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Lieber (Francis) Papers
mssLI
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Contributing Institution:
The Huntington Library
Title: Francis Lieber papers
Creator:
Lieber, Francis,
1800-1872
Identifier/Call Number: mssLI
Physical Description:
118.88 Linear Feet
(112 boxes, 36 volumes)
Date (inclusive): 1815-1936
Date (bulk): 1821-1883
Abstract: 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.
Language of Material: Materials are in English, German
and French.
Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department.
For more information, contact Reader Services.
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from
or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The
responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining
necessary permissions rests with the researcher.
[Identification of item]. Francis Lieber papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino,
California.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from Mary Lieber, 1927.
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.
A collection of approximately 6000 items from 1815 to 1936, the collection consists of
Francis Lieber's correspondence, notes and other manuscripts and published materials
accumulated in the preparation of his works during his political and academic career. The
collection contains articles, essays, remarks, correspondence, volumes, commonplace books,
research files, printed material, and ephemera. The manuscript material often contains
various drafts, with supporting research and subject files; the correspondence contains
personal and family letters and a large amount of professional correspondence.
Correspondents include, among others, his wife Matilda (Mathilde) Lieber, other Lieber
family members, Samuel Austin Allibone, Edward Bates, Dorothea Lynde Dix, Hamilton Fish,
James A. Garfield, Ulysses S. Grant, Simon Greenleaf, Henry Wager Halleck, George Stillman
Hillard, Édouard Laboulaye, Carl Joseph Anton Mittermaier, Charles Sumner, Martin Russell
Thayer, Alexis de Tocqueville, and Theodore Dwight Woolsey. Subjects in the collection
include political science and theory; constitutional history; political economy;
international law; philosophy and history of civilization; penology, including Lieber's
association with the prison reform movement; education, particularly college and university
administration; United States and European politics; antebellum debates and campaigns;
slavery and abolitionism; politics of the Civil War, including problems of the citizenship
of African-Americans, immigrants, and former Confederates; constitutional powers of the
President and Congress; Republican Party, especially its radical wing; military aspects of
the Civil War as reflected in Lieber's correspondence with Halleck; reconstruction,
including plans for codification of international law; and Lieber's service with the United
States-Mexican Claims Commission.
The Francis Lieber papers were processed by Huntington Library Staff in the 1930s; the
papers were reprocessed from 2020 to 2022 by Gayle Richardson. The original series
organization and folder order has been mainly retained and the item-level LI call numbers
have been retained on the folders and in the finding aid; the material has been rehoused in
new folders and boxes. Some of the detailed information on the original folders was copied
onto the new folders, including author, title/addressee, date, LI call number, with the new
box and folder numbers added. The locations and notes were transferred to the item
descriptions in the finding aid, however, the type of manuscript (A.MS.S; A.L.S), page/item
counts and measurements were not retained on the folders or in the finding aid. It appears
there were at least five different Huntington staff members who cataloged the collection
originally which caused some inconsistencies in personal names and locations; only personal
names have been standardized.
Organized in the following series: 1. Manuscripts; 2. Correspondence; 3. Volumes; 4.
Research material and subject files; 5. Ephemera.
Individual call numbers included in the collection: mssLI 1-5222.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Antislavery movements -- United States -- History -- 19th century --
Sources
Civilization -- United States -- History -- Study and teaching -- 19th
century
Civilization -- United States -- Philosophy -- Study and teaching --
19th century
Constitutional history -- United States -- History
Constitutional law -- United States -- History
Copyright, International
Emigration and immigration law -- United States -- History -- 19th
century
Freedmen -- United States -- 19th century
German Americans -- United States -- History -- 19th century
International law -- Codification -- History
Political science -- United States -- Study and teaching -- 19th
century
Political scientists -- United States -- History -- 19th
century
Politicians -- United States -- History -- 19th century
Prison administration -- United
States
Prison reform
Reconstruction (U.S. history,
1865-1877)
Slaves -- United States -- Emancipation
France -- Politics and Government --
1848-1870
Germany -- Politics and Government --
1789-1900
Massachusetts -- Politics and Government
-- 1775-1865
New York (N.Y.) -- Politics and
Government -- To 1898
United States -- Foreign relations --
Great Britain
United States -- History --
1815-1861
United States -- History -- Civil War,
1861-1865
United States -- Politics and Government
-- 1815-1861
United States -- Politics and Government
-- 1865-1877
Ephemera -- United States -- 19th century
Family papers -- United States -- 19th century
Letters (correspondence) -- United States -- 19th century
Manuscripts -- United States -- 19th century
Personal papers -- United States -- 19th century
Professional papers -- United States -- 19th century
Research (document genres) -- United States -- 19th
century
Volumes (documents by form) -- United States -- 19th
century
Allibone, S. Austin (Samuel
Austin), 1816-1889
Bache, A. D. (Alexander
Dallas), 1806-1867
Bates, Edward,
1793-1869
Binney, Horace,
1780-1875
Bridgman, Laura Dewey,
1829-1889
Choate, Rufus,
1799-1859
Dix, Dorothea Lynde,
1802-1887
Everett, Edward,
1794-1865
Fish, Hamilton,
1808-1893
Gilman, Daniel C. (Daniel
Coit), 1831-1908
Greenleaf, Simon,
1783-1853
Halleck, H. W. (Henry
Wager), 1815-1872
Hillard, George Stillman,
1808-1879
Howe, S. G. (Samuel
Gridley), 1801-1876
Laboulaye, Édouard,
1811-1883
Lieber, G. Norman (Guido
Norman), 1837-
Lieber, Mathilde,
1805-1890
Longfellow, Fanny Appleton,
1817-1861
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth,
1807-1882
Lossing, Benson John,
1813-1891
Mittermaier, C. J. A. (Carl
Joseph Anton), 1787-1867
Niebuhr, Barthold Georg,
1776-1831
Preston, William Campbell, 1794-1860
Rolin-Jaequemyns, Gustave,
1835-1902
Story, Joseph,
1779-1845
Sumner, Charles,
1811-1874
Thayer, M. Russell (Martin
Russell), 1819-1906
Ticknor, Anna,
1800-1885
Tocqueville, Alexis de,
1805-1859
White, Andrew Dickson,
1832-1918
Winthrop, Robert C. (Robert
Charles), 1809-1894
Woolsey, Theodore Dwight,
1801-1889
Alabama (Screw
sloop)
Columbia University --
History
Girard College --
History
Republican Party (U.S. : 1854- ) --
History
United States. Adjutant-General's Office -- General
orders -- (100th : 1863 Apr. 24)
United States. War Department
United States and Mexican
Claims Commission