Scope and arrangement
Taken as a whole this collection provides rich documentation of nearly every phase of Henry George's life and career. The correspondence forms the largest and most comprehensive section of the collection and reflects his habit of writing constantly to his family and his closest political colleagues, especially while traveling abroad. His close relationship to the Irish national movement is well demonstrated, not only in his letterbooks of correspondence with the (New York) Irish World, but also in his diaries and notebooks, and in manuscripts of articles and lectures.
While the growth and inner workings of the American Single Tax movement are well illustrated in the correspondence, diaries, and writings, other aspects of George's political activity are less adequately covered. In particular, there is little material here concerning George's two New York City mayoral campaigns (1886 and 1897). To complete the records of George's intellectual and political ideas and activity, as well as the passionate response (both pro and con) he evoked, it is necessary to consult the full body of published work by and about him.
Users should be aware that a large part of Anna George de Mille's original donation of Henry George material, including 29 volumes of scrapbooks of clippings [classmark TIQB+ (George)], bound volumes of pamphlets, loose pamphlets and periodicals, and books, can be found in the Economics and Public Affairs Division of the Library. For details of these holdings consult the two bibliographies cited below.
The Henry George papers are arranged in seven series:
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1854-19393.25 linear feet (11 boxes, 8 reels, 2 volumes)
General correspondence includes incoming and outgoing correspondence of Henry George on family, political, and business matters. Henry George's letters to his wife, Annie Fox George, and elder son, Henry George, Jr., are included here; their letters to him are in Series VI (Family Papers). There are also many letters to and from Henry George's parents and other relatives. Early correspondence concerns his sea voyage and his life and work in California. The bulk of the series chronicles his relations with political associates in the Single Tax and Irish nationalist movements in America and Europe. There is also extensive correspondence with editors and publishers concerning his journalistic work and other writing projects.
A letterbook of 1869 contains copies of letters relating to his work for the San Francisco Herald and his dealings with the Associated Press. Four letterbooks of 1881-1882 consist mostly of letters written from Britain to Patrick Ford, editor of the (New York) Irish World; these give detailed assessments of the policies and actions of Charles Stewart Parnell, Michael Davitt, and other leaders of the Irish Land League, as well as reports of his lectures and meetings with English and Scottish sympathizers.
The American correspondence charts the development of the Single Tax movement and George's relations with major political supporters, among them Father Edward McGlynn, Francis G. Shaw, August Lewis, Tom L. Johnson, Louis F. Post, Thomas G. Shearman, and Dr. Edward R. Taylor, a California friend.
Among the notable British correspondents are H. M. Hyndman, Helen Taylor, J. L. Joynes, F. Max Müller, and Thomas F. Walker of Birmingham.
Smaller subseries include a scrapbook of letters related to a testimonial dinner in 1884; correspondence of Father Thomas Dawson, an Irish priest and longtime family friend, consisting chiefly of transcripts of George's letters to Dawson in the Brotherton Library, Leeds; and documentation of the tangled litigation arising from a legacy of George Hutchins of Ancora, New Jersey to Henry George.
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1865-1896, undated
Included are manuscript (and some typescript) notes, drafts, and finished texts of articles, lectures, and occasional writings. There is a selection of Henry George's early writing as a California journalist and reformer, an extensive group of essays and lectures (and one interview) from his British tours of the 1880s, and a smaller number of items on the theory of the single tax and his involvements in American party politics and the labor movement.
His major published work is represented here by the full autograph manuscript of Progress and Poverty (publ. 1879) and partial drafts and notes for the introductory matter and Books I and II of The Science of Political Economy (publ. 1897). The famous lecture, "Moses," is represented in drafts, galleys, and a printed copy. Among the essays are studies of Abraham Lincoln, J. S. Mill, James Garfield, and Michael Davitt, several accounts of his travels and brief imprisonment in Ireland in 1882, and an explanation of his support for the Democrats in 1896. There are also several folders and one notebook of rough notes and extracts.
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1855-1896
The diaries and notebooks cover (with some gaps) Henry George's life from the age of sixteen until the year before his death. The earliest volumes are accounts of his sea voyage in 1855-1856, illustrated with rough sketches. Volumes for the 1860s and 70s include family news, details of his work for California newspapers, and financial notations reflecting his desperate struggle to support his wife and young children. The 1880s diaries are largely devoted to his efforts to build the Single Tax movement in America and Britain, and include details of his lecture schedules and names and addresses of political contacts. The 1890s are dominated by American politics, George's editorial work on the Standard, and his dealings with New York publishers. There are no volumes of 1886 and 1897, the years of his New York mayoral campaigns.
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1856-1950
This series consists mostly of the correspondence and papers of Annie Fox George and Henry George, Jr., including their letters to Henry George and letters to and from other relatives and friends. The Annie George correspondence includes many letters from Helen Taylor, stepdaughter of John Stuart Mill, and a large group from Mrs. Belle Stickney (later Robbins), a California friend; there are single letters from Emma Willard and Samuel Gompers.
Henry George, Jr.'s correspondence before 1897 consists largely of his letters to his father about political and editorial matters. A lengthy series from 1889 details the bitter split in the ranks of Single Taxers which developed while Henry George was touring Britain. After 1897, the correspondence, writings, and notes are mostly related to Henry George Jr. 's work on a biography of his father. Among the reminiscences solicited from old friends and colleagues of Henry George is a good deal of material not used in the published Life. There is a folder of condolence letters on the death of Annie George (1904), and many letters to and from Hamlin Garland concerning plans for an anniversary banquet in 1905. The letters to Garland (Box 17) include George Bernard Shaw's famous account of his "conversion" by Henry George in 1882.
A small group of papers relating to other family members includes genealogical material, Henry George's marriage certificate, and a folder of papers of Anna George de Mille (1877-1947) chiefly concerned with her research on a biography of her father and her efforts to gather and preserve papers relating to him.
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This series contains material providing background information on Henry George's life, career, and influence - much of it written by others. Included are a manuscript account of his sea voyage to Australia and India (by Samuel Miller), dispatch code books used in his journalist work, financial records, phrenological charts and a doctor's report, obituaries and other memorials, articles by colleagues in the Single Tax movement, and some items illustrating the history of the movement after George's death.
A small group of books and pamphlets includes several works by Henry George, attacks on his theories, an 18th century tract on the land tax, and memoirs by Anna George de Mille.
Among the ephemera are Henry George autographs clipped from letters, blank forms and stationery, miscellaneous cards and circulars, campaign ribbons and other souvenirs.
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Included are daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, photographs, and prints depicting Henry George at all stages of his life, beginning in the 1840s, as well as formal and candid portraits of family members, friends, colleagues, and homes associated with the George family. A large group photograph shows Henry George and other delegates to the 2nd National Single Tax Conference, Chicago, 1893. There is also a group of photostats of political cartoons featuring Henry George and a set of printed plates of the illustrations to Henry George, Jr.'s Life of Henry George.