Conditions Governing Access
Conditions Governing Use
Preferred Citation
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Biographical / Historical
Scope and Contents
Existence and Location of Copies
Arrangement
General
Contributing Institution:
The Huntington Library
Title: Robert Hine papers
Creator:
Hine, Robert V., 1921-
Identifier/Call Number: mssHine
Physical Description:
30 Linear Feet
(50 boxes, 5 oversize folders)
Date (inclusive): 1841-2004
Date (bulk): 1960-1990
Abstract: The collection contains the
professional papers of Robert V. Hine (1921-2015) reflecting his work as a historian of the
American West and a writer, and includes research notes, photocopied manuscripts, newspaper
clippings, interviews, correspondence, and other research related papers. The papers chiefly
relate to Hine's research on Californian utopian colonies and communes, John Russell
Bartlett, Josiah Royce, Edward Kern, and Theodore Talbot, as well as some materials related
to his memoir on going blind.
Language of Material: English.
Conditions Governing Access
Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at
the Huntington Library for more information.
Conditions Governing Use
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]. Robert Hine papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino,
California.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The collection was a gift from Robert V. Hine; donated in portions between the years 1990
and 2004.
Biographical / Historical
Robert V. Hine (1921-2015) is a prominent historian of the American West. Hine earned his
Ph.D. in history from Yale University in 1952 and spent a year as a fellow at the Huntington
Library in San Marino, California, before accepting a faculty position at the University of
California, Riverside, in 1954. Hine remained a member of the History Department at UC
Riverside for most of his long career. A prolific writer, Hine authored numerous historical
monographs and edited volumes, several textbooks, two personal memoirs, and two historical
novels. In 1971, due to a lifelong eye condition, Hine lost his eyesight; in 1986, after 15
years of blindness, a surgical operation restored it. Hine's memoir
Second
Sight
is a reflection on losing his sight, living and working without it, and the
experience of regaining it.
Scope and Contents
The collection spans the years 1841-2001, though the majority of it dates between 1960 and
1990. Almost all of the materials dated before the 1950s are reproductions made at Hine's
request for reference in his research and writing, and many of them concern the 19th century
figures Edward Kern, John Russell Bartlett, Josiah Royce and Theodore Talbot.
The collection is organized to preserve, whenever possible, Robert Hine's original order.
This includes most of his original folder titles, the original order of folders, and the
original order of some of the boxes. As such there are small portions of it that do not
follow the rules of cataloging to the letter (as in ascending date orders, etc). The
collection contains Hine's professional work as a historian of the American West and a
writer, and includes research notes, photocopied manuscripts, newspaper clippings,
interviews, correspondence, and other research related papers. As such, the original order
of Hine's papers reflects his process of collecting and referencing them as he worked on
various book projects. In some instances, his original folders provide insight into the
kinds of questions or themes he was pursuing in the course of his work. Box 16, Folder 6,
for example, relates to his work on California's colonies and communes and is titled
"Family," reflecting his special interest in this aspect of communal life. Hine also revised
the organization of these papers as he prepared them for donation to the Huntington Library
in the late 1990s. Despite Hine's own curatorship, some of his papers remained unsorted and
unorganized at the time of this collection's cataloging. Those have been organized by the
cataloger to reflect, as much as possible, Hine's own organizational methods.
To this end, the boxes of the collection are organized largely according to the book or
other scholarly project for which Hine obtained them, with the exception of the boxes that
house correspondence. Boxes 1-22 pertain to Hine's work on California's colonies and
communes, and in particular the books
California's Utopian Colonies (1973)
and
Community on the American Frontier: Separate but Not Alone (1985). Within
this series, boxes 1-12 are an alphabetical subseries of the communes by name; boxes 13 and
14 are a subseries dedicated specifically to the Llano Commune; boxes 15-18 are a
miscellaneous subseries organized largely by subject (i.e. Family in colonies and communes);
boxes 19-22 are miscellaneous notes, citations, and bibliographic index cards. Boxes 23-26
pertain to Hine's research into John Russell Bartlett and the book
Bartlett's West:
Drawing the Mexican Boundary
(1969); boxes 27-30 relate to his work on Josiah
Royce and the book
Josiah Royce: From Grass Valley to Harvard; boxes 31-33
relate to his work on Edward Kern and the book
In the Shadow of Fremont: Edward Kern
and the Art of American Exploration
(1982); boxes 34-35 pertain to his research
into Theodore Talbot and the book
Soldiers in the West: Letters of Theodore Talbot
During His Services in California, Mexico, and Oregon, 1845-53
(1972); box 36
relates to his memoir
Second Sight (1993); boxes 37-39 contain miscellaneous
research material, including chapter notes for
California's Utopian Colonies,
scholarly reviews of his books, and miscellaneous secondary scholarship; boxes 40-43 contain
correspondence, largely with other historians but also notably with (then California
governor) Ronald Reagan; boxes 44-47 contain bibliographic index cards; box 48 contains
audio-visual material; box 49 contains ephemera; and lastly box 50 contains oversize
material.
