Burlingame Family Papers An inventory of their papers at Syracuse University
Overview of the Collection
Creator:
Burlingame family.
Title:
Burlingame Family Papers
Inclusive Dates:
1856-1967
Quantity:
30.5 linear ft.
Abstract:
Correspondence, incoming and outgoing (1856-1967); legal and financial records; memorabilia, including address books, clippings, genealogical records, and photographs; and writings, mostly of Roger Burlingame, including manuscript and/or published articles, books, book reviews, diaries, poems, short stories, and speeches. Family members represented include Anson Burlingame (1820-1870), a politician and diplomat; Edward L. Burlingame (1848-1922), author and editor; William Roger Burlingame (1889-1967), author, biographer, and novelist; and his wife, Angeline Whinton (d. 1967), a literary agent, known professionally as Ann Watkins. Notable correspondents include Leonard Bacon, Kay Boyle, Elmer Davis, John Dos Passos, Allen W. Dulles, Milton Eisenhower, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Kenneth Galbraith, Nathan G. Goodman, Sidney Howard, Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, Archibald MacLeish, John P. Marquand, Edward R. Murrow, Lithgow Osborne, Henry F. Pringle, Elmo Roper, William L. Shirer, James Thurber, Edith Wharton, E.B. White, Hetty Whitney, Thornton Wilder, and others.
Language:
English
Repository:
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Library
222 Waverly Avenue
Syracuse, NY 13244-2010 http://scrc.syr.edu
315-443-2697
Biographical History
Three generations of the Burlingame family are represented in the papers of this collection. The three major historical figures in the family are discussed below in accordance with the amount of material present on each individual. Anson Burlingame was born in 1820, the son of Joel and his wife Freelove (Angell) Burlingame. He attended the University of Michigan and Harvard Law School. After marriage to Jane Cornelia Livermore, the daughter of Isaac Livermore, Burlingame began a promising political career in the Massachusetts Senate. In 1855 he was elected as a Republican to Congress where he served three terms. After the presidential campaign of 1860 he became minister to Peking in which capacity he concluded the Burlingame Treaty. Burlingame died while on a diplomatic mission to St. Petersburg, Russia in 1870. Edward Livermore Burlingame was the first son born to Anson Burlingame in 1848. As a young man he grew up in the Cambridge, Massachusetts area, and in 1861 entered Harvard. When his father was appointed minister to China, young Edward followed him to Peking, and later Paris, Berlin, Heidelberg, and St. Petersburg. In 1871 he began a career with the New York Tribune, and married Ella Frances Badger in the same year. Burlingame became a literary advisor to Charles Scribner’s Sons, and in 1886 was appointed editor of the new Scribner’s Magazine, a post he held until his resignation in 1914. E. L. Burlingame died in 1922.
The second son of Edward and Ella Burlingame was William Roger Burlingame, who was born in 1889. As a boy Roger attended Morristown School and went on to Harvard University, graduating from the latter in 1913. After serving with the American Expeditionary Force in France, he returned to America and assumed various posts with Charles Scribner’s Sons. In 1926 he began a career as a free-lance writer augmented by teaching stints at Barnard and M.I.T. During the course of his long career, Burlingame wrote many articles, essays, books, and short stories. He is particularly known for non-fiction works on the historical impact of industry and technology on American society, though he did publish several novels during the early part of his career. His autobiography, published in 1958, is entitled I Have Known Many Words.
In 1933 Roger married Angeline Whinton, known professionally as Ann Watkins, literary agent and president of Ann Watkins Inc. Mr. and Mrs. Burlingame died within a few days of each other in 1967.
A genealogical chart of the Burlingame family is available at the end of this inventory.
