collection can only be seen by prior appointment. Some materials may be stored off-site and cannot be produced on the same day on which they are requested.
Use of the materials:	All the materials in the Lester Frank Ward papers are in the public domain and available for use without restriction.
Alternate form:	The content of Series 1, the bulk of Series 2, and other portions of the collection outlined in the Series description which follows, are available on microfilm (Reels 2-34). The series and subseries that have not been microfilmed include Series 2--Subseries B (Writings, Published Writings [codices 1-25], and Index Register [shoeboxes 104-111]); Series 4--Special Index to Index Rerum [shoeboxes 114-115]; and Series 6 through Series 11. The reel contents lists in their entirety constitute Part Three of this inventory; the separate contents lists in their entirety constitute Part Three of this inventory; separate lists for each reel have also been filmed at the beginning for their respective reels. These lists, keyed to the frame numbers in each reel, should be used in conjunction with the more detailed descriptions for selected series in Part Two of this inventory.
Preferred citation:	Lester Frank Ward papers, Ms. 90.23, Brown University Library.
Contact information:	John Hay Library, University Archives and Manuscripts Box A Brown University Providence, RI 02912 Telephone: Manuscripts: 401-863-3723; University Archives: 401-863-2148 Email: Manuscripts: hay@brown.edu; University Archives: archives@brown.edu

Administrative Information

ABOUT THE COLLECTION
Acquisition:	The Lester Frank Ward papers were presented to Brown University in 1913 as a gift of Ward's heirs, Edward A. Ross and Sarah E. Simons. A formal deed of gift was not executed at the time of the collection's transfer, and subsequent efforts on the part of the University to acquire the literary rights to Ward's papers were not successful.
ABOUT THE FINDING AID
Author:	Finding aid prepared by staff of Brown University Library prior to 1950. Edited by Holly Snyder in 2005.
Encoding:	This finding aid was produced using the Archivists' Toolkit 2017-07-10

Additional Information

Related material:	Lester Frank Ward Papers, 1882-1913, with related materials to circa 1965, Record Unit 7321, Smithsonian Institution Archives; Lester Frank Ward biography, text of his two American Sociological Association Presidential addresses and bibliography, American Sociological Association Archives
Separated material:	One of Ward's most important research tools was his personal library of about 1,400 volumes, consisting primarily of works relating to the physical and social sciences. Also included, however, are works of poetry, philosophy, art, history, and travel. Among the authors represented by these books and pamphlets are Locke, Comte, Hume, Haeckel, Darwin, William James, T.H. Huxley, Asa Gray, Victor Hugo, and Walt Whitman. In addition, various secondary sources referring to Ward have been added to his personal library.Most of the printed material in Ward's personal library has been grouped by subject and arranged according to a system of Cutter numbers. Some volumes, however, have been catalogued and shelved according to Library of Congress classification. A reasonably complete list of these books is provided in Addendum I of the Inventory. In addition, author, title, and subject entries should be found in the cataloging records of books at Brown University Library. Lester Frank Ward's personal library, comprising about 1,400 books is located in the John Hay Library. This material has not been microfilmed.
Location/Existence of copies:	The content of Series 1, the bulk of Series 2, and other portions of the collection outlined in the Series description which follows, are available on microfilm (Reels 2-34). The series and subseries that have not been microfilmed include Series 2--Subseries B (Writings, Published Writings [codices 1-25], and Index Register [shoeboxes 104-111]); Series 4--Special Index to Index Rerum [shoeboxes 114-115]; and Series 6 through Series 11. The reel contents lists in their entirety constitute Part Three of this inventory; the separate contents lists in their entirety constitute Part Three of this inventory; separate lists for each reel have also been filmed at the beginning for their respective reels. These lists, keyed to the frame numbers in each reel, should be used in conjunction with the more detailed descriptions for selected series in Part Two of this inventory.
Other information:	Brown University Library catalog record for this collection: Lester Frank Ward Papers

Inventory

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