Title: Raymond Robins Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1878-1956

Creator:

• Robins, Raymond, 1873-1954

Call Number: U.S. Mss AD; Micro 567; Micro 579

Quantity: 19.8 c.f. (50 archives boxes) and 8 reels of microfilm (35mm)

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Papers of Raymond Robins, a social worker, social economist, lecturer, and politician, including correspondence, diaries, speeches, and miscellaneous papers. The collection documents his life in Alaska, 1897-1900; his work in Chicago's seventeenth ward, 1900-1914; his political activities in the Illinois Progressive Party; his 1913 lecture tour for the Men and Religion Forward Movement; his 1917-1918 tour of Russia as a member of the American Red Cross mission, subsequent support for diplomatic recognition of the Soviet Union by the United States and efforts to promote economic ties between the two counties, and a return trip to the Soviet Union in 1933; and other activities. Also in the collection is correspondence of his wife Margaret Dreier Robins and of her sister Mary Dreier.

Language: English, Russian

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-us0000ad

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Born on Staten Island, New York on September 17, 1873, Raymond Robins was reared by relatives in Ohio, Kentucky, and Florida, before striking out on his own in his teens to work as a miner and farmhand through the South and West. In 1896 he secured a degree in law from Columbian (now George Washington) University, and established a legal practice in San Francisco. From 1897 to 1900 he was in Alaska, prospecting for gold, campaigning for organized government and law enforcement, and serving as a licensed Congregational minister. While in the Klondike, he achieved financial independence.

Upon returning from Alaska in 1900, Robins settled in Chicago and turned his attention to political reform and to social work in the overcrowded slums of the seventeenth ward, where he lived for the greater part of the next fourteen years. Here he experienced the anarchist alarm following the assassination of President William McKinley, recollections of which Robins dictated in September, 1914. Here too he was a staff member of Chicago Commons, was superintendent of the Chicago Municipal Lodging House from 1902 to 1906, was made head resident of Northwestern University Settlement in 1903, and was appointed to the Chicago Board of Education in 1906. In June, 1905, he married Margaret Dreier who, along with her sister Mary, was active in the woman's suffrage and women's trade union movements. Mrs. Robins served as president of the National Women's Trade Union League from 1907 to 1922, and during the 1928 presidential campaign accepted the chairmanship of the Division of Industrial Women of the Republican Party.

In national politics Robins had been a Bryan Democrat in 1896, and occasional letters from Daniel Kiefer in the early 1900's indicate Robins' interest in the Single Tax proposals of Henry George. By 1912 Robins had become a Progressive and was active in such organizations as the Initiative and Referendum League of Illinois, the National Referendum League, and the 1912 campaign of Theodore Roosevelt. Robins became chairman of the Illinois State Central Committee of the Progressive Party in the fall of 1913, and in the following year made his only personal bid for elective public office, when, with the personal endorsement of Roosevelt and with Harold Ickes as his campaign manager, he ran unsuccessfully for the United States Senate on the Progressive ticket.

Robins was a popular lecturer on social and religious topics under the auspices of the Men and Religion Forward Movement and the Young Men's Christian Association. On behalf of the former group, Robins and Fred B. Smith went on a world tour in 1913. He served as chairman of the Progressive National Convention in 1916 and in the ensuing campaign he supported the Republican candidate, Charles Evans Hughes.

Upon the recommendation of Roosevelt and others, President Wilson in June, 1917, appointed Robins a member of the American Red Cross Mission to Russia, where Robins spent most of the following year. There he observed the revolution and the development of the Soviet regime, and knew personally Vladimir Ilyich (Nikolai) Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Grigori Chicherin, and others among the new Bolshevik leaders. Returning to the United States favoring recognition of the Soviet government and economic cooperation between the United States and the Soviet Union, Robins agitated for these measures in lectures, addresses, and correspondence throughout the 1920's.

