United States History

African American | Asian American | California and the West | Mexican American | Military | Political History | | Railroads | Women's History

The Manuscripts Division collects extensively in the area of United States History.

Ben Stone is the curator for United States History and is responsible for selecting manuscript collections that fall into this area. For a fuller description of collecting activities in this field, please refer to the United States History home page.

African American History
Scholars interested in African American history, particularly those interested in 20th century political activism, will find our manuscript holdings to be rich. Notable collections include M1297 Josephine Baker Collection, M0170 Stokely Carmichael-Lorna D. Smith Collection, 1964-1972, and M0864 the Newton Foundation Inc. Collection.

Asian American
Collections centering on the experience of Asian Americans include the papers of American playwrite and screenwriter David Hwang (M0636) and M0909 the Peter M. Takaichi Papers, which documents the forced relocation of Japanese Americans during World War II.

California and the West
There are more than 60 collections dealing with the history of California alone. Some of the more notable of these include the Mary Sheldon Barnes Pacific Slope Collection (M0067), the Ambrose Bierce (Ambrose) Papers (M0080), the Culver Family Papers, 1858-1915 (M0633), the Daingerfield Family Letters (M0004), the Theressa Gay Papers, 1946-1960 (M0274), the Senator Herbert C. Jones Papers (M0099) and (M0208), the Governor Goodwin Jess Knight (Goodwin Jess) Papers, 1896-1988 (M0244), the Pacific Improvement Company. Records, 1869-1931 (JL001) and the Pacific Improvement Company Records, 1901-1966 (JL017), the Pacific Slope Manuscripts (M0153), the Dorothy Regnery Papers, 1980-1991 (M0479), the Adolph Sutro Papers (JL004), the United Railroads of San Francisco Records (M0161), and the Western Highways Historical Collection, 1888-1960 (M0314). For more information please visit the Manuscripts Division California and the American West homepage.

Labor History
Labor History collections focus mainly on the effort to organize rural farm workers in California during the mid to late 20th century. Collections include the papers of political activist Fred Ross (M0812) and Catholic priests and labor organizers James L. Vizzard (M0324) and Victor Salandini (M0686).

Mexican American
More than 45 collections document the experience of Mexicans in America from the mid-nineteenth century to present. Major collections include the records of the Chicano advocacy groups National Council of La Raza (M0744) and the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund (MALDEF) (M0673) as well as the papers of Mexican American writers Arturo Islas (M0618) and Cecile Pineda (M1176). Please also visit the Manuscripts Divisions' Mexican American Studies page.

Military History
20 manuscript collections, mostly consisting of individual diaries or letters document the experience of Americans during the Civil War. A smaller body of materials deals with the Revolutionary and Spanish American Wars.

Political History
Materials relating to American political history span three centuries and include M0005 Presidential Autographs and M0561 John F. Kennedy campaign materials.

Railroads
Manuscripts Division holds an extensive set of collections documenting the role of railroads in the development of the American West.

Most notably, the Stanford University Libraries acquired the Southern Pacific Railroad Records in late 1999; regrettably, not all of that collection is currently open to researchers until it can be properly arranged, described, and essential preservation work performed. However, approximately 60% of the collection is available to researchers, who can used the online finding aid to the collection to locate materials that they wish to use [xml-encoded] [html-encoded].

Related collections include the Southern Pacific Company Drawings and maps, ca. 1870-1930 (PRINTS 0007) [xml-encoded guide] [html-encoded guide] and the Southern Pacific Transportation Company Records, 1936-1954 (JL015) [xml-encoded guide] [html-encoded guide].

For a complete list of finding aids to collections relating to railroads, please go to the Finding Aids by Subject site.

Women's History
A variety of collections document the experience of women in America. M0131 the Noted Women Collection, 1887-1931 contains letters, clippings and autographs of such luminaries as Jane Addams, Eleanor Roosevelt and Susan B. Anthony. More recent collections in this subject area include M1220 Irene A. Beardsley American Women's Himalayan Expedition Collection, 1974-1984. While some of these materials emphasize the largely white and middle class women's rights movement of the 19th century, others cut across lines of race and class, including M0828 Laura Aguilar Papers and Photographs, M0905 Cherrie Moraga Papers and M1011 Priscilla Ruiz Goldman Papers.