Scope and Contents of the Collection
The Burlingame Family Papers, 1856-1967, consist of the private and public papers of several generations of a prominent American family. The major contributor to the collection is writer and historian Roger Burlingame. There are also small amounts of material relating to Anson, Walter A., Edward Livermore, and Ann (Whinton) Burlingame. The papers are organized in five major groups: Correspondence, Legal and Financial Records, Memorabilia, Organization Records, and Writings. Correspondence (Boxes 1-14) dates from 1856 to 1967, and is separated into incoming and outgoing letters. Among the items of special interest are the letters written by Walter A. Burlingame describing his experiences in China while accompanying his father, ambassador Anson Burlingame, in 1866 and 1867. Also, present are letters from well known authors including F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Marquand, Edith Wharton, Rudyard Kipling, Archibald MacLeish, Kaye Boyle, Sidney Howard, and others. The Legal and Financial Records group (Boxes 15-16), 18711967, contains documents pertinent to the-business affairs of several family members. There are wills, insurance policies, passports, royalty statements, and a variety of materials of a similar nature. Memorabilia (Boxes 16-23) dating from 1865 to 1967 contains items of incidental interest about the private lives of the Burlingame and related families. Included in this group are address books, newspaper clippings, ephemera, genealogical records, biographical material, and photographs. Organization records (Boxes 24-28), 1914-1964, consist of materials related to Roger Burlingame’s association with various organizations. Among these are the Century Club, the Housatonic Valley Conference, Office of War Information, and the United States Army. Writings (Boxes 28-54) date from 1856 to 1967, and include the written works of Roger, Ann, Walter, and Anson Burlingame. The bulk of this material was prepared by Roger Burlingame and includes articles, books, book reviews, diaries, poetry, short stories, and speeches. Included in this group are drafts of published and unpublished works as well as materials used in preparing the drafts. There is a miscellany of literary works written by others.
Arrangement of the Collection
Incoming letters are arranged alphabetically by the last name of the sender or by the name of the institution the sender represents. Outgoing correspondence is arranged chronologically by year and month. Some of the family correspondence has been separated out into a separate section. Items in Memorabilia are organized alphabetically by type of material. Manuscript materials are organized alphabetically by the name of the organization, and subdivided by the type of document. Writings are arranged alphabetically by author, and then by type of written work.
Note that due to rearrangement of the files there is NO BOX 14.
Restrictions Access Restrictions
There are no access restrictions on this material. Use Restrictions
Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.
Subject Headings Persons
Bacon, Leonard.
Beatty, Hetty Burlingame.
Boyle, Kay, 1902-1992.
Burlingame family Archives.
Burlingame, Anson, 1820-1870.
Burlingame, Edward L. (Edward Livermore), 1848-1922.
Burlingame, Roger, 1889-1967.
Davis, Elmer Holmes, 1890-1958.
Dos Passos, John, 1896-1970.
Dulles, Allen Welsh, 1893-1969.
Eisenhower, Milton Stover, 1899-1985.
Fisher, Dorothy Canfield, 1879-1958.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott (Francis Scott), 1896-1940.
Galbraith, John Kenneth, 1908-2006.
Goodman, Nathan G. (Nathan Gerson), 1899-
Howard, Sidney Coe, 1891-1939.
James, Henry, 1843-1916.
Kipling, Rudyard, 1865-1936.
MacLeish, Archibald, 1892-1982.
Marquand, John P. (John Phillips), 1893-1960.
Murrow, Edward R.
Osborne, Lithgow, 1892-1980.
Pringle, Henry F. (Henry Fowles), 1897-1958.
Roper, Elmo, 1900-1971.
Shirer, William L. (William Lawrence), 1904-1993.
Thurber, James, 1894-1961.
Watkins, Ann, 1885-1967
Wharton, Edith, 1862-1937.
Whinton, Angeline.
White, E. B. (Elwyn Brooks), 1899-1985.
Wilder, Thornton, 1897-1975. Subjects
Authors, American.
Biographers — United States.
Literary agents.
Novelists, American. Genres and Forms
Address books.
Appointment books.
Articles.
Book reviews.
Clippings.
Correspondence.
Diaries.
Fiction.
Genealogies.
Manuscripts for publication.
