Title: Joseph C. Schafer Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1862-1941

Creator:

• Schafer, Joseph, 1867-1941

Call Number: Mss 746; GA 094; GA 095; VBA 890

Quantity: 3.8 c.f. (8 archives boxes and 3 card boxes), 2 films, and 1 videorecording

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, mainly 1920-1941, of Joseph C. Schafer, a historian and superintendent of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Correspondence, which is both personal and professional in character, includes letters to his wife (1891-1894) and exchanges with publishers, members of the Conference of Historical Societies and the Agricultural History Society, prominent historians such as Solon J. Buck, Avery Craven, Bernard deVoto, William Dunning, Max Farrand, Waldo G. Leland, Frederick Merk, Frederic L. Paxson, and Frederick J. Turner, and former colleagues on the University of Oregon faculty. Also included are working papers for the “Wisconsin Domesday” project; writings and addresses on a variety of historical subjects; an incomplete autobiography and other personal and family material; and research notes primarily concerning agricultural and Civil War history.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00746

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Historian Joseph C. Schafer was born on December 29, 1867 near Muscoda, Grant County, Wisconsin. After leaving the home of his parents, Mathias and Ann J. Schafer, he attended the Madison Normal School in South Dakota, graduating in 1890 after two and one-half years of liberal studies. Schafer then taught for two years at a small Grant County high school before enrolling at the University of Wisconsin as a junior. He graduated with honors in history in 1894. For the next four years Schafer taught history and civics at the State Normal School in Valley City, North Dakota.

In 1898 Schafer re-entered the University of Wisconsin, taking courses in history and government from such notable professors as Frederick Jackson Turner and Paul Reinsch. Turner had a particularly profound impact on Schafer, and later when Turner's ideas came under attack during the 1930's, Schafer was one of Turner's most adamant defenders.

Schafer completed his M.A. in 1900, after which he was appointed to the history faculty of the University of Oregon. In 1904 he was named professor and head of the History Department. In 1906 he received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin. Schafer continued in his position at the University of Oregon until 1920, although during World War I, he served in Washington, D.C., as vice-chairman of the National Board for Historical Service. In 1920 he returned to Madison as superintendent of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin.

While at the University of Oregon, Schafer published several volumes of research on Oregon history (The Pacific Slope and Alaska, 1905, and A History of the Pacific Northwest, 1905 and 1918), but it was while directing the Wisconsin Historical Society that he developed into a mature scholar. Schafer believed that generalizations on state and national history could only be made after intensive study of local conditions. By studying the behavior of the people in small communities, it was possible, Schafer asserted, to make generalizations on state and national history. Toward this end, in his “Wisconsin Domesday” project, which was revised and completed during his years at the Historical Society, Schafer attempted to examine in detail the development of regional society and economy. The results were published by the Historical Society in the four-volume Wisconsin Domesday General Studies. Schafer was also recognized as a leader in the fields of agricultural and immigrant history. Studies in these and other studies were published in numerous articles and editorials in the Wisconsin Magazine of History, of which he was editor from 1922 to 1941, and as History of Agriculture in Wisconsin (1922), Yankee and Teuton in Wisconsin (1922-23), Four Wisconsin Counties, Prairie and Forest (1927), Life of Carl Schurz (1929), The Wisconsin Lead Region (1931), A Social History of American Agriculture (1936), and Who Elected Lincoln? (1941).

Schafer was highly regarded by his colleagues, serving as president of the Mississippi Valley Historical Society, 1927-1928, and the Agricultural History Association, 1931-1932. He also received an honorary LL.D. from the University of Oregon in 1933 in recognition of the service he had rendered to that university and state as a teacher and writer on Oregon history. In 1936 he was invited to give a series of lectures for the Commonwealth Fund at the University of London on the history of American agriculture.

Joseph Schafer died on January 27, 1941 after a long fight against cancer.

The Joseph C. Schafer Papers supplement the administrative files of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin (Series 934 in State Archives holdings), primarily documenting his career as a research historian and as an active member of various professional organizations after he returned to Madison in 1920. The difference between the manuscript papers and the official files is not distinct, however, and the researcher will find some correspondence (denoted with the same two-letter alphabetical filing code used in the SHSW files) which perhaps was intended for filing in that series. Although this collection is referred to as Schafer's private papers, there is very little material that is private in the strict sense. The collection has been divided into five series: professional and personal correspondence, “Wisconsin Domesday” studies, writings and addresses, biographical and family material, research notes, and Films.

The first series, PROFESSIONAL AND PERSONAL CORRESPONDENCE, is broad in scope and is arranged as an alphabetical file including surnames, organizations, and some subject categories. Generally, the section documents contacts with his publishers, other historians, and University of Oregon faculty. Among the research work documented here is information concerning Schafer's unpublished “Safety Valve Theory,” his contributions to the Dictionary of American Biography (1926-1935), work on Wisconsin ferries and water mills, and his lectures on the history of agriculture at the University of London. Included with the lecture notes and correspondence on the London trip is a small book of observations, research notes, and engagements. There is also a great deal of correspondence concerning the published History of the Pacific Slope and The Social History of Agriculture.

This section also documents well Schafer's activity in various professional organizations, most notably the Conference of American Historical Societies, which he served as secretary from 1923 to 1926, and the Agricultural History Society, of which he was president, 1931-1932. Notable historians with whom he corresponded in this regard include J. Franklin Jameson, Waldo G. Leland, and Solon J. Buck. Other prominent historians with whom he corresponded on general and research matters included Avery Craven, Bernard deVoto, William Dunning, Max Farrand, Frederick Merk, and Frederic L. Paxson. There is also a separate file of personal and professional exchanges with Frederick Jackson Turner, 1920-1931. More insight into Schafer's personal life can be gleaned from the folder of letters to Lily Abbott (later Lily Abbott Schafer), 1891-1894.