During the 1920's and early 1930's Robins was also an enthusiast for the outlawry of war by international agreement, although he opposed the League of Nations, World Court, and Kellogg-Briand Pact. In the outlawry-of-war movement he was most closely associated with Salmon O. Levinson of Chicago. Both men were also deeply immersed in national Republican politics, and Robins served on the executive committee of the National Republican Committee from 1920 to 1924. In the latter year he vigorously opposed Robert M. La Follette and his adoption of the term “Progressive” for his third-party effort. Until the middle 1920's Robins pinned great hopes for progressive Republicanism on Hiram W. Johnson, and later he centered his ambitions on William E. Borah, but neither could achieve the presidential nomination. Instead Robins campaigned faithfully for the Republican nominees, Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover, and was a behind-the-scenes associate, adviser, and correspondent of all of these Presidents during their campaigns and terms of office. During the 1920's Robins retained an active interest in Chicago politics, and was one of the backers of William E. Dever, a reform candidate elected as mayor. Between 1927 and 1933 Robins also espoused the Prohibition cause, on which he corresponded and worked with the “dry” factions of both Republican and Democratic parties.

After recovery from an attack of amnesia in the fall of 1932, Robins decided to revisit Russia from April to July, 1933. There he was received by Stalin and other high-ranking Soviet officials and was favorably impressed by the material progress made in Russia since the revolution. Upon his return to America, Robins presented arguments favoring recognition of the Soviet Union to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and made a radio address on Russia for the National Broadcasting Company on July 26, 1933.

Throughout his life Robins held a deep affection for a Florida plantation he had known as a boy and had purchased after his return from Alaska, Chinsegut Hill near Brooksville. In 1932, after suffering losses in the Depression, he deeded the farmlands to the United States government to be operated by the Department of Agriculture as a wildlife preserve and agricultural experiment station. However he continued to take an active part in the management of the land and after his Russian trip, he retired to Chinsegut. There he devoted his energies to the development of the agriculture station. In September, 1935, while pruning a tree there, he fell and suffered permanent paralysis from spinal injury. Most of his remaining years he spent quietly on his estate, compelled by his disability to be only an interested observer of men and events. Mary Dreier Robins died on February 21, 1945 and Raymond Robins on September 26, 1954.

The Raymond Robins Papers are organized in two parts. Part I, the original collection received in the Archives, contains the vast majority of the papers. Its contents date from 1878 to 1951 and consist of extensive correspondence, diaries and notebooks, speeches, newspaper clippings, and other miscellaneous materials. Portions of this part of the collection also are available on microfilm. Part II is additions received in the Archives in 1972. Comprised of printed items and fragmentary manuscript material, the additions date 1897-1954 and total only 3 boxes.

Part I, Original Collection, 1878-1951

Part I of the Robins Papers consists primarily of correspondence, arranged chronologically. A partial card index to these letters, arranged alphabetically by correspondent, is in Box 42.

A few contemporary letters and other papers prior to 1900 relate to his travels, his law studies, and his Alaskan sojourn. In later years there are occasional letters from Alaskan friends and some reminiscent commentary by Robins about his youth.

The correspondence from 1900 to 1912 mainly documents Robins' manifold activities to promote social improvements, labor-union organization, and political reform, but occasional letters refer also to the work done by his wife. Among his Chicago associates who became friends and correspondents were Jane Addams, Frances A. Kellor, Harold Ickes, James Mullenbach, and Graham Taylor. Many letters exchanged by Robins, Ickes, Kellor, Henry F. Cochems, and Medill McCormick in 1912 pertain to their campaign on behalf of Theodore Roosevelt.

Many letters between 1911 and 1917 concern Robins' career as a lecturer. During his 1913 world tour, letters to Mrs. Robins and other relatives give Robins' impressions of Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines, Australia, and South Africa. Besides Fred Smith, A. J. “Dad” Elliott, and Harry N. Holmes were among Robins' associates in these religious and ethical enterprises. Other letters pertain to his return to politics in 1916.

