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.
