The papers deal principally with May's career as an historian and educator. Correspondence includes chronological files (1946-1983), former students, and other correspondents, colleagues, and friends. Included are working notes and drafts of his books and aricles, and related correspondence and criticism; as well as records of May's teaching, with course outlines and lecture notes. There is material relating to the Berkeley Free Speech Movement. Finally, the papers include files kept by May as an active member of the History Department, University of California, Berkeley from 1952 until his retirement in 1980.

Henry Farnham May was born in Denver, Colorado on March 27, 1915, the son of Henry F. and May (Rickard) May. He received an A.B. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1937, with his M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard in 1938 and 1947. May worked as an instructor of history at Lawrence College from 1941 to 1942 and from 1942 to 1945, served as a lieutenant (j.g.) in the United States Navy Reserve. He returned to his teaching career as an assistant professor, and then associate professor, at Scripps College from 1947 to 1949. He was a visiting associate professor at Bowdoin College from 1950 to 1951.

Number of containers: 4 boxes, 13 cartons, 1 oversize folder Linear feet: 16.6

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