Title: John Rector Barton Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1912-1965

Creator:

• Barton, John Rector, 1897-1965

Call Number: Mss 401; Micro 1056; PH Mss 401

Quantity: 2.6 c.f. (7 archives boxes), also available on 6 reels of microfilm (35mm); and 57 photographs

Repository:

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

Archival Locations:

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

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

Abstract:

Papers of a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of rural sociology concerning his work in Danish folk schools in the 1930's, his U.W. teaching of a Farm Short Course and working with the rural community, and his nurturing of rural cultural activities. With John Steuart Curry, U.W. Artist in Residence, Barton developed a rural arts program, centered in Madison, which achieved national attention after the publication of his book Rural Artists of Wisconsin in 1948. The collection contains an extensive set of materials relating to the publication of this book, and to other rural arts activities in which he was involved. Barton served on the Wisconsin Free Library Commission between 1947 and 1959, and also present are papers on the Commission, particularly on its 1956 search for an executive director. Additional papers document Barton's childhood, education, and retirement, and provide information on his wife, Rebecca Chalmers Barton, director of the Governor's Commission on Human Rights from 1949 to 1963. Included in the collection is correspondence with August Derleth, Aaron Bohrod, and Frank Lloyd Wright. Photographs include images related to Barton's rural studies including Labrador in 1926 and Denmark in 1939. There are also photographs of stone carvings by Boris Gilbertson of Herbster, Wis., 1941.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00401

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John Rector Barton was born on a farm near Fayette, Missouri, on September 23, 1897. He attended school in Fayette, graduating from high school in 1916. He studied three years at Central College in Fayette, moved to Ohio State for a short time, and then spent the rest of the 1919-20 school year teaching social sciences at Pinson College, a Methodist mission college in Camaguey, Cuba. He returned to Central College in 1920, and received his B.A. in 1921.

The governor of Missouri appointed Barton as chaplain and physical director of a state reform school where he remained until enrolling in Yale Divinity School in the fall of 1922. He received a B.D. degree from Yale in 1925 and then did graduate work in the sociology of religion, completing the requirements for a master's degree. During the summer of 1926, Barton served as private secretary to Sir Wilfred Grenfell during a medical mission to Labrador. He began graduate work in sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1927. In June 1928, he married Rebecca Chalmers.

At the end of the summer they accepted an offer to teach at the International People's College in Elsinore, Denmark. During their seven years in Denmark, Barton taught sociology and international relations and served as Acting Director of the school between 1933 and 1935. Barton also did research on the Danish cooperative movement and Danish folk schools. At the invitation of Dean Chris L. Christensen of the University of Wisconsin College of Agriculture, Barton spent several winter sessions in Madison teaching the Farm Short Course. The Barton's two children, Eloise and Norman, were born in Denmark.

Concerned about Hitler's rise in Germany, the Bartons returned to the United States in 1935. In 1936, Barton received a temporary appointment as assistant professor of rural sociology at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, and started teaching the Farm Short Course on a yearly basis. The temporary appointment was extended, and Barton served as Director of the Farm Short Course from 1942 to 1945. He was named an associate professor in 1942.

During his 25 years at the UW, Barton was heavily involved with many clubs and organizations devoted to agriculture and rural life. He was one of the main organizers of the Wisconsin Rural Life conferences between 1938 and 1951, and he worked with the American Country Life Association and the Blue Shield Country Life Club. In 1939, Barton prepared a research project on Danish rural social organization and spent that summer doing background research in Denmark. The start of World War II prevented the project from being carried out.

One of Barton's major interests was rural art. His work with John Steuart Curry, U.W. Artist in Residence, and his annual rural art shows, led him to produce the book Rural Artists of Wisconsin, a series of biographical sketches on 30 Wisconsin artists, published in 1948. Barton also served on the committee which selected Aaron Bohrod to serve as Artist in Residence after Curry's death in 1946.

Between 1947 and 1959, Barton was a member of the Wisconsin Free Library Commission, serving as chairman from 1951 to 1953. His work led him to co-author The Public Library in Wisconsin with Dr. Franklin Rector in 1951.

Poor health forced Barton to retire from teaching in 1962. He and his wife moved to Santa Barbara, California, where he died on March 17, 1965.

This collection predominantly contains information about the activities in which Barton was involved between 1928 and 1958. Documents dating outside this span consist mainly of papers and correspondence of a personal nature. The collection is arranged by subject in seven series.

PERSONAL MATERIALS contains biographical information about Barton. including correspondence from his family, mostly his sister Claire and mother May in Los Angeles, and his doctors; educational documents and transcripts; and a 300-page fictionalized manuscript describing Barton's childhood. A folder of materials relating to Rebecca Chalmers Barton contains Mrs. Barton's biographies of herself and of her husband.

