Oliver Otis Howard papers
-
Please use the Collection Organization section below to place requests.
Scope and Content
Correspondence, articles, addresses, lectures, publications, diaries, clippings, indexes and other material from the personal and unofficial professional records of Oliver Otis Howard. Also includes images from a variety of sources. Howard corresponded with more than 14,000 people, including notables in the military, social reformation, politics and law, religion, education, literature and journalism, and the arts.
Correspondents include: Henry Ward Beecher, Blanche K. Bruce, Andrew Carnegie, Salmon P. Chase, George Crook, Dorothea Dix, Frederick Douglass, James A. Garfield, William Lloyd Garrison, Ulysses S. Grant, Edward Everett Hale, Winfield S. Hancock, Rutherford B. Hayes, William Randolph Hearst, Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins, William McKinley, Montgomery C. Meigs, Nelson A. Miles, Dwight L. Moody, Theodore Roosevelt, Elihu Root, Carl Schurz, Philip H. Sheridan, John Sherman, William T. Sherman, Daniel E. Sickles, Edwin M. Stanton, Charles Sumner, William H. Taft, Soujourner Truth and Booker T. Washington.
His most voluminous correspondence (minimum of 110 letters received each) was with: Charles F. Eager of Lincoln Memorial University; Cyrus Kehr, speaking agent; John Hale Larry of Lincoln Memorial University; Henry F. McCoy of the San Francisco Y.M.C.A.; J. E. Rankin of Howard University; Wager Swayne of the Freedmen's Bureau in Alabama; and Eliphalet Whittlesey of the Board of Indian Commissioners.
Indexes of the letters with links to online digital surrogates are available in both PDF and Excel form. Hyperlinks within PDFs are clickable, while hyperlinks within Excel spreadsheets must be copied and pasted.
Chronological index of unbound (mostly incoming) correspondence (PDF file)
Sortable index of unbound (mostly incoming) correspondence (Excel file)
Chronological index of bound (mostly outgoing) correspondence (PDF file)
Sortable index of bound (mostly outgoing) correspondence (Excel file)
Full transcriptions of early correspondence have been compiled by Russell and Rosalie Howard; electronic versions of the transcriptions and indexes are available courtesy of the Howards (Adobe Acrobat Reader required): Transcriptions of early correspondence, chronological (PDF file)
The collections of Howard's brothers, Charles Henry Howard and Rowland Bailey Howard supplement this material.
Dates
- Creation: 1833-1912, undated
- Creation: Majority of material found within 1846-1908
Creator
Use of Digital Collections
Digital materials may be used for research, educational, and non-commercial purposes without our written permission. For information about publication, visit our policies page or contact scaref@bowdoin.edu.
Agency History / Biographical Note
Oliver Otis Howard (1830-1909, Bowdoin 1850), a career officer in the United States Army, rose to the rank of bvt. maj. general in the volunteers and, later, in the regular army. During the Civil War, he fought at Bull Run, Fair Oaks, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Chattanooga, and in Sherman's march through Georgia. After the Civil War, Howard was appointed commissioner of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands (1865-1873). Subsequent appointments included: commander of the Department of the Columbia (1874-1880) during the Nez Perce War; superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point (1880-1882); commander of the Department of the Platte (1882-1886) and the Divisions of the Pacific (1886-1888) and the East (1888-1894).
Howard was instrumental in founding Howard University and Lincoln Memorial University. Howard was graduated from Bowdoin College in 1850 and from West Point in 1854. He served at Watervliet Arsenal in West Troy, New York (1854-1855); Kennebec Arsenal in Augusta, Maine (1855-1856); and in the Seminole Wars in Florida (1856-1857).
In 1872, he led a peace mission to Cochise. Howard was also involved in Republican Party politics, the Congregational Home Missionary Society, the Young Men's Christian Association, the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, and the Congregational Church.
