Guide to the George Lincoln Burr Papers,
1861-1942

Collection Number: 14-17-22

Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections
Cornell University Library

Contact Information:
Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections
2B Carl A. Kroch Library
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
(607) 255-3530
Fax: (607) 255-9524
rareref@cornell.edu
http://rmc.library.cornell.edu
Compiled by:
B. Huth
Date completed:
February 1977
EAD encoding:
Peter Martinez, January 2003

© 2003 Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library

DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY

Title:
George Lincoln Burr papers, 1861-1942.
Collection Number:
14-17-22
Creator:
George Lincoln Burr 1857-1938.
Quantity:
16.8 cubic ft.
Forms of Material:
Letters, diaries, manuscripts.
Repository:
Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library
Abstract:
Letters, diary fragments, notes, manuscripts, and other material documenting Burr's boyhood in Newark Valley, New York, and his student days at Cortland Academy, at Cornell University, and at Leipzig University; his travels and activities in Europe collecting rare books and manuscripts for Cornell; his relationship with Andrew Dickson White; his relationships with other American and European scholars and his students; his work for the Venezuela-Guiana Boundary Commission; and his interest in the American Historical Association, the Cornell Alumni Association, the Cornell Christian Association, the Hall of Fame at New York University, the Telluride Association, and in many other social and professional groups.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Professor of medieval history, librarian of the Andrew Dickson White Library at Cornell University.
COLLECTION DESCRIPTION

Letters, diary fragments, notes, manuscripts, and other material documenting Burr's boyhood in Newark Valley, New York, and his student days at Cortland Academy, at Cornell University, and at Leipzig University; his travels and activities in Europe collecting rare books and manuscripts for Cornell; his relationship with Andrew Dickson White; his relationships with other American and European scholars and his students; his work for the Venezuela-Guiana Boundary Commission; and his interest in the American Historical Association, the Cornell Alumni Association, the Cornell Christian Association, the Hall of Fame at New York University, the Telluride Association, and in many other social and professional groups.
Correspondents include Lyman Abbott, Charles Kendall Adams, Roland H. Bainton, Carl Becker, Henry Bourne, James Bryce, John Burroughs, Anna and Henry Comstock, Reverend Robert Collyer, Leonard K. Elmhirst, Livingston Farrand, Max Farrand, Simon Henry Gage, Daniel Coit Gilman, Louis Gottschalk, Evarts B. Greene, Charles Gross, George Willam Harris, Albert Bushnell Hart, Charles Haskins, Ernest Huffcut, Charles Henry Hull, Edward M. Hulme, J. Franklin Jameson (mainly having to do with the AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW), David Starr Jordan (extensive, quite impersonal), Louis C. Karpinski, Horace Kephart, Waldo G. Leland, John Bassett Moore, John R. Mott, David Saville Muzzey, Wallace Notestein, Cuthbert Pound, Herbert Putnam (Library of Congress), Jacob Gould Schurman, George H. Sabine, Goldwin Smith, Preserved Smith, H. Morse Stephens, Dorothy and Willard Straight, Alfred and Ernest Sze, Ida Tarbell, Frederick Jackson Turner, Moses Coit Tyler, Hendrik Willem Van Loon (extensive and intimate), Oswald Garrison Villard, Booker T. Washington, Benjamin Ide Wheeler, Frederick White, Burt G. Wilder, and many others.
Letter, 1903, from Andrew Dickson White about his trip to Elba, with comments about Napoleon I, and fourteen postcards, some annotated, of scenes of Elba.
SUBJECTS

Names:
Burr, George Lincoln,1857-1938.
Abbott, Lyman, 1835-1922.
Bainton, Roland Herbert, 1894-
Becker, Carl Lotus, 1873-1945.
Bourne, H. R. Fox(Henry Richard Fox), 1837-1909.
Bryce, James Bryce, 1838-1922.
Burroughs, John, 1837-1921.
Comstock, Anna Botsford, 1854-1930.
Gilman, Daniel Coit, 1831-1908.
Greene, Evarts Boutell, 1870-1947.
Hart, Albert Bushnell, 1854-1943.
Haskins, Charles Homer, 1870-1937.
Hull, Charles Henry, b. 1864.
Jameson, J. Franklin(John Franklin), 1859-1937.
Jordan, David Starr, 1851-1931.
Karpinski, Louis Charles, 1878-1956.
Kephart, Horace, 1862-1931.
Moore, John Bassett, 1860-1947.
Mott, John Raliegh, 1865-1955.
Napoleon 1769-1821.
Notestein, Wallace, 1878-1969.
Sabine, George Holland, 1880-1961.
Schurman, Jacob Gould, 1854-1942.
Smith, Goldwin, 1823-1910.
Smith, Preserved, 1880-1941.
Sze, Sao-Ke Alfred, 1877-1958.
Tarbell, Ida M.(Ida Minerva), 1857-1944.
Turner, Frederick Jackson, 1861-1932.
Tyler, Moses Coit, 1835-1900.
Van Loon, Hendrik Willem, 1882-1944.
Villard, Oswald Garrison, 1872-1949.
White, Fred M.(Fred Merrick), b. 1859.
American Historical Association.
Cornell University--Students.
Cornell University.Libraries.
Universität Leipzig.

