Francis Lieber papers, 1815-1936, bulk 1821-1883

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Summary

Creators:
Lieber, Francis, 1800-1872
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.
Extent:
118.88 Linear Feet (112 boxes, 36 volumes)
Language:
Materials are in English, German and French.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item]. Francis Lieber papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Background

Scope and content:

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.

Biographical / historical:

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.

Acquisition information:
Purchased from Mary Lieber, 1927.
Processing information:

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.

Arrangement:

Organized in the following series: 1. Manuscripts; 2. Correspondence; 3. Volumes; 4. Research material and subject files; 5. Ephemera.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Indexed terms

Subjects:
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
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
Names:
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
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
Places:
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

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.

Terms of access:

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.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item]. Francis Lieber papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Location of this collection:
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108, US
Contact:
(626) 405-2191
reference@huntington.org
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