For the months Robins spent in Russia in 1917-1918, the collection contains his diaries, letters to his wife, correspondence with colleagues in the mission, copies of diplomatic correspondence with United States Ambassador David R. Francis, and a few items by or relating to Lenin, Trotsky, and Chicherin. Some of these papers are written in Russian.

Following his trip, there are many letters exchanged between Robins and Alex Gumberg, promoter of closer economic and cultural ties between the two nations, and between Robins and other men he had known through the Red Cross Mission, including D. Heywood Hardy, Thomas D. Thacher, William Boyce Thompson, and Allen Wardwell. Following his 1933 trip, Robins' support of U.S. recognition of the Soviet Union brought appreciative letters from Soviet representatives Peter A. Bogdanov and Boris E. Skvirsky.

From his work on the outlawry-of-war movement, the collection contains not only Robins' correspondence but copies of much of Salmon Levinson's correspondence as well.

In addition to close friends already mentioned, Robins' many correspondents in the 1918-1933 period included William E. Borah, Norma C. Brown, William Jennings Bryan, Patrick H. Callahan, Calvin Coolidge, H. M. Daugherty, Jerome Davis, William E. Dever, Kenneth Durant, Sherwood Eddy, Herman Hagedorn, William Hard, Warren G. Harding, Will H. Hays, Herbert Hoover, Miles H. Krumbine, Francis E. McGovern, Walter H. Newton, George Wharton Pepper, Gifford Pinchot, Daniel A. Poling, James B. Pond, Edward A. Ross, Fred Searls, Jr., and Carlton M. Sherwood.

With Senator Claude Pepper of Florida Robins formed a close political friendship documented by numerous letters exchanged through the decades 1910-1950, but he broke bitterly with Pepper in disagreement over President Harry S. Truman's policies, particularly the pursuit of the war in Korea.

Scattered through his correspondence are letters concerning the care of the Chinsegut Hill estate and the development of citrus groves on a portion of it.

Also in the collection are many personal letters exchanged between Mr. and Mrs. Robins from 1905 until Mrs. Robins' death in 1945. Letters from Raymond Robins' sister Elizabeth, noted in England as an actress and playwright, and from Mrs. Robins' sister, Mary Dreier, New York leader of women's rights and labor organizations, occur frequently in the papers from 1905 to 1951.

Other correspondents include Louis Adamic, George Ade, Florence E. Allen, Charles F. Ayer, Clarence A. Barbour, Bessie Beatty, Albert J. Beveridge, Bruce Bliven, H. N. Brailsford, Frank N. D. Buchman, Carrie Chapman Catt, John L. Childs, Elizabeth Christman, Lincoln Colcord, Donald J. Cowling, Herbert Croly, Josephus Daniels, Clarence A. Darrow, Edward F. Dunne, Louis Fischer, Zona Gale, Hamlin Garland, Roy B. Guild, John Haynes Holmes, Cordell Hull, William J. Hutchins, Jenkin Lloyd Jones, Richard Lloyd Jones, Paul U. Kellogg, Freda Kirchwey, Victor F. Lawson, David E. Lilienthal, William Bross Lloyd, Robert Morss Lovett, Frank O. Lowden, Charles McCarthy, Catharine Waugh McCulloch, Shailer Mathews, W. Somerset Maugham, Charles E. Merriam, Dwight W. Morrow, Scott Nearing, Ruth Bryan Owen, J. C. Penney, Louis F. Post, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Daniel C. Roper, Charles Edward Russell, Ferdinance Schevill, George A. Schilling, Reeve Schley, Ted Shawn, Charles M. Sheldon, Agnes Smedley, Harold M. Stephens, Anna Louise Strong, Lisa Von Borowsky, Carl Vrooman, Henry A. Wallace, William Allen White, Mabel Walker Willebrandt, and Wendell L. Willkie.