Subjects:
College students.
Rare book libraries.
Rare books.
College teachers.
Historians.
Librarians.

Places:
Guiana--Boundaries.
Newark Valley (N.Y.)--Social life and customs.
Venezuela--Boundaries.
Elba (Italy)--Description and travel--Views.

INFORMATION FOR USERS

Cite As:
George Lincoln Burr papers, #14-17-22. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.
Additional List of Correspondents
*Neither the Burr nor Schurman Papers contain other Gladden letters for this period (Sept. - Oct. 1893, but the Schurman letterbooks contain a copy of one letter from Shcurman to Gladden re preaching at Sage, dated October 26, 1893
Cross references to added entries
CONTAINER LIST

Description
Container
Correspondence 1861-1885
Box 1
Correspondence 1886-1889
Box 2
Correspondence 1890-1894
Box 3
Correspondence 1895-1897
Box 4
Correspondence 1898-1900
Box 5
Correspondence 1901-1903
Box 6
Correspondence 1904 - March 1907
Box 7
Correspondence April 1907 - -1908
Box 8
Correspondence 1909 - Oct. 1910
Box 9
Correspondence Nov. 1910 - 1912
Box 10
Correspondence 1913 - Feb. 1915
Box 11
Correspondence Mar. 1915 - April 1916
Box 12
Correspondence May 1916 - 1917
Box 13
Correspondence 1918 - June 9, 1921
Box 14
Correspondence June 10, 1921 - July 1924
Box 15
Correspondence Aug. 1924 - May 1927
Box 16
Correspondence June 1927 - April 1931
Box 17
Correspondence May 1931 - Aug. 1934
Box 18
Correspondence Sept. 1934 - Nov. 12, 1938
Box 19
Correspondence 1941, 1942 and n.d. A-K
Box 20
Correspondence n.d. L-Z
Box 21
R. Bainton & L.O. Gibbons Research Correspondence re G.L. Burr
Box 22
Burr Family Material, G.L. Burr Pre-college Days
Box 23
C.U. 1887-1884, Class of 1881
Box 24
Misc. Personal Material 1884-1888 European Travel
Box 25
C.U. - Ithaca War Work, Congregational Church and Unitarian Church, 1889-1938
Box 26
Telluride Material
Box 27
Photos, including Van Loon photos and Sketches
Box 28
Photos
Box 29
Warfare of Science
Box 30
Warfare of Science Notes, Mss., Revisions
Box 31
Venezuelan Boundary Comm. No. 1
Box 32
Venezuelan Boundary Comm. No. 2
Box 33
Misc. Reviews, Writings, Bibliographies No. 1
Box 34
Misc. Mss., Obituaries, Eulogies
Box 35
Misc. Reviews, Writings, Bibliographies No. 2
Box 36
Misc. Scraps, Notes
Box 37
Witchcraft Material; Burr's Notes, Lea's Notes and Mss.
Box 38
Degrees and Medals
Box 39
Research Papers by Students
Box 40
Research Papers by Students
Box 41
Jan. 5, "1970 Accession : typed and printed items concerning the AHA-Bancroft episode, 1915; bibliographical notes (witchcraft).
Box 42
Letters from Horace Kephart to George Lincoln Burr, from Florence, Italy
Apr. 3, 1885
Apr. 24, 1885
May 23, 1885
May 25, 1885
May 25, 1885
June 1, 1885
June 2, 1885
July 2, 1885
July 18, 1885
Dec. 16, 1885
Jan., 1886
Letters from Win. A. Dunning to G.L. Burr
1903-1919 November 20, 1903 - April 14, 1919. 21 letters
November 20, 1903
Hull not to give talk in New Orleans; D. wants Burr to replace him there
December 16, 1903
Giddings paper; routine AHA
March 9, 1908
routine AHA re report on annual meetings in Madison
May 25, 1908
re publication of essays, especially Robertson's
April 8, 1908
a general letter "To the Members of the Committee on Public; re publication of Prize Essays; financing/publishers; great length of essays; wants independent Series
January 8, 1909
re Krehbiel's essay; re announcement of the series of prize
January 18, 1909
details of essay prizes, etc., financial matters; rules
January 22, 1909
details on essay correction process
January 25, 1909
re format of type and page of essays
February 17, 1909
sorrow over death of Burr's wife
March 5, 1909
re Krehbiel's manuscript - editing
March 31, 1909
Krehbiel's manuscript on way to printer
April 5, 1909
routine - essays
June 27, 1909
routine - re proofs (enclosure attached)
October 6, 1909
re Krehbiel's book
June 30, 1910
re Notestein's essay
July 10, 1910
re Notestein's essay (cynical; anti-Semitic)
March 5, 1915
looking for new Columbia faculty member
May 28, 1915
re appointment with Evans
January 10, 1916
re AHA meeting location
April 14, 1919
recommending W.T. Morgan for Eng. History position