Division of Rare and Manuscripts Collections

Resources (37)

• The Collection of Regional History and the University Archives together hold the following pertinent items. (Some are small parts of very large collections.)

• Aaron L. Binenkorb films, (ca. 1950-1980)

  59 reels 16mm film. Fifty nine films created by Aaron L. Binenkorb documenting travels in Spain, Russia, Sweden, Italy, Singapore, Norway, Greece, Morocco, Holland, India, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Trinidad, France, Bali, Tahiti, Samoa, South Africa, Denmark, Portugal, and Germany. Finding aid available: http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/RMM06689.html

• Andrew Dickson White (1832-1918)

  Papers, 1825–1920, ca. 94 cu. ft., 100,000 items. First Cornell president, scholar, diplomat, statesman. Correspondence, diaries, scrapbooks, and photographs. White was an attache in St. Petersburg under Thomas Hart Seymour in the mid-1850s and was himself ambassador to Russia in 1893–94. He also served as secretary of the U.S. delegation to the Russian-sponsored First Hague Conference on peace and disarmament, 1899. There is correspondence on the following topics: the American legation in St. Petersburg, Russian court life, and Russian politics (letters of Herbert H. D. Pierce from 17 January and 9 February 1895 and 11 August and 18 December 1896; and of Henry T. Allen, 1 and 23 March 1895); the Dukhobor sect, letters from John Bellows, a Quaker, compares his faith to theirs, notes the influence of L. Tolstoi, 15 November 1895 and 4 March 1897; Russian Jewish policy and the passport dispute of 1911, letters from Lewis Abraham, Oscar Straus, Henry Dodge, Philip Cowen, Rabbi J. L. Magnes, Representative Henry M. Goldfogle, Samuel Stern, Reverend T. Joseph, James Whiton, Curtis Guild, and William McAdoo, 1895–1912; plus White's replies to Henry Green, Edward Lauterbach, and some of the preceding, typed copies; a Rothschild loan to Russia, Russian loans, and Jewish bankers, letter of 9 August 1905; the Russian Revolution of 1905, letter to R. W. Gilder, 18 April 1906; letters from Hendrik Willem van Loon, 5 February 1907, Friends of Russian Freedom and Arthur Bullard, 19 March 1907, and Lyman Abbott, 18 April 1907; prospects of an Anglo-Russian war, letter from Adolph Sutro, 19 April 1897; war in the Far East, U.S. relations with Germany, France, and Russia, especially in the Spanish-American War, and the U.S. embassy at St. Petersburg, letters from Minister Ethan Allen Hitchcock, 1897–98; and U.S. help for the new Russian government in 1917, letters from Oscar Straus, 5 and 12 April 1917. About the Russo-Japanese War there are letters from Theodore Roosevelt, 1 June 1905, and J. B. Jackson, 7 May 1911, as well as White's article "Situation and Prospect in Russia," 11 February 1905. Other references and/or correspondents: George Kennan, Baron de Hirsch, F. J. Garrison, Maksim Gorkii, and George von Bunsen. Available on 149 rolls of microfilm. Several unpublished finding aids, published guide to the microfilm (NUCMC 66–795).

• Augustus Loring Richards (1879-1950)

  Papers, 1872–1951, 9 ft. New York lawyer and dairy farmer. Includes information about Soviet-American relations. (NUCMC 62–4422)

• Carl L. Becker (1873-1945)

  Papers, 1894–56, 8.4 cu. ft. American historian, professor at Cornell. Some letters from Mr. or Mrs. Leo Gershoy to Mr. or Mrs. Becker, 1932?-45, discuss Russia and the Russians. A letter from Louis R. Gottschalk to Becker, 24 August 1933, speaks of conditions in Russia and about the French people. (NUCMC 62–2359 and 70–1052)

• Carolynne Helen Cline (b. 1915)

  Papers, 32 in. Includes mimeographed diary, 76 pp., of her trip to the Soviet Union in July 1956, Restriction.

