Title: Carl P. Russell Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1823-1967

Creator:

• Russell, Carl Parcher, 1894-1967

Call Number: Mss 318

Quantity: 1.2 c.f. (1 archives box and 2 flat boxes)

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 Carl P. Russell, an ecologist and historian of firearms, including correspondence regarding his alma mater, Ripon College, research for his 1957 book, Guns on the Early Frontiers, and the history of Fall River, Wisconsin, mostly with Walter Wright. Also includes account books, 1823-1864, of forges in Clinton and Franklin counties, New York; copies of Civil War items, including the letters of Freeman H. Coon, 32nd Wisconsin Infantry, and the diary of Elisha A. Dean, 7th Wisconsin Infantry; Zebulon Russell's scrapbooks, 1889-1912, including clippings of his “Fall River News” column for the Columbus, Wis., Journal-Republican.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00318

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Carl Parcher Russell, National Parks administrator, ecologist, and historian was born in 1894 in Fall River, Wisconsin. He received an A.B. degree in biology from Ripon College in 1915, and later an M.A. in cytology and a Ph.D. in ecology from the University of Michigan. Ripon College granted him an honorary doctor of laws in 1951.

Russell worked for the National Parks Service from 1923 until his retirement in 1957 as naturalist, museum specialist, administrator, director of research and interpretation, and Superintendent of Yosemite National Park. Russell's research on the fur trade and in other areas of his interest culminated in three books: One Hundred Years in Yosemite (Stanford University Press and Oxford University Press, 1931), Guns on the Early Frontiers (University of California Press, 1957) and Firearms, Traps, and Tools of the Mountain Men (Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1967).

After his retirement, Russell moved to Orinda, California and began assembling family history materials, dating back to his pioneer grandparents' arrival in Fall River. An uncle, Zebulon Russell, had written a column for the Columbus Journal-Republican, “Fall River News,” and had saved clippings of his columns and historical articles, particularly those pertaining to the Civil War. Also, Fall River residents sent newspaper articles and other items of local interest to Russell. In this way an extensive correspondence was built up between Carl Russell and Walter Wright, who edited a selection of early Zebulon Russell columns which were published in the Columbus Republican as “Cheerful Yesterdays in Fall River,” from March to May, 1948. During this period Wright was writing a Civil War history of the military units in which Fall River men served.

The major collection of the Carl P. Russell papers is housed in the Pullman Library of Washington State University.

The Historical Society's collection of Russell's papers is concerned mainly with the early history of Fall River and the Russell family. There is little reflecting his personal life. The papers have been separated into two segments: Carl P. Russell's personal papers (1914-1915, 1946-1967); and Russell family and Fall River papers (1823-1912, 1946-1967).

RUSSELL'S PERSONAL PAPERS include general correspondence (1948-1967); correspondence, clippings, and memorabilia relating to his honorary doctorate from Ripon College (1951), Ripon College social and athletic events (1914-1915), and Russell's correspondence with the college alumni office (1946-1966); and some miscellaneous drafts and notes for his 1957 book, Guns On the Early Frontiers. In many of the pre-1960 letters, Russell exchanges information with other authorities re cannons and guns. The post-1960 correspondence is almost entirely with Fall River people, particularly Walter Wright. The Russell-Wright correspondence reminisces, discusses Fall River history, and bears upon Wright's projects and the Zebulon Russell scrapbooks and columns.

The RUSSELL FAMILY AND FALL RIVER segment of the papers is a small artificial collection of original and copied manuscripts and clippings. It includes three books of accounts which are rudimentary ledgers and/or day-books (1823-1864) probably kept by Franklin Russell for three forges operated in Clinton and Franklin counties, New York; an 1889 mortgage indenture; typed copies of two items referring to John S. Mosby's oath of allegiance in 1865; and a copy of an itinerary entitled “Theatre of Action, 19th Wisconsin Volunteers, 1862-1865.” The last three items are papers of Carl Russell's father, A. W. Russell. Also collected here are copies of a Civil War diary and fourteen Civil War letters of two Fall River men: Elisha A. Dean, Co. B, 7th Wisconsin Volunteer Cavalry, and Freeman H. Coon, Co. K, 32nd Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry; a Zebulon Russell letter and news items (1861-1898) which Walter Wright copied from old newspapers for his own use and Xeroxed for Russell; Zebulon Russell's scrapbooks (1889-1912); and contemporary clippings about Fall River (1946, 1958-1964). The Zebulon Russell scrapbooks contain an incomplete file of his news column, “Fall River News,” from the Columbus Journal-Republican (1893-1912), and also articles on the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, historical figures, restorations of old buildings, et cetera. Under each of the above headings the arrangement of the material is chronological.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Carl P. Russell, date unknown, and by Mrs. Carl P. Russell, Orinda, California, November 2, 1967. Accession Number: M67-323

Processing Information

Processed by P. Fleek (Intern) and Joanne Hohler, November 25, 1974.

	Series: Russell's Personal Papers
	Correspondence
Box   1 Folder   1	1948-1957
Box   1 Folder   2	1960-1963
Box   1 Folder   3	1964-1967
	Ripon College correspondence and miscellaneous
Box   1 Folder   4	Memorabilia, 1914-1915
Box   1 Folder   5	Honorary doctorate, 1951
Box   1 Folder   6	Alumni office, 1946-1966
	Writings -- Guns On the Early Frontiers
Box   1 Folder   7	Drafts, miscellaneous pages
Box   1 Folder   8	Notes, miscellaneous
	Series: Russell Family and Fall River	⇧
	Franklin Russell
	Books of accounts (rudimentary ledgers combined with daybooks)
Box   1 Folder   9	1823-1837
Box   1 Folder   10	1845-1850
Box   1 Folder   11	1854-1864
Box   1 Folder   11	Mortgage indenture, August 12, 1889
	A.W. Russell
Box   1 Folder   12	John S. Mosby's oath of allegiance, 1865 (copies)
Box   1 Folder   12	“Theatre of Action, 19th Wisconsin Volunteers, 1862-1865” (copy)
Box   1 Folder   13	Civil War letters of Freeman H. Coon, 1862, September - 1863, July (copies)
Box   1 Folder   14	Civil War diary of Elisha A. Dean, 1863 (copy)
	Zebulon Russell
Box   1 Folder   15	Letter and news items, 1861-1898 (copies)
	Scrapbooks
Box   1 Folder   16	Carl Russell's notes on scrapbooks, undated
	Clippings of news column, “Fall River News,”
Box   2 Folder   1	1893-1901
Box   2 Folder   2	1901-1905
Box   2 Folder   3	1907-1909
Box   2 Folder   4	1909-1912
Box   2 Folder   5	, 1912; and a few miscellaneous items dated , 1961
	General
Box   3 Folder   1	1890s-1910
Box   3 Folder   2	1889-1912
Box   3 Folder   3	1898-1901, re: Spanish-American War and miscellaneous
Box   3 Folder   4	1899-1912
Box   1 Folder   17	Miscellany, 1902-1908; undated
Box   1 Folder   18	Clippings re: Fall River, Wisconsin, 1946, 1958-1964