There are a few things to note about the collection. First, it contains a number of
oversize items housed in separate oversize folders. The items are marked by the presence of
a "dummy folder" where they would have been filed, had they not been oversize. Many of the
oversize items are duplications (photocopies, prints) of artwork done by John Russell
Bartlett and Edward Kern, made while Hine was researching their artistic work in the West.
This collection also contains a number of boxes in which the material is not sorted into
numbered folders. These are the indexcard boxes (Boxes 19-22 and 44-47), which contain
bibliographic records and the Miscellaneous Notes and Citations boxes, which contain
half-sheet sized research notes, many regarding the secondary literature relevant to his
book projects. In some respects, the kinds of notes contained in these boxes are similar to
the notes Hine filed in folders in the grey upright boxes, and in some cases he made
makeshift dividers to separate the notes into related groups. Lastly, it is important to
note that Hine took many notes in Braille during the years he was blind. In some cases, Hine
himself translated the Braille into English as he prepared the collection for donation to
the Huntington Library; often, however, the Braille remained untranslated. The boxes
relating to Hine's work on Colonies and Communes contain the majority of the Braille
notes.
Existence and Location of Copies
Selected items from this collection have been digitized. Digital reproductions are
available in the
Internet Archive.
Arrangement
Organized in the following manner:
- Boxes 1-22: Colonies and Communes
- Boxes 23-26: John Russell Bartlett
- Boxes 27-30: Josiah Royce
- Boxes 31-33: Edward Kern
- Boxes 34-35: Theodore Talbot
- Box 36: Second Sight
- Boxes 37-39: Miscellaneous Research Material
- Boxes 40-43: Correspondence
- Boxes 44-47: Index Cards
- Box 48: Audio-Visual Material
- Box 49: Ephemera
- Box 50: Oversize.
General
Former call number: mssHine papers.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Blind -- United States
Blindness.
Collective settlements -- California
Collective settlements -- United States
Communal living -- California
Communal living -- United States
Cooperative societies -- California
Cooperative societies -- United States
Historians -- California -- Archives
California -- History -- 19th century
California -- History -- 20th century
West (U.S.) -- History -- 19th century
West (U.S.) -- History -- 20th century
Braille -- United States -- 20th century
Clippings (information artifacts) -- United States -- 20th
century
Letters (correspondence) -- United States -- 20th century
Manuscripts -- United States -- 20th century
Negatives -- United States -- 20th century
Photographs -- United States -- 20th century
Proofs (prints by function) -- United States -- 20th
century
Research (document genres) -- United States -- 20th
century
Bartlett, John Russell,
1805-1886
Hine, Robert V., 1921-
Hine, Robert V., 1921- --
Health.
Kern, Edward Meyer,
1823-1863
Manson, Charles, 1934-
Royce, Josiah,
1855-1916
Talbot, Theodore,
1825-1862
Llano Colony (Secular
community)
Heaven's Gate
(Organization)
Billington, Ray Allen, 1903-1981
Cleland, Robert Glass, 1885-1957
Faragher, John Mack, 1945-
Fogarty, Robert S.
Hundley, Norris, Jr.
Mellon, Knox, 1925-
Nevins, Allan, 1890-1971
Nunis, Doyce B. (Doyce Blackman),
1924-2011
Pomeroy, Earl S. (Earl Spencer),
1915-2005
Reagan, Ronald.
Starr, Kevin.
Toole, K. Ross (Kenneth Ross),
1920-1981
California Historical Society.
National Endowment for the Humanities.