Obituaries.
Photographs.
Poems.
Speeches. Occupations
Authors.
Biographers.
Literary agents.
Novelists. Administrative Information Preferred Citation
Preferred citation for this material is as follows:
Burlingame Family Papers Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Library Finding Aid Information
Created by: MLB Date: Dec 1972 Revision history: 15 Sep 2008 – converted to EAD (MRC)
Relevant Materials
Inventory
Correspondence
Box 9A
1862-1866 – WAB to mother
Box 9A
1866-1867 – WAB to mother
Box 9A
1868 – WAB to mother (2 folders)
Box 9A
mostly letters from WAB at school in Heidelberg
1869 (2 folders)
Box 9A
1870 (2 folders)
Box 9A
mostly letters from ELB at school
1868 Mar – 1869 Jun – from E. L. Burlingame
Box 9A
1866 Mar – 1873, undated
Memorabilia
Biographical material
Box 18
mostly stuff same as LOC
Burlingame, Anson undated
Box 18
Clippings 1821-1956, undated (3 folders)
Box 18
Ephemera 1856-1918
Photographs
Box 20
Burlingame, Anson circa 1865
Box 20
Burlingame, Edward Livermore circa 1850-1920
Box 20
Burlingame, Ella circa 1870-1874
Box 20
Burlingame family and friends 1850-1940 (3 folders)
Box 22
Clemens, Samuel L. (autographed) 1870-1909
Writings
Burlingame, Anson
Box 28
Speech, Defense of Massachusetts 1856
Speeches
Burlingame, Walter A.
Box 54
“Peking” 1867 – this is a paper that WAB did as a school lesson
Miscellany
Articles
Box 54
Biggerstaff, Knight / “A Translation of Anson Burlingame’s Instructions…” circa 1936
Speeches
Box 55
Cowdin, Elliot C. / “Tribute to the Memory of Anson Burlingame” 1870
Notes from the reference librarian:
Thank you for calling the Special Collections Research Center at Syracuse University Library regarding your inquiry about the Burlingame Family Papers.
I looked through the correspondence in Box 9, as you requested, and found several letters written by Walter to his grandfather and mother from various locations in China and surrounding areas. Letters to his grandfather include one from Yokohama (24 August 1866), three from Shanghai (Oct 1866 and Dec 1867), seven from Peking (5 from Dec 1866-Apr 1867 and 2 from Sept-Oct 1867), one from Pat-a-chu(?) (18 May 1867), four from Lung-wong-tong (June-Sept 1867), and one aboard Steamer Delhi (21 Feb 1868). Letters to his mother included ones from Hong Kong (23 Jan 1868), aboard Steamer Reiver(?) (27 Jan 1868), Singapore (30 Jan 1868), and Benares (17 Feb 1868). There are also four letters to this mother from Alexandria, Jerusalem, and Beyrouth (Mar-Apr 1868). Letters to both his mother and grandfather later in 1868 (16 of them) are from Germany and Switzerland. Finally, I also found that there are two letters written by Gertrude from Peking (8 Feb 1867) and Pat-a-chu (13 July 1867) to her grandfather. All of these letters can be found in Box 9A.
I hope that this information helps you plan for your upcoming trip to the Special Collections Research Center. If we can do anything else to assist you, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Kristen Link
Reference Assistant
Special Collections Research Center
Syracuse University Library
Burlingame Family Papers
An inventory of their papers at Syracuse University
Syracuse University Library
222 Waverly Avenue
Syracuse, NY 13244-2010
http://scrc.syr.edu
315-443-2697
Biographical History
Three generations of the Burlingame family are represented in the papers of this collection. The three major historical figures in the family are discussed below in accordance with the amount of material present on each individual.