Supplementing the correspondence is a variety of other material. Included are copies of numerous lectures and speeches by Robins, 1902-1935; diaries covering the years 1908-1920, 1922 June-1923 February, and 1933 April-June; notebooks, 1897-1906, some containing Biblical and religious entries; and miscellaneous items including biographical sketches of Robins, his passport, an honorary degree, and other items detailed in the contents list below.

Part II, Additions, 1897-1954

These additional materials have been arranged into three subseries by central figure: Raymond Robins, Margaret Dreier Robins, and Mary Dreier.

The Raymond Robins subseries includes subject files on several of Robins' areas of special interest. Printed material regarding Robins provides examples of news coverage of his lecture tours.

The Margaret Dreier Robins subseries consists primarily of correspondence dating from her election as president of the Women's National Trade Union League in 1907 to her death in 1945. Through the early 1920's the correspondence largely concerns trade union activities; later correspondence is predominantly personal, especially letters between Mrs. Robins and her sisters, Katherine and Mary Dreier. Included in the correspondence is a letter from John R. Commons (February 2, 1907) and a letter dated only August 24 from Jane Addams (box 2, folder 6).

The Mary Dreier subseries contains routine records and correspondence, much of it relating to her purchase and refurbishing of a summer house at Southwest Harbor, Maine.

Acquisition Information

The original collection and the 1972 additions were presented by Lisa von Borowsky, Brooksville, Florida, 1955 (via William A. Williams) and 1972. One item in Box 45 was presented by Hugh D. Camitta, New Haven, Connecticut. Accession Number: M72-151

Processing Information

The additions were processed by R. J. Anderson and Joanne Hohler, March 1979.

