Blaisdell, Donald C. (Donald Christy) Collection, 1879-1977

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Summary

Creators:
Blaisdell, Donald C. (Donald Christy)
Abstract:
This collection comprises papers related to the career of Donald C. Blaisdell, author, political scientist, and Departments of State and Agriculture bureaucrat. Subjects include international relations, education, world peace, environmental issues, and Turkey–specifically the financial history of the Ottoman Empire. Much of Blaisdell’s work examines the various relationships between politics and economics, as well as international organization. This collection consists of correspondence, notes, drafts, manuscripts, and printed books and articles from Blaisdell’s time as a professor of political science as well as his work for the United States Government and the United Nations.
Extent:
12 boxes, [12 linear ft]
Language:
Collection material is in English

Background

Scope and content:

The Donald C. Blaisdell Collection contains material from 1879 to 1977. A large part of the collection consists of notes and drafts of books as well as articles written by Blaisdell during his academic and political career. The collection also contains copies of some of his books, including a Turkish translation of European Financial Control in the Ottoman Empire and two books that were gifts: Independent People by Halldór and Liv's Log 1900-1970 by Livingston Hartley. There are some miscellaneous personal materials in the collection, such as book reviews both for Blaisdell’s work as well as others, along with some clippings, brochures for the Cosmo Club, and a folder of biographical information. Documents from Blaisdell’s time working for the US Government contain pamphlets, reports, memorandums, and correspondence. Highlights of his work for the Department of State include correspondence with BB Wallace and confidential memorandums from 1944, in addition to documents about the Loyola Security Board. The collections includes articles, newspaper clippings, pamphlets and notes regarding a number of international issue such as imperialism in various parts of the world, disarmament, and socialism.

Material from Blaisdell’s vast political experience dominates the collection. It contains notes, correspondence, memos, and publications regarding the Carrie Chapman Catt Memorial Fund, the Overseas Education Fund for the League of Women Voters, United Nations, and the Riverside Democrats, among others. Within the Riverside Democrats documents is a copy of a letter from Robert F. Kennedy. There is also an invitation to the 1961 Presidential Inaugural Ball. The collection has a number of Blaisdell’s notes and reports on international peace efforts, including many items from the Commission to Study the Organization of Peace. This collection also contains two books from the Dumbarton Oaks conference in 1944, the conference ultimately lead international leaders to formulate proposals to create what became the United Nations. In addition, he also kept a large number of pamphlets and articles about environmental concerns ranging from overpopulation to nuclear energy.

This collection also contains items from the many courses that Blaisdell taught at various colleges and universities. It also includes a letter from Blaisdell’s father that is undated but seems to suggest it was written early in Blaisdell’s academic career as it gives advice on dealing with undergraduate students. The correspondence papers in this collection involve people and entities not directly related to Blaisdell’s publishing works, such as Phillips Bradley, Joseph E Johnson, and The American Liberty League.

Some of Blaisdell’s research and reference materials can be found in this collection, including several books and reports written in French about the Ottoman Empire. These items date from 1879 through 1928 and were used in for his book: European Financial Control in the Ottoman Empire (1929). There is also one non-dated French report about the administration of the Ottoman public debt. Other items of reference use include various pamphlets and articles, the majority of which are about politics, much of it relating to US politics from 1930-1962.

Biographical / historical:

Donald C. Blaisdell (1899-1988) was born in New York. After earning a B.S. degree in industrial engineering from Pennsylvania State College in 1920, he worked for the United States Rubber Company for two years, and then took a position as an engineering instructor at Robert College in Istanbul, Turkey. It was while in Turkey that he met his future wife, Dorothea, who was an instructor at the America College for Girls. After three years, he returned to the U.S. and earned an MA degree in 1926 and a Ph. D. in 1929 from Columbia University, where he taught from 1928 to 1930.

Blaisdell spent 40 years teaching at various universities, including: Columbia, Williams College, Wisconsin, Illinois, Florida, Wellesley College, and the City University of New York. Most notably, Blaisdell was the political science department chairman at City College at the City University of New York from 1955 to his retirement in 1967.

In addition to his academic career, Blaisdell also worked in the federal government for 17 years. Starting in 1936, he worked with the Department of Agriculture for four years, then ten years with the State Department, and three years for the Foreign Service. Blaisdell was in attendance at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference in 1944 at which the United Nations was negotiated and formulated. He later served as a delegate to the United Nations and was the U.S. representative for the United Nations agencies in Geneva from 1952-1954.

Acquisition information:
This collection was initially donated by Donald C. Blaisdell to the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming. In 2007, the American Heritage Center donated the collection to Archives and Special Collections at California State University, Dominguez Hills.
Arrangement:

Arranged in thirteen series:

  • Series I. Publishing Records and Manuscripts, 1929-1973
  • Series II. Books/Articles by or given to DCB, 1929-1971
  • Series III. Personal and Miscellaneous Items, 1927-1974, no date
  • Series IV. Department of Agriculture, 1935-1968
  • Series V. Department of State, 1932-1953
  • Series VI. International Issues, 1900-1973, no date
  • Series VII. Political Involvement, 1913-1968, no date
  • Series VIII. School, 1925-1973, no date
  • Series IX. Correspondence, 1935-1972
  • Series X. Peace Efforts, 1926-1977
  • Series XI. Environmental, 1963-1971, no date
  • Series XII. French Pamphlets and Books Re: Ottoman Empire, 1879-1928, no date
  • Series XIII. Reference Pamphlets, 1927-1960, no date

Rules or conventions:
Finding Aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Location of this collection:
University Library, 5th Flr (5039)
1000 E. Victoria Street
Carson, CA 90747, US
Contact:
(310) 243-3895
archives@csudh.edu
Website