DENMARK material relates to Barton's seven years with the International People's College in Elsinore, and to his later research on Danish cooperatives and folk schools. Of note are a photostat of a letter from Niels Bohr relating to the college, and Barton's unpublished research notes and report drafts on Danish rural social organization.

The series AGRICULTURE AND RURAL LIFE has information about Barton's teaching and about the rural organizations and activities in which he was involved. The largest groups of documents in this segment relate to the UW Farm Short Course, the UW Rural Sociology Department, and the 1938-19SI Rural Life conferences. The remaining papers are arranged alphabetically by topic.

RURAL ARTS relates to Barton's work with rural arts activities at the University of Wisconsin and throughout the state. Much of this segment relates to the research, writing, and publication of Rural Artists of Wisconsin, and includes correspondence with several of the book's subjects. Also present is documentation on the appointment of Aaron Bohrod as U.W. Artist in Residence and information on his predecessor, John Steuart Curry.

WISCONSIN LIBRARY COMMISSION includes minutes, correspondence, and other papers from Barton's years as a Commission member. He chaired the search for a new executive director in 1956 and this effort is particularly well documented.

ALPHABETICAL CORRESPONDENCE contains miscellaneous letters from friends, former students, faculty colleagues, and others, arranged alphabetically by correspondent. Of note are letters from August Derleth, Merle Curti, and Frank Lloyd Wright and his associates at Taliesin.

The final series consists of the PHOTOGRAPHS in the collection.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Rebecca Chalmers Barton, Santa Barbara, California, 1965-1982, and by Eloise Barton, Brightwaters, New York, 1981. Accession Number: M65-194, M77-444, M81-468, M82-364

Processing Information

Processed by Erin Foley and Joanne Hohler, 1984-85. Prepared for microfilming by Karen Baumann.

