A collection of the German American political philosopher and educator Francis Lieber. The collection includes Lieber's correspondence, notes, manuscripts, and published material accumulated in the preparation of his works covering his political and academic career. The collection includes, among other material, volumes, essays, lectures, journals, commonplace books, printed material, and ephemera.

Francis Lieber (1800-1872) was a German American political philosopher and educator. Lieber was born in Berlin, Prussia, on March 18, 1800; some sources state his birth year as 1798 as he lied about his age in order to enlist in the Prussian Army. Lieber joined the Colberg regiment in 1815 and was wounded at the Battle of Waterloo. He was educated in Germany, mainly in the field of mathematics; after a short stay in England in 1826, he moved to Boston in 1827, where he lectured on history and politics. He married Mathilde Oppenheimer on September 21, 1829; together they had three sons: Oscar Montgomery Lieber (1830-1862), trained as a geologist, he fought for the Confederacy and died at the Battle of Eltham's Landing; Hamilton Lieber (1835-1876), served in the Union Army and was severely wounded but survived the war; Guido Norman Lieber (1837-1923), also served in the Union Army and became a United States Army lawyer and jurist. Francis Lieber was the first editor, from 1829 to 1833, of the 13 volumes of the Encyclopedia Americana. In 1832, Lieber prepared a plan of education for the newly founded Girard College (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania); he lived in Philadelphia from 1833 until 1835. In 1835 Lieber accepted a professorship of history and political economy in the South Carolina College (later University, Columbia, South Carolina); he remained at South Carolina until 1856 when he was appointed to a similar chair in Columbia College (later University, New York). He held this chair until 1865 when he became professor of political science in the Columbia Law School, a post he held until his death, in New York, on October 2, 1872. Besides his work as a university professor, Lieber was regarded as the founder of the Systemic Study of Government in the United States. He was active in the South before the war against secession, and during the war he was frequently summoned to Washington by the Secretary of War for consultation. His work "Instructions for the Government of the Armies of the United States in the Field" was promulgated in the general orders of the War Department (General Order 100, also known as the "Lieber Code"), which was later used as a basis for the Geneva Convention. From July 1865 to August 1867, Lieber held the position of Chief of the Archive Office of the War Department, an office which was established for the purpose of preserving and examining the Confederate Archives captured in Richmond; and in 1870, he was chosen by the United States and Mexico as final arbitrator on the United States and Mexican Claims Commission. Lieber was a prolific writer who published numerous articles, essays and books, but he was also an enslaver while living in South Carolina from 1835 to 1856, though some of his writings speak against slavery and are pro-abolitionist.

118.88 Linear Feet (112 boxes, 36 volumes)

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