Howard was the author of several works, including The Autobiography of Oliver Otis Howard (1907), My Life and Experiences Among our Hostile Indians (1907) and Famous Indian Chiefs I Have Known (1908). In 1855, Howard married Elizabeth "Lizzie" Ann Waite (1832-1911) of Portland, Maine. The couple had seven children: Guy Howard (1855-1899); Grace Ellen Howard Gray (1856-1949); James "Jamie" Waite Howard (1860-1932); Chancey Otis Howard (1863-1934); John Howard (b. 1867); Harry Stinson Howard (1869-1960); and Elizabeth "Bessie" Howard Bancroft (1871-1941).
Extent
60 Linear Feet
Language of Materials
Undetermined
Abstract
Correspondence, articles, addresses, lectures, publications, diaries, clippings, indexes, photographs, and other material from the personal and unofficial professional records of Oliver Otis Howard.
Reproduction Note
This collection is available online.
O.O. Howard's outgoing correspondence, 1866-1900 (M91.7 Letterpress Volumes 9-56) is available on 34 microfilm reels; George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives, Bowdoin College Library, Brunswick, Maine
Subject
- Howard, O. O. (Oliver Otis), 1830-1909 -- Archives. (Person)
- Beecher, Henry Ward, 1813-1887 -- Correspondence. (Person)
- Bruce, Blanche Kelso, 1841-1898 -- Correspondence. (Person)
- Carnegie, Andrew, 1835-1919 -- Correspondence. (Person)
- Chase, Salmon P. (Salmon Portland), 1808-1873 -- Correspondence. (Person)
- Crook, George, 1829-1890 -- Correspondence. (Person)
- Dix, Dorothea Lynde, 1802-1887 -- Correspondence. (Person)
- Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895 -- Correspondence. (Person)
- Garfield, James A. (James Abram), 1831-1881 -- Correspondence. (Person)
- Garrison, William Lloyd, 1805-1879 -- Correspondence. (Person)
- Grant, Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson), 1822-1885 -- Correspondence. (Person)
- Hale, Edward Everett, 1822-1909 -- Correspondence. (Person)
- Hancock, Winfield Scott, 1824-1886 -- Correspondence. (Person)
- Hayes, Rutherford B., 1822-1893 -- Correspondence. (Person)
- Hearst, William Randolph, 1863-1951 -- Correspondence. (Person)
- Winnemucca, Sarah, 1844?-1891 -- Correspendence (Person)
- McKinley, William, 1843-1901 -- Correspondence. (Person)
- Meigs, Montgomery C. (Montgomery Cunningham), 1816-1892 -- Correspondence. (Person)
- Miles, Nelson Appleton, 1839-1925 -- Correspondence. (Person)
- Moody, Dwight Lyman, 1837-1899 -- Correspondence. (Person)
- Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919 -- Correspondence. (Person)
- Root, Elihu, 1845-1937 -- Correspondence. (Person)
- Schurz, Carl, 1829-1906 -- Correspondence. (Person)
- Sheridan, Philip Henry, 1831-1888 -- Correspondence. (Person)
- Sherman, John, 1823-1900 -- Correspondence. (Person)
- Sherman, William T. (William Tecumseh), 1820-1891 -- Correspondence. (Person)
- Sickles, Daniel Edgar, 1819-1914 -- Correspondence. (Person)
- Stanton, Edwin M. (Edwin McMasters), 1814-1869 -- Correspondence. (Person)
- Sumner, Charles, 1811-1874 -- Correspondence. (Person)
- Taft, William H. (William Howard), 1857-1930 -- Correspondence. (Person)
- Truth, Sojourner, 1799-1883 -- Correspondence. (Person)
- Washington, Booker T., 1856-1915 -- Correspondence. (Person)
- Whittlesey, E. (Eliphalet), 1821-1909 -- Correspondence. (Person)
- Howard family (Family)
- Howard University (Organization)
- Lincoln Memorial University (Organization)
- United States. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (Organization)
Genre / Form
Geographic
Topical
- Title
- Guide to the Oliver Otis Howard Papers
- Author
- Finding aid prepared by Bowdoin College Library George J. Mitchell Dept. of Special Collections & Archives
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
- Language of description note
- eng
Repository Details
Part of the George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives, Bowdoin College Library, Brunswick, Maine 04011 Repository