Mss 401/Micro 1056	Series: Personal Materials
Box-folder   1/1 Reel-frame   1/1	Family correspondence, 1928-1962, n.d.
Box-folder   1/2-3 Reel-frame   1/207	Biographical manuscript “Walk Over the Hills,” n.d.
Box-folder   1/4 Reel-frame   1/442	Educational transcripts, correspondence, class writings and projects, 1912-1936
Box-folder   1/5 Reel-frame   1/488	Divinity school paper “Social Aspects of Theological Education in America,” 1926?
Box-folder   1/6 Reel-frame   1/577	Highlander Folk School house, 1935-1938
Box-folder   1/7 Reel-frame   1/600	Medical correspondence, 1945-1961
Box-folder   1/8 Reel-frame   1/614	Miscellaneous documents, 1918, 1942-1965, 1978, n.d.
Box-folder   1/9 Reel-frame   1/682	Rebecca Chalmers Barton biography, writings, and newspaper clippings, 1928-1982
	Series: Denmark	⇧
Box-folder   2/1 Reel-frame   1/776	International People's College, Elsinore, 1927-1935, 1950
Box-folder   2/2 Reel-frame   1/835	Family correspondence, 1928-1929
Box-folder   2/3 Reel-frame   1/849	Course lecture notes, n.d.
	Research projects
Box-folder   2/4 Reel-frame   2/1	Proposals, 1939, 1940, 1948
Box-folder   2/5 Reel-frame   2/29	Correspondence, 1939-1940
Box-folder   2/6 Reel-frame   2/62	Summer field notes, 1939
Box-folder   2/7 Reel-frame   2/206	Final report, 1940
Box-folder   2/8 Reel-frame   2/309	Background information
Box-folder   2/9 Reel-frame   2/377	Miscellaneous correspondence and clippings, 1936-1958
	Series: Agriculture and Rural Life	⇧
	UW Farm Short Course
Box-folder   2/10 Reel-frame   2/443	General papers, 1936-1959
Box-folder   2/11 Reel-frame   2/520	Student writings, 1935-1940
Box-folder   2/12 Reel-frame   2/658	UW Rural Sociology Departmental and course papers, 1938-1959, n.d.
	Rural Life Conferences
Box-folder   3/1-4 Reel-frame   2/786	1938-1939; 1941-1943
Box-folder   3/5-10 Reel-frame   3/1	1943 (continued); 1945-1951
Box-folder   3/11 Reel-frame   3/511	Agricultural Hall of Fame, 1958
Box-folder   3/12 Reel-frame   3/547	Agricultural Museum Committee, 1954-1958
Box-folder   3/13 Reel-frame   3/552	American Country Life Association, 1938-1948, 1957
Box-folder   4/1 Reel-frame   3/670	Blue Shield Country Life Club, 1939-1958
Box-folder   4/2 Reel-frame   3/746	The Clearing, 1952-1958
Box-folder   4/3 Reel-frame   3/771	Farm and Home Week, 1939-1942, 1951-1952
Box-folder   4/4 Reel-frame   3/822	Farm Field Day, 1939
Box-folder   4/5 Reel-frame   3/827	Handicrafts, 1946, n.d.
Box-folder   4/6 Reel-frame   3/835	Post-war agricultural education and policies, 1942-1944
Box-folder   4/7 Reel-frame   4/1	Rural and consumer cooperatives, 1936-1946, 1954, n.d.
Box-folder   4/8 Reel-frame   4/133	Rural Organizations Leaders' Conferences, 1940
Box-folder   4/9 Reel-frame   4/168	Rural Youth of the U.S.A., 1946-1948
Box-folder   4/10 Reel-frame   4/196	School of International Cooperation, 1943-1944
Box-folder   4/11 Reel-frame   4/265	Writings and Speeches, 1934-1948
Box-folder   4/12 Reel-frame   4/371	Miscellaneous correspondence and papers, 1936-1949
	Series: Rural Arts	⇧
Box-folder   4/13 Reel-frame   4/425	Rural Art Show, 1939-1956
Box-folder   4/14 Reel-frame   4/503	Rural Art calendar, 1946-1948
Box-folder   4/15 Reel-frame   4/519	UW Permanent Collection of Rural Art, 1942-1952
Box-folder   4/16 Reel-frame   4/541	John Steuart Curry memorial projects, 1946-1957
Box-folder   4/17 Reel-frame   4/587	Extension Specialist in Rural Art position, 1945-1947
Box-folder   4/18 Reel-frame   4/611	Wisconsin rural artist groups, 1945-1962
	UW Artist in Residence Candidates
Box-folder   5/1 Reel-frame   4/688	Various artists, 1946-1947
Box-folder   5/2 Reel-frame   4/741	Aaron Bohrod, 1947-1949
	Rural Artists of Wisconsin
	Correspondence with artists
Box-folder   5/3 Reel-frame   4/790	Various artists, 1946-1949
Box-folder   5/4 Reel-frame   4/879	Elizabeth Nolan, 1946-1950, 1958
Box-folder   5/5 Reel-frame   4/923	Earl Sugden, 1941, 1945-1948, 1962
Box-folder   5/6 Reel-frame   4/983	Walter Thorp, 1946-1950
Box-folder   5/7 Reel-frame   4/1050	Publication correspondence, 1946-1948
Box-folder   5/8 Reel-frame   4/1075	Publicity, 1948-1949
Box-folder   5/9 Reel-frame   4/1117	Reviews, 1948-1949
Box-folder   5/10 Reel-frame   4/1140	Post-publication correspondence, 1948-1949
Box-folder   5/11 Reel-frame   5/1	Rural Cultural Arts in Wisconsin bulletin, 1940
Box-folder   5/12 Reel-frame   5/72	Rural Cultural Arts in Wisconsin television show, 1954?
Box-folder   5/13-15 Reel-frame   5/86	Community Arts workshops, 1952-1957
Box-folder   6/1 Reel-frame   5/420	Miscellaneous correspondence, 1941-1952, 1957, 1959, n.d.
	Series: Wisconsin Free Library Commission	⇧
Box-folder   6/2-3 Reel-frame   5/581	General, 1947-1957, 1961
Box-folder   7/1 Reel-frame   5/887	Applications for Secretary, 1955-1956
Box-folder   7/2 Reel-frame   6/1	Ann Farrington Memorial Committee, 1953-1956
	Series: Alphabetical Correspondence, 1933-1965	⇧
Box-folder   7/3 Reel-frame   6/21	A to C
Box-folder   7/4 Reel-frame   6/124	Merle Curti, 1944-1964
Box-folder   7/5 Reel-frame   6/173	D
Box-folder   7/6 Reel-frame   6/225	August Derleth, 1939-1948
Box-folder   7/7 Reel-frame   6/280	E to K
Box-folder   7/8 Reel-frame   6/394	John H. Kolb, 1957-1958
Box-folder   7/9-10 Reel-frame   6/414	L to W
Box-folder   7/11 Reel-frame   6/659	Frank Lloyd Wright, 1941, 1949, 1951-1955
Box-folder   7/12 Reel-frame   6/684	Z
Box-folder   7/13 Reel-frame   6/689	Mrs. B.C. Ziegler, 1955-1957
Box-folder   7/14 Reel-frame   6/712	Unidentified, 1939-1953
PH Mss 401	Series: Photographs	⇧