U.S. Mss AD	Series: Part I, Original Collection, 1878-1951
	Subseries: Correspondence
Box   1	1878-1904
Box   2	1905-1907 September
Box   3	1907 October-1909
Box   4	1910-1912 June
Box   5	1912 July-1913 June
Box   6	1913 July-1914 June
Box   7	1914 July-December 15
Box   8	1914 December 16-1915 June
Box   9	1915 July-1916 February
Box   10	1916 March-June
Box   11	1916 July-September
U.S. Mss AD/Micro 567 Box   12 Reel   1	1916 October-1917 March
Box   12 Reel   2	1917 April-July
Box   13 Reel   2	1917 August-October
Box   13 Reel   3	1917 November-1918 March 15
Box   14 Reel   4	1918 March 16-October
Box   14 Reel   5	1918 November-December
Box   15 Reel   5	1919 January-March
Box   15 Reel   6	1919 April-May
Box   16 Reel   6	1919 June-December 4
Box   16 Reel   7	1919 December 5-1920 October
U.S. Mss AD Box   17	1920 November-1921
Box   18	1922
Box   19	1923-1924 August
Box   20	1924 September-1925 August
Box   21	1925 September-1928
Box   22	1929-1930 June
Box   23	1930 July-1931 June
Box   24	1931 July-1932 May
Box   25	1932 June-1933 August
Box   26	1933 September-1935 February 19
Box   27	1935 February 20-1936
Box   28	1937-1939 November
Box   29	1939 December-1940
Box   30	1941 January-July
Box   31	1941 August-December, undated
Box   32	1942
Box   33	1943
Box   34	1944 January-October
Box   35	1944 November-1945 July
Box   36	1945 August-1946 February
Box   37	1946 March-October
Box   38	1946 November-1947 May
Box   39	1947 June-1948
Box   40	1949-1950 June
Box   41	1950 July-1951 March
Box   42	Partial Card Index to Correspondence in Box 1-41
	Subseries: Speeches	⇧
Box   43	1902-1933
Box   44	1933-1948, undated
U.S. Mss AD/Micro 579 Box   42 Reel   1	Subseries: Diaries, 1908-1920, 1922-1923, 1933 Physical Description: 7 volumes	⇧
Box   42 Reel   1	Subseries: Notebooks, 1897-1906, undated Physical Description: 7 volumes	⇧
	Subseries: Miscellany	⇧
Box   42 Reel   1	Booklet re proposed new charter for Chicago, circa 1907
Box   42 Reel   1	“Raymond Robins, A Biographical Sketch” by Louis F. Post, 1908
Box   42 Reel   1	Membership card in The United Hatters of North America, Local 9; Membership card in the Alumni Association of the George Washington University; Small circular photograph of an unidentified woman; Certificate of Technical Knowledge (in Russian) Physical Description: 1 envelope
Box   42 Reel   1	Passport
Box   42 Reel   1	Honorary degree from University of Florida, 1941
Box   42 Reel   1	Congressional Country Club summary booklet with invitation to life membership
U.S. Mss AD Box   45	Summary of Responses to Questionnaires to Illinois County Progressive Party Chairmen, circa 1916
Box   45	Brief daily religious notations by Robins, 1942-1950
Box   45	Article, “A Workable Utopia,” undated
Box   45	Biographical data on Herbert C. Hoover, undated
Box   45	“Raymond Robins: Study of a Progressive, 1901-1917” by Hugh D. Camitta
Box   45	Documents with physical damage Physical Description: 2 folders
Box   44	Typescript copies of translations from Izvestia, 1918, of newspaper articles, and of other printed materials
Box   46	Newspaper clippings
Box   47	Printed material
	Series: Part II, Additions, 1897-1954	⇧
	Subseries: Raymond Robins
Box   48 Folder   1	Correspondence, 1917, 1921-1926, 1933, 1949-1950
	Subject Files
Box   48 Folder   2	Florida State Politics, 1948
Box   48 Folder   3	Hernando County, Florida Plat, undated
Box   48 Folder   4	Neutrality, 1926, 1932, undated
Box   48 Folder   5	Personal Certificates, 1918, undated
Box   48 Folder   6	Poppel v. Broderick, 1897
Box   48 Folder   7	Soviet Union, 1939, 1945-1947
Box   48 Folder   8	Writings and Speeches, 1908, 1917, 1925, 1933, undated
	Miscellaneous Files
Box   48 Folder   9	Papers, 1940, 1944, undated
	Printed Material
Box   48 Folder   10	1918-1919, 1922-1926, 1929, 1945, 1950, undated
Box   48 Folder   11	Annotated
Box   48 Folder   12	Re Robins, 1901, 1908, 1917-1933, 1945-1954, undated
	Subseries: Margaret Dreier Robins	⇧
	Correspondence
	General
Box   48 Folder   13	1907-1919
Box   49 Folder   1-4	1920-1945
Box   49 Folder   5	Foreign Language
Box   49 Folder   6	Fragmentary and undated
	Writings
Box   49 Folder   7	Articles and Speeches, 1919, 1928, 1938-1939
Box   49 Folder   8	Notes for Proposed Story, undated
	Printed Material
Box   49 Folder   9	Memorial Pamphlet and Readings, 1945
Box   49 Folder   10	Miscellany, 1910, 1918, 1933, 1936-1937, 1943
Box   49 Folder   11	Union Leaflets and Bulletins, 1918, 1920, 1935, 1946, undated
	Subseries: Mary Dreier	⇧
	Correspondence
	General
Box   50 Folder   1	Outgoing, 1926-1933, 1940
Box   50 Folder   2	Incoming, 1924-1933, 1935, 1943, 1946
Box   50 Folder   3	Re Southwest Harbor, Maine, 1927-1931, 1926
Box   50 Folder   4	Fragmentary and Undated
Box   50 Folder   5	Deed, 1928
Box   50 Folder   6	Household Accounts, 1927-1931, undated
Box   50 Folder   7	Miscellaneous Papers, 1935, 1948, undated