Subgroup 06: Lawrence W. Towner papers, 1948-1989
Scope and Contents
Correspondence, reports, research notes, articles, and speeches relating to Towner's activities on behalf of the Newberry Library. Also personal papers. Correspondence includes incoming and outgoing administrative letters arranged chronologically. Administrative subject files include correspondence, reports, etc., regarding Library personnel, collections, conferences, departments, events, gifts, property, and trustees. Also included are Towner's articles, reviews, speeches, reports, and publications as well as correspondence and other files documenting his pre Newberry teaching career and non Newberry activities. Correspondents include R. A. Billington, M. Cowley, G. Donnelley, E. D. Graff, C. Haffner, C. J. Hambleton, K. Nebenzahl, S. Pargellis, H. D. Smith and H. R. Strauss.
Dates
- Creation: 1948-1989
Creator
Conditions Governing Access
The Newberry Library Archives are open for research in the Special Collections Reading Room; 1 box at a time (Priority III).
Unprocessed records are available by appointment only. Advance notice is necessary, particularly for administrative files, so that files may be screened for personnel records that are removed when records are processed.
Files containing personal or confidential information about individuals (including individual files on members of the Board of Trustees, individual donor files and records reporting the donations of an individual, personnel records, payroll records, and individual accepted fellows files) are closed for 30 years.
Biography of Lawrence W. Towner
Sixth Librarian of the Newberry Library (1962-1986), and historian. Born Sept. 10, 1921, in St. Paul, Minnesota, educated at Cornell College (B.A.) and Northwestern (M.A., Ph.D.), Towner served in the U.S. Army Air Corps (WWII), taught at the Latin School of Chicago, Northwestern, and MIT and edited the William and Mary Quarterly (1956-1962), before coming to the Newberry in 1962. The Newberry expanded significantly under Towner. He acquired major collections (Silver, Sack, Ruggles), expanded the Library's fellowship, publications, and research programs, creating the Research and Education Division and four research centers, enlarged the Library's physical space, adding a ten-story bookstack building and renovating existing quarters, and began development activities, starting the Newberry Library Associates and other fund raising programs. Also active in the AHA, OAH, IRLA, and Caxton Club, Towner retired in 1986 and died in 1992.
Extent
56 Linear Feet (48 boxes and 29 record cartons)
Arrangement
Organized in four series: Correspondence (03/06/01), Administrative Subject File (03/06/02), Works (03/06/03), and Personal (03/06/04).
Repository Details
Part of the The Newberry Library - Modern Manuscripts and Archives Repository
60 West Walton Street
Chicago Illinois 60610 United States
312-255-3512
reference@newberry.org