• Charles Nathaniel Pinco (1879-1975)

  Miscellany, 1932–34, 1 box, 3 in. Engineer. Maps, tourist guides, Russian newspapers, photographs, sheets from a scrapbook of correspondence, receipts, memoranda, and ticket stubs—all from 3 trips Pinco made to the USSR in the early 1930s.

• David Rowland Francis (1850-1927)

  Ambassador extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Russia, 1916–18. Report concerning his experiences extracted from letters written by Francis's "major domo" Philip Jordan, typescript, carbon copy, 4 pp.

• Deane Waldo Malott (b. 1898)

  Papers, 1923–66, 69 ft., 42 microfilm reels, and 13 reels of tape recordings. Cornell president, 1951–63. Includes copies of his journals and notes from a State Department-sponsored trip to the Soviet Union in 1958. The trip, made with 6 other college presidents, was for the purpose of studying higher education in the USSR. Other items discuss increased academic exchanges between Cornell and institutions of higher learning in the Soviet Union. Partial restriction. Unpublished finding aid (NUCMC 73–352).

• Denissoff Family

  Papers, 1739-1994. 1.8 cubic ft. The collection includes letters from Russian Czars and noblemen, records of sales and purchases, wills and legal documents, letters from serfs and peasants, and various documents pertaining to Russian history. Also Denissoff family genealogical chart. Finding aid available: http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/RMM03866.html

• Edmund Ezra Day (1883-1951)

  Papers, 1923–50, 72.7 cu. ft. Cornell president, 1937–49. Correspondence concerns Russian language courses and the Russian program at Cornell, 1940–47, the controversy surrounding these courses, 1943–50, and acquisitions of Russian publications. Supporting material on some subjects includes clippings, articles, reports, speeches, pamphlets, and minutes of meetings. Also data on Russian studies in Iowa, 1938–45. Restriction. Unpublished (computerized) finding aid. (NUCMC 62–3868 and 66–421)

• Elias Huzar (1915-1950)

  Correspondence, 1942–49, 45 items. Cornell professor of government. David M. Ellis (Cornell Ph.D., 1942) letters include discussions on the study of Russian language and literature, international affairs, World War II, and other matters. 15 Hyde Family. Papers, 1863–1957, 3.6 cu. ft. 3 letters are from Alfred Sao-ke Sze to Florence E. Hyde, written in St. Petersburg. On 29 August 1899 he writes of the cold weather there; on 13 March 1900 he speaks of his duties at the legation, his liking for the city, and functions he has attended; the last letter is dated 22 June 1900. Unpublished finding aid (NUCMC 64–882).

• Ezra Cornell (1807-1874)

  Papers, 1778–1952 and 1969, 28 cu. ft., plus 5 microfilm reels. Mechanic, businessman, and philanthropist. In his account books, 18 vols., 1831–74, he details his work with various telegraph companies, including 1 involved in the Siberian Extension. 49 letters, 1864–67, relate to the Russian Extension Company. Also printed reports on the Russian-American Telegraph. Unpublished finding aid. (NUCMC 62–2374)

• Francois-Jules Harmand (1845-1921)

  Papers, [1845]-1956, 4.5 cu. ft. Physician in the French navy, natural scientist, diplomat. While minister plenipotentiary to Japan, 1894–1906, he tried to aid Russians imprisoned there, 1904–1905. 32 letters are from wives and other relatives of Russian prisoners of war. All but one, in Russian, are in French.

• George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)

  Papers, 1878–1978, 17.5 ft. British (Irish) dramatist. Includes autograph notes for a lecture on "The Rationalization of Russia," 1 February 1932, 5 11.; and a TL, copy, from Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoi to Shaw, August 1908, 2 11.

