The Alexander Meiklejohn Papers consist of his private and professional papers, 1880-1969, including correspondence, notebooks, printed and near-print material, clippings, manuscripts and notes for speeches, lectures, articles, papers, and books. They cover nearly the full range of his activities and interests, notable exceptions being most of the material from his Brown, Amherst, and Experimental College years which has been deposited in the respective university archives.[1] The papers are arranged in two main categories: Correspondence Files and Subject Files.
The Correspondence Files (boxes 1-33) are arranged alphabetically by author or subject and chronologically thereunder. Because Meiklejohn kept very few copies of most of his outgoing correspondence, his wife gathered as many originals or Xerox copies of originals of his letters from his important correspondents as was possible; thus much of the correspondence in the papers that post-date his death are requests from Mrs. Meiklejohn regarding those letters.
The correspondence, both personal and professional, covers the wide range of Meiklejohn's interests, associations, and activities, but is mainly concerned with issues and problems in education and civil liberties. Many of the correspondents are notable people in education and law, including college presidents, professors, lawyers, government officials, and Supreme Court Justices. Correspondents also include former students of his, especially those that were in the Experimental College; their letters can be found both in individual folders under their names and under the various headings of “Wisconsin--University, Experimental College.” The latter also includes some additional correspondence from former Experimental College faculty members many of whom also have individual files. In addition, the researcher should note that the aforementioned Experimental College files, deposited with the University of Wisconsin archives, consist of 149 archive boxes and appear to be complete. They include a great deal of correspondence concerning the college and also a large amount of general correspondence to and from Meiklejohn from the years the college was operating.
Examples of some of the more extensive correspondence files are: Amherst College, American Civil Liberties Union, Stringfellow Barr, Ernest Besig, Brown University, Scott Buchanan, Emergency Civil Liberties Committee, Thomas Emerson, John Gaus, Robert Maynard Hutchins, Harry Kalven, Corliss Lamont, Otto Nathan, Edward Lamb Parsons, Arthur Upham Pope, John Walker Powell, Malcolm Sharp, St. John's College, Lawrence Speiser, Frank Wilkinson, Aubrey Williams, and the University of Wisconsin. For a complete list of his correspondents, see the contents list below.
The Subject Files (boxes 34-69) have been divided into four groups of major writings, and six groups of General Subject Files.
The Major Writings consist of these subseries: Speeches, Articles, and Papers; Introduction, Tributes, and Memorials; Book Reviews; and Published Books. They contain chronologically arranged files of holograph and typescript manuscripts, drafts and notes for most of Meiklejohn's speeches, articles, and papers, published and unpublished, in addition to either tearsheets, reprints, clippings, or xerox copies of those that were published. (It should be noted that in the miscellaneous papers section there are also a number of unarranged notes for what were probably speeches.) The section on published books contains manuscripts, notes, reviews, and clippings on eight of his books, including Education for a Free Society, which was published in mimeograph form for use by classes in adult education. This book consisted mainly of readings which were adaptations and excerpts from other of Meiklejohn's writings. For a list of these readings, see Appendix I.
The General Subject Files consist mainly of non-correspondence items and material that is not directly related to Meiklejohn's writings, comprising printed and near-print material, notes, fragments, and clippings. They are roughly divided into the following subseries: (A) Loyalty Oaths and Academic Freedom, which include material on the University of California loyalty oath controversy; (B) Constitutional Issues, which include material on HUAC; (C) American Civil Liberties Union; (D) Miscellaneous Activities, which include files on Meiklejohn's activities with HEW (the transcripts of the HEW hearings in which he participated have been shelved in the library.) and the American Association for Adult Education; (E) Colleges, which include files on the various colleges and universities with which he was associated; and (F) Miscellaneous Papers, which include, among other things, material on tributes and awards received by Meiklejohn, some early school essays, college notebooks, and the notes and manuscript of his Ph.D. thesis on Kant, and a selection of printed material sent to him by some of his colleagues and friends.