Anson Burlingame was born in 1820, the son of Joel and his wife Freelove (Angell) Burlingame. He attended the University of Michigan and Harvard Law School. After marriage to Jane Cornelia Livermore, the daughter of Isaac Livermore, Burlingame began a promising political career in the Massachusetts Senate. In 1855 he was elected as a Republican to Congress where he served three terms. After the presidential campaign of 1860 he became minister to Peking in which capacity he concluded the Burlingame Treaty. Burlingame died while on a diplomatic mission to St. Petersburg, Russia in 1870.
Edward Livermore Burlingame was the first son born to Anson Burlingame in 1848. As a young man he grew up in the Cambridge, Massachusetts area, and in 1861 entered Harvard. When his father was appointed minister to China, young Edward followed him to Peking, and later Paris, Berlin, Heidelberg, and St. Petersburg. In 1871 he began a career with the New York Tribune, and married Ella Frances Badger in the same year. Burlingame became a literary advisor to Charles Scribner’s Sons, and in 1886 was appointed editor of the new Scribner’s Magazine, a post he held until his resignation in 1914. E. L. Burlingame died in 1922.
The second son of Edward and Ella Burlingame was William Roger Burlingame, who was born in 1889. As a boy Roger attended Morristown School and went on to Harvard University, graduating from the latter in 1913. After serving with the American Expeditionary Force in France, he returned to America and assumed various posts with Charles Scribner’s Sons. In 1926 he began a career as a free-lance writer augmented by teaching stints at Barnard and M.I.T. During the course of his long career, Burlingame wrote many articles, essays, books, and short stories. He is particularly known for non-fiction works on the historical impact of industry and technology on American society, though he did publish several novels during the early part of his career. His autobiography, published in 1958, is entitled I Have Known Many Words.
In 1933 Roger married Angeline Whinton, known professionally as Ann Watkins, literary agent and president of Ann Watkins Inc. Mr. and Mrs. Burlingame died within a few days of each other in 1967.
A genealogical chart of the Burlingame family is available at the end of this inventory.
Scope and Contents of the Collection
The Burlingame Family Papers, 1856-1967, consist of the private and public papers of several generations of a prominent American family. The major contributor to the collection is writer and historian Roger Burlingame. There are also small amounts of material relating to Anson, Walter A., Edward Livermore, and Ann (Whinton) Burlingame. The papers are organized in five major groups: Correspondence, Legal and Financial Records, Memorabilia, Organization Records, and Writings.
Correspondence (Boxes 1-14) dates from 1856 to 1967, and is separated into incoming and outgoing letters. Among the items of special interest are the letters written by Walter A. Burlingame describing his experiences in China while accompanying his father, ambassador Anson Burlingame, in 1866 and 1867. Also, present are letters from well known authors including F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Marquand, Edith Wharton, Rudyard Kipling, Archibald MacLeish, Kaye Boyle, Sidney Howard, and others. The Legal and Financial Records group (Boxes 15-16), 18711967, contains documents pertinent to the-business affairs of several family members. There are wills, insurance policies, passports, royalty statements, and a variety of materials of a similar nature.
Memorabilia (Boxes 16-23) dating from 1865 to 1967 contains items of incidental interest about the private lives of the Burlingame and related families. Included in this group are address books, newspaper clippings, ephemera, genealogical records, biographical material, and photographs.
Organization records (Boxes 24-28), 1914-1964, consist of materials related to Roger Burlingame’s association with various organizations. Among these are the Century Club, the Housatonic Valley Conference, Office of War Information, and the United States Army.
Writings (Boxes 28-54) date from 1856 to 1967, and include the written works of Roger, Ann, Walter, and Anson Burlingame. The bulk of this material was prepared by Roger Burlingame and includes articles, books, book reviews, diaries, poetry, short stories, and speeches. Included in this group are drafts of published and unpublished works as well as materials used in preparing the drafts. There is a miscellany of literary works written by others.
Arrangement of the Collection
Incoming letters are arranged alphabetically by the last name of the sender or by the name of the institution the sender represents. Outgoing correspondence is arranged chronologically by year and month. Some of the family correspondence has been separated out into a separate section. Items in Memorabilia are organized alphabetically by type of material. Manuscript materials are organized alphabetically by the name of the organization, and subdivided by the type of document. Writings are arranged alphabetically by author, and then by type of written work.