• George Frederick Warren (1874-1938)

  Papers, 1900–38, 12.2 cu. ft. Cornell professor of agricultural economics and farm management. Material on the Fourth International Agricultural Economics Conference, 1936, includes reports of A. B. Lewis on a Russian collective farm, visit to Theleman Collective Farm on 18 July 1936, written 13 August 1936, 7 pp.; on his interview with O. M. Targulian of the Soviet Commissariat of Agriculture, 6 pp.; and on Moscow in general. (NUCMC 62–3411 and 66–459)

• George Lincoln Burr (1857-1938)

  Papers, 1861–1942, 16.8 cu. ft. Cornell professor. Letters, ca. 21 items, of Alexis Babine to Burr (1894–1930) concern his studies at various American universities and at the Sorbonne. Several from 1921–22 describe Russian conditions. An additional series of letters to Burr from Ralph Charles Henry Catterall contains at least 1, 7 September 1907, about the latter's trip to Russia. (NUCMC 62–2342 and 66–1029)

• Goldwin Smith (1823-1910)

  Papers, 1844–1915, ca. 50 boxes. Cornell professor. Primarily correspondence; also writings, scrapbooks, clippings, and bibliographic works about him. Extensive correspondence (typed copies) with George William Curtis from 9 July 1864 to 20 December 1887, 56 items, includes some references to Anglo-Russian relations and British foreign policy, especially in the Near East. There are many letters from James Laister who, with Smith, engaged in a journalistic controversy about the Jewish problem in Russia and elsewhere, 1880–87. There are references to the Bering Sea question (settled in favor of Britain) in letters from 1894–95. Correspondence from late 1905 and 1906 notes the turmoil in Russia and settlement of the Russo-Japanese War. A letter to Charles Francis Adams, 2 January 1906, points out the role Russia played in preventing French intervention in the American Civil War; and a letter to Andrew Carnegie, 6 January 1906, is critical of Anglo-Japanese relations toward Russia. The bulk of this collection, plus supporting materials from other repositories, is now available in microfilm, 28 reels. Published guide to the microfilm. (NUCMC 62–4432)

• Gustavus Watts Cunningham (1881-1968)

  Correspondence, 1911–2 7, 66 items. Philosophy professor. Includes correspondence with famous philosophers. Some letters discuss the situation in Russia in 1917. Calendar of contents. (NUCMC 73–329)

• Henry Morse Stephens (1857-1919)

  Papers, 1894–1922,.4 cu. ft. Professor of Modern European History. Copy of a letter, 20 December 1899, to him from Alfred Sao-ke Sze concerning Russia, its climate, Russian hatred of England, and the large German minority. Original in the University of California Library, Berkeley.

• Henry Stern Churchill (1893-1962)

  Papers, 1929–62, ca. 6 ft. Architect and city planner. Correspondence speaks of the 1958 Moscow Congress of the Union Internationale des Architectes, which he attended. (NUCMC 71–1616)

• History Department

  Records, 1956–65, over 1,200 items. Correspondence relates in part to the selection of a professor of Russian history for Cornell. One correspondent is Sir Isaiah Berlin. Restricted in part.

• Isidore Gibby Needleman (1902-1975)

  Papers, 1927–75, 2 boxes, 32 in. Attorney, Amtorg Trading Corporation official. Business files concern his association with Amtorg.

• Jacob Gould Schurman (1854-1942)

  Papers, 1878–1942, 22.4 cu. ft. Cornell president, 1892–1920, and diplomat. 2 letters to him from Alexei Vasilyevich Babine in St. Petersburg, 9 October and 13 November 1905, request and then thank him for sending a copy of the Cornell University Charter for the Russian Ministry of Education (Professor A. A. Tihomiroff). Babine was Cornell class of 1892. Also, Schurman's address at the first Citizen's Mass Meeting concerning the passport issue in Russia, 6 December 1911. (NUCMC 66–1042)

• Jean Frederic Phelypeaux, Comte de Maurepas (1701–1781)

  French minister of marine and secretary of state. Papers, 1731–51, ca. 3 ft., 626 items. Maurepas was interested in French commerce with other countries, including Russia; letters and reports pertain to naval affairs, shipbuilding, cartography, finances, and officers' service. There are 4 relevant documents: Boet de Saint Leger's "Memoire sur le commerce de Russie," ca. 1733, 4 11.; document with same title and date, 11 11.; French Marine Ministry's "Memoire sur le commerce de Moscovie," ca. 1733–36, 4 11.; and the ministry's "Memoire concernant le commerce de la France avec la Russie," 1733–36, 5 11. Unpublished finding aid (NUCMC 64–956).

