User:Timathom/John Spencer Bassett

John Spencer Bassett ...

Biography
<!-- The papers of John Spencer Bassett (1867-1928) span the years 1770-1978, with the bulk of the material dating from 1894 to 1928. The collection documents Bassett's teaching careers at Trinity College (later Duke University) in North Carolina and at Smith College in Massachusetts; his research and writings, including his seminal biography of Andrew Jackson and sometimes controversial writings on race relations; and his secretaryship of the American Historical Association. The papers are arranged in eight series: Diaries and Journals, Family Correspondence, General Correspondence, Collected Historical Manuscripts, Subject File, Lectures and Speeches, Research and Writings, and Oversize.

Diaries and journals kept by Bassett date between 1905 and 1927. Bassett was an inconsistent diarist who frequently picked up and dropped the practice of recording his daily activities. For many years, he maintained what he called a "literary record" in which he charted the daily progress of his research and writing. During other periods, he kept a more traditional diary in which he described conversations, interviews, meetings, colleagues, and national events, often at great length. He began the diary in the wake of what became known as the "Bassett Affair." In 1903, Bassett published "Stirring Up the Fires of Race Antipathy" in the South Atlantic Quarterly, a journal he founded while teaching at Trinity College. The article and its contention that Booker T. Washington was the greatest southerner apart from Robert E. Lee born in the past hundred years touched off a storm of controversy led chiefly by Josephus Daniels, editor of the Raleigh News and Observer. One of the first entries in Bassett's 1905 diary records his decision to resign as editor of the South Atlantic Quarterly. A later entry provides a detailed account of his meeting with Theodore Roosevelt, who agreed to speak on behalf of academic freedom at a stop in Durham, North Carolina, during his southern tour in 1905.

The Family Correspondence series contains lengthy correspondence between Bassett and his wife, Jessie Lewellin Bassett, written on an almost daily basis during academic breaks when Bassett taught summer school, researched, and attended American Historical Association meetings, and during Jessie Bassett's European travels. Apart from discussing family matters, Bassett's letters relate events and developments connected with his research, writing, and teaching. The series also includes correspondence between the Bassetts and their children, Richard H. Bassett and Margaret Byrd Bassett. Much of the correspondence between Richard Bassett and his parents occurred while he was a student at Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, 1914-1915, and while he studied art in Europe.

The General Correspondence spans the length of Bassett's professional career. His early correspondence, dating from 1894 to 1906, consists largely of incoming correspondence. Much of it concerns Bassett's early research on North Carolina topics, such as the Regulator movement, slavery, and the antislavery movement, and includes letters from Hinton Rowan Helper and Daniel R. Goodloe. Letters from historian Herbert Baxter Adams reveal his ongoing mentorship after Bassett completed his doctoral work at Johns Hopkins University. A significant portion of Bassett's early correspondence concerns Trinity College. Bassett, who had been considered for Trinity's presidency in 1894, promoted scholarship at Trinity through his founding of the South Atlantic Quarterly in 1901 and his efforts to develop the library's book and manuscript holdings. The "Bassett Affair" is discussed in some of these letters.

Bassett's correspondence reveals his interest in southern race relations, politics, and educational reform. Correspondence with southern colleagues continued following Bassett's departure from the South in 1906. Over time, however, Bassett's focus on southern issues lessened and a greater percentage of his later correspondence concerns his subsequent research and writing, in particular his work on Andrew Jackson, and his administrative responsibilities with the American Historical Association and Smith College, his interest and involvement in national politics, and his support of the League of Nations. Prominent correspondents in the General Correspondence series include Charles McLean Andrews, Kemp P. Battle, William Kenneth Boyd, George Washington Cable, John Franklin Crowell, Josephus Daniels, William Edward Dodd, Robert L. Flowers, Albert Bushnell Hart, J. Franklin Jameson, John C. Kilgo, Edwin Mims, Walter Hines Page, Ulrich Bonnell Phillips, William Peterfield Trent, and Woodrow Wilson.

The papers also include a collection of historical manuscripts either purchased by Bassett or given to him by students and friends. While some of these were collected largely for their autographs, many have greater informational value. Among the more significant collections of papers is an exchange of letters between governors Benjamin Williams of North Carolina, Archibald Roane of Tennessee, and William Charles Coles Claiborne of the Mississippi Territory in 1802. These concern the extradition of Stockley Donelson and William Tyrrell, both implicated in western land frauds. The series also contains papers of artist Ralph E. W. Earl, who married Jane Caffery, a niece of Andrew Jackson, in 1818. Earl, who became known as "portrait painter to the king," enjoyed a close relationship with Jackson. He resided at the White House during Jackson's presidency and died at the Hermitage in Tennessee in 1837. Bassett also acquired papers of Henry Watson, a lawyer, banker, and planter who left his native Connecticut in the 1830s and settled in Alabama. Watson's diary, written between 1830 and 1831, and his correspondence, spanning the years 1830-1871, contain numerous references to southern life, economic conditions, politics, and sectionalism. The Watson family papers also include correspondence from Watson's grandfather to his father while the latter was trying to establish himself as a merchant in New York City between 1817 and 1820. Bassett collected various literary collections such as the papers of Sidney Woollett, Layton W. Crippen, and the publishing firm of Stone and Kimball. An alphabetical list of prominent correspondents in this portion of the papers is appended to the register.

The Subject File documents Bassett's professional associations, political activities, and, to a lesser extent, his teaching career. The major portion of the series pertains to Bassett's duties as secretary of the American Historical Association from 1919 to 1928. Files relating to the organization include correspondence, committee and executive council minutes and reports, and financial statements. Another sizeable group of material concerns Bassett's chairmanship of a Democratic National Committee advisory group during the 1920 presidential campaign. The group, charged with devising general strategy for the James M. Cox-Franklin D. Roosevelt campaign, focused most of its efforts on increasing public support for the League of Nations. Bassett sought to influence public opinion by soliciting and publishing articles written by prominent individuals in support of the League. The Subject File also includes newspaper clippings pertaining to Bassett's activities at Trinity College and correspondence, minutes, and reports relating to his teaching and administrative duties at Smith College. Miscellaneous material includes condolence letters on Bassett's death, notebooks, and publishing contracts.

Bassett's lecture files include complete drafts of lectures, outlines, and notes. More than half of these are identified as having been delivered at Smith College. Unidentified lectures include what appear to be Bassett's earliest lectures, some of which are written on Trinity College stationery. Bassett's speeches are grouped by topic since few are dated or have formal titles. Both his speeches and his lectures are useful in tracing Bassett's views on race relations, southern history and culture, and developments in the historical profession.

The Research and Writings series reflects Bassett's contributions to historical research through his exploration of slavery and the antislavery movement, plantation management, and nineteenth-century American historiography, as well as through his biography of Andrew Jackson and editorship of Jackson's letters. Bassett's research files include notes from his research in manuscript repositories, conversations and interviews, and access to privately held manuscripts. Correspondence in the research files pertains to his research on slavery in North Carolina and the search for letters of Andrew Jackson. The writings file contains drafts of many of Bassett's books as well as a large group of unidentified and miscellaneous writings and a collection of literary and poetical manuscripts, many of which pertain to southern themes. -->

Works or publications

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