Note that due to rearrangement of the files there is NO BOX 14.
Restrictions
Access Restrictions
There are no access restrictions on this material.
Use Restrictions
Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.
Subject Headings
Persons
Bacon, Leonard.
Beatty, Hetty Burlingame.
Boyle, Kay, 1902-1992.
Burlingame family Archives.
Burlingame, Anson, 1820-1870.
Burlingame, Edward L. (Edward Livermore), 1848-1922.
Burlingame, Roger, 1889-1967.
Davis, Elmer Holmes, 1890-1958.
Dos Passos, John, 1896-1970.
Dulles, Allen Welsh, 1893-1969.
Eisenhower, Milton Stover, 1899-1985.
Fisher, Dorothy Canfield, 1879-1958.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott (Francis Scott), 1896-1940.
Galbraith, John Kenneth, 1908-2006.
Goodman, Nathan G. (Nathan Gerson), 1899-
Howard, Sidney Coe, 1891-1939.
James, Henry, 1843-1916.
Kipling, Rudyard, 1865-1936.
MacLeish, Archibald, 1892-1982.
Marquand, John P. (John Phillips), 1893-1960.
Murrow, Edward R.
Osborne, Lithgow, 1892-1980.
Pringle, Henry F. (Henry Fowles), 1897-1958.
Roper, Elmo, 1900-1971.
Shirer, William L. (William Lawrence), 1904-1993.
Thurber, James, 1894-1961.
Watkins, Ann, 1885-1967
Wharton, Edith, 1862-1937.
Whinton, Angeline.
White, E. B. (Elwyn Brooks), 1899-1985.
Wilder, Thornton, 1897-1975.
Subjects
Authors, American.
Biographers — United States.
Literary agents.
Novelists, American.
Genres and Forms
Address books.
Appointment books.
Articles.
Book reviews.
Clippings.
Correspondence.
Diaries.
Fiction.
Genealogies.
Manuscripts for publication.
Obituaries.
Photographs.
Poems.
Speeches.
Occupations
Authors.
Biographers.
Literary agents.
Novelists.
Administrative Information
Preferred Citation
Preferred citation for this material is as follows:
Burlingame Family Papers Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Library
Finding Aid Information
Created by: MLB Date: Dec 1972 Revision history: 15 Sep 2008 – converted to EAD (MRC)
Relevant Materials
Inventory
Notes from the reference librarian:
Thank you for calling the Special Collections Research Center at Syracuse University Library regarding your inquiry about the Burlingame Family Papers.
I looked through the correspondence in Box 9, as you requested, and found several letters written by Walter to his grandfather and mother from various locations in China and surrounding areas. Letters to his grandfather include one from Yokohama (24 August 1866), three from Shanghai (Oct 1866 and Dec 1867), seven from Peking (5 from Dec 1866-Apr 1867 and 2 from Sept-Oct 1867), one from Pat-a-chu(?) (18 May 1867), four from Lung-wong-tong (June-Sept 1867), and one aboard Steamer Delhi (21 Feb 1868). Letters to his mother included ones from Hong Kong (23 Jan 1868), aboard Steamer Reiver(?) (27 Jan 1868), Singapore (30 Jan 1868), and Benares (17 Feb 1868). There are also four letters to this mother from Alexandria, Jerusalem, and Beyrouth (Mar-Apr 1868). Letters to both his mother and grandfather later in 1868 (16 of them) are from Germany and Switzerland. Finally, I also found that there are two letters written by Gertrude from Peking (8 Feb 1867) and Pat-a-chu (13 July 1867) to her grandfather. All of these letters can be found in Box 9A.
I hope that this information helps you plan for your upcoming trip to the Special Collections Research Center. If we can do anything else to assist you, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Kristen Link
Reference Assistant
Special Collections Research Center
Syracuse University Library