• John Bennett Tuck (1868-1955)

  Papers, 1890–1948, 13 ft. Lawyer. 3 letters describe the Russian Revolution of 1917. (NUCMC 70–1136)

• Karl Douglas Butler (b. 1910)

  Papers, 1935–64, 14 ft. Agricultural consultant, businessman. One of his files concerns alleged communist influence in American education during the 1950s. Substantial printed and mimeographed information is on Russian agriculture and other aspects of Soviet economic and cultural life.

• Livingston Farrand (1867-1939)

  Papers, 1917–39, 46 ft. Cornell president, 1921–37. Scattered correspondence concerns the education of both Russian emigre students and students from the USSR. Occasional references to visiting lecturers and research work. Restriction. (NUCMC 66–426)

• McCormick Family

  Papers, 1900–41, 8.4 cu. ft. A few letters from Frederick McCormick, who reported the Russo-Japanese War for Reuter's from the Russian side, to his brother Howard, an artist and engraver, speak of the fight at Port Arthur on 9 February 1904 which opened the war, Newchang, China, 2 March 1904, of being in Mukden after escaping from the Japanese lines, 1 October 1904, and of his relief at getting away from "all the restrictions and suspicions of these people" on board a ship outside Vladivostok, 26 October 1905. A letter of 24 May 1907 from Frederick to Howard discusses visits to the Tretiakoff Gallery, the Hermitage, the Museum of Alexander III in St. Petersburg, and a large private collection in Moscow; Russians' talent in painting and music; their personal "savagery"; and Russian architecture. (NUCMC 62–3452)

• McGraw Family

  Papers, 1854–1956, 114 items and 3 vols. 1 letter from Jennie McGraw, 1840–81, later Mrs. Daniel Willard Fiske, to an aunt recounts her visit to Moscow in September 1878. She talks about churches (interior and exterior) and the Kremlin. (NUCMC 73–351)

• Ralph Charles Henry Catterall (1866-1914)

  Papers, ca. 1906–14, 236 items. Cornell history professor. Traveled in Germany, Poland, and Russia in 1907. His diary for 27 June-28 November 1907 discusses in detail conditions in Russia. He also records his interviews with, among others, Russian revolutionary leaders. Among his lectures and writings are: undated "Report on Russian Emigration" covering June-August 1907, 1 rough draft in script, 162pp., 1 typescript, 52 pp.; "Why Russia in Revolution...," typed, 10 pp.; "Differences between French and Russian Revolutions," rough draft, typed, 2 pp.; and "Russia," typed, 5 pp.; 3 lectures from 1908; and "Women in Russia," typed, 23 pp., 21 December 1908. Unpublished finding aid (NUCMC 64–846).

• Raphael Soyer (b. 1899)

  Papers, 1949–54, 288 items. Russian-born artist. Correspondence, minutes, articles, reprints, and clippings collected by him as an organizer and member of the editorial board of the art magazine Reality. (NUCMC 70–1128)

• Richard Brown Scandrett (1891-1969)

  Papers, 1907–66, 10 ft., 8 microfilm reels, and 4 tapes. Attorney and political activist. Scandrett was the first chief of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) Mission to Byelorussia in 1946. Previously he was a member of the Allied Reparations Commission, which met in Moscow in 1945. His legal firm (Scandrett, Tuttle, and Chalaire of New York City) lobbied for the American-Russian Chamber of Commerce and the Amtorg Trading Corporation. Papers include correspondence, speeches, articles, and 2 taped interviews. Various items reveal his views of pertinent subjects (e.g., critical of Edwin W. Pauley, the oilman who headed the Reparations Commission delegation, impressed by German devastation of Russia in World War II). In the recorded interviews from 1966, typed transcripts, 307 pp., Scandrett discusses his work in foreign affairs. In 1962–63 the writer and critic Kornei Ivanovich Chukovskii sent Scandrett 2 postcards from Moscow that speak of his (Chukovskii's) great admiration for the poet Robert Frost. Unpublished finding aid (NUCMC 73–368).

• Robert Henry Thurston (1839-1903)

  Papers, 1859–1902,.4 cu. ft. Cornell professor of mechanical engineering. ALS to him from Ambassador Andrew D. White, St. Petersburg, 13 March 1894, describes the Russian court balls and dining, 6 pp.

• Theodore Dreiser (1871–1945)

  Papers, 1892–1975, 24.5 ft. American writer. The author of acclaimed fictional works, Dreiser became interested in socialism, visited the Soviet Union in the 1920s, and wrote commentaries about the USSR and America. Among the items located by the library's staff, who excluded manuscripts known to have been published (copies unless otherwise noted): 25 TL from Dreiser to Sergei Dinamov, 1927–37; 2 TL to Peter A. Bogdanov, 13 January and 26 April 1933; 3 TL from Dinamov to Dreiser, 1935–37; "To Russia [1927–28]" (1 microfilm reel of his diary kept during his trip to the USSR); TL to Pravda, 14 January 1933; cable to Pravda, 2 June 1934; telegram to Joseph Stalin, 16 May 1945; mimeographed typescript, ["Concerning Russia and the United States"], 2 11. [March 1939?]; typed answers to questions from Pravda, 2 November 1932; typescript about M. Gorkii, written in response to a request from Pravda, 2 11., after 12 June 1937; typescript of unpublished (?) article on Hitler in Russia, 11., 23 November 1942; 2 typescripts on the subject of individual liberty in Russia, sent to Pravda, 2 11. each, ca. 29 April 1936; unpublished (?) article on/to Russian youth, 1 1. typed, 23 August 1944; typescript of unpublished (?) article on A. S. Pushkin, 3 11., 17 January 1931; a typescript, 1 1., on Russia as saviour "Sent to Walt Carraon—for Russian newspapers, September 9, 1936"; unpublished (?) article on Soviet youth, 11., 15 October 1938; TL to Dreiser from Pravda, 25 November 1932; and TL from Smena (Leningrad) to Dreiser, 21? August 1932. (NUCMC 64–953)

• Willard Dickerman Straight (1880-1918)

  Papers, 1857–1925, ca. 50 cu. ft. Diplomat, financier, philanthropist. Correspondence, reports, diaries, scrapbooks. Straight served in the Chinese imperial customs service, with Reuters in the Russo-Japanese War, and in Korea and Manchuria for the U.S. State Department. Papers cover all aspects of his career, particularly his reporting in the Russo-Japanese War. Also, a 3-month trip in 1908 through Northern Manchuria studying transportation, agriculture, trade, and Russian and Japanese penetration (diaries, 4 books). Other references: navigation of rivers of the Russian Far East, 1909 memorandum; observations on a 1906 trip through Siberia and northern Manchuria (lengthy report to President Theodore Roosevelt); objections of Russia and Japan to the Chinese Currency Loan Agreement, memorandum of 20 January 1912; E. H. Harriman's interest in the Far East, note to George Kennan, 17 March 1916; settlement of lands along the Chinese Eastern Railway, copy of the agreement between China and Russia, 11 May 1909; and the Tokyo riots following publication of the terms of the Portsmouth Treaty, letter of Frederick Palmer, late September 1905. There are also summaries of interviews Straight conducted in St. Petersburg with the Russian ministers of war, finance, and foreign affairs, and with P. A. Stolypin, minister of interior and premier, late June 1910. Part of the collection is available on microfilm, 12 reels. Unpublished finding aids and published guide to the microfilm. (NUCMC 62–1103)

• William W. Austin

  Papers, 1947-1991. 10 cubic ft. Subject files, diaries, and general correspondence pertaining to Austin's career. Also copy of his Ph.D. thesis, "Harmonic Rhythm in 20th-Century Music," from Harvard University, 1950; and files relating to his students including the composer Steve Reich. Correspondence includes letters, musical scores, and recordings sent by musicologists and composers in the USSR since 1971. Finding aid available: http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/RMA02297.html