The correspondence with University of Oregon faculty touches upon both personal, administrative, and research concerns. There is a substantial file of correspondence with University President Prince L. Campbell and further material concerning the writing of Campbell's biography after his death. Other substantial files pertain to George Rebec and H. D. Sheldon.

Documentation on the WISCONSIN DOMESDAY series is somewhat incomplete. Research for this project, entitled “Town Studies II,” includes general material, correspondence, early drafts, information on selected towns, and answered and unanswered responses from Wisconsin abstract companies surveyed concerning land title information. The remaining material concerns several chapter drafts for Vol. III of the General Studies, “The Wisconsin Lead Region.”

WRITINGS AND ADDRESSES in the collection also primarily date from the period that Schafer was associated with the Historical Society. Included are printed and manuscript copies of these papers arranged alphabetically by key word. These include radio addresses on early prominent Wisconsin figures such as James Duane Doty, Hans Christian Heg, and others; and studies on Frederick Jackson Turner, Carl Schurz, Wisconsin's primary elections during the 1930's, the reorganization of the University of 1866, the function of the State Historical Society, and other topics. Writings on the fictitious David Gardner and a translation of Wisconsin's Deutsch-Amerikaner by Wilhelm Hense-Jensen complete the identified writings. Of special interest are fragments of “White Curtain Windows,” a novel possibly written by Mrs. Schafer.

The BIOGRAPHICAL AND FAMILY MATERIAL is quite varied in scope, but reveals little about Schafer's personal life, although an incomplete autobiography concerns his life up to his undergraduate days at the University of Wisconsin. Other files concern summer school teaching at the University of Oregon (1920, 1921, 1931) and information (and films) on several special events at the Historical Society. Several folders concern his sons, Paul and Frederic, and his father (a mortgage, deed, and land purchase records, circa 1862).

The series RESEARCH NOTES is small, but diverse and informative. “General research notes” contains a small notebook with contact names and notes, entries from Kearney's journal, handwritten copies of St. Louis newspaper articles (1842-1845), and notes and a photostatted letter (1844) concerning the Oregon boundary issue. Lastly, index card boxes containing internal subject tabs to facilitate research access generally concern Civil War and agricultural history.

Acquisition Information

Portions presented by Joseph Schafer, Jr., 1941, Everett E. Edwards, 1943; William C. Haygood, Madison, Wisconsin, 1960; additional material found in the Historical Society office of Clifford Lord and in the stacks, undated. Accession Number: M60-162, M61-145, M61-213, M85-434

Processing Information

Processed by F. J. Muzik, Jr. (Archives student, 1986) and Bill Beaudreau, 1988.

Mss 746	Series: Professional and Personal Correspondence
Box   1 Folder   1	A
Box   1 Folder   2-3	Agricultural History Society, 1925-1941
Box   1 Folder   4	B-Campbell, D.
Box   1 Folder   5	Campbell, P.L., 1917-1926
Box   1 Folder   6	Campbell, S. - Co
	Conference of Historical Societies
Box   1 Folder   7-8	1922-1924
Box   2 Folder   1	1925-1927
Box   2 Folder   2	Cr-De
Box   2 Folder   3	Dictionary of American Biography, 1926-1935
Box   2 Folder   4	Do-Eu
Box   2 Folder   5	European research trip, 1928
Box   2 Folder   6	Letters of introduction, 1928
Box   2 Folder   7	F
Box   2 Folder   8	Ferries (Wisconsin), 1938
Box   2 Folder   9-10	Ga-Lu
Box   3 Folder   1	London lecture trip, 1935-1936
Box   3 Folder   2	McA-MacL
Box   3 Folder   3	MacMillan Co., 1916-1933
Box   3 Folder   4	MacP-Mil
Box   3 Folder   5	Mis-Or
Box   3 Folder   6	Oregon, University of, 1920-1935
Box   3 Folder   7-8	Or-Sac
Box   3 Folder   9	“Safety Valve Theory” (correspondence, sketches, & tables), 1936-1938
Box   3 Folder   10	Sai-Sc
Box   3 Folder   11	Schafer, Lily Abbott, 1891-1895, 1918
Box   4 Folder   1	Schafer Family, 1908-1941
Box   4 Folder   2	Sheldon, H.D., 1921-1941
Box   4 Folder   3	Sl-So
Box   4 Folder   4	“Social History of Agriculture,” 1935-1937, 1940
Box   4 Folder   5	So-Tu
Box   4 Folder   6	Turner, Frederick Jackson, 1920-1931
Box   4 Folder   7	U-W
Box   4 Folder   8	Water mills (Wisconsin), 1939
Box   4 Folder   9	Y-Z
Box   4 Folder   10	Unidentified correspondence
	Series: Wisconsin “Domesday” Studies	⇧
	Town Studies II
Box   4 Folder   11	General material, 1921, 1922
Box   4 Folder   12	Correspondence (also local history narratives), 1921-30
Box   4 Folder   13	Rough draft (Chapters 2, 4-8)
Box   4 Folder   14	Second draft (Chapters 1, 2, 5, 6)
Box   4 Folder   15	Town of Brookfield, Waukesha County, 1921
Box   4 Folder   16	Lamartine, WI (history, voting trends)
Box   4 Folder   17	Mineral Point Land Office, Surveying reports and notes on Records in U.S. Land Office, Wausau
Box   5 Folder   1	Town of Muscoda, Grant County, 1920
Box   5 Folder   2	“History of the Agriculture of the Town of Newton,” 1915
Box   5 Folder   3	Whitewater, Wisconsin, 1922
	Abstract Companies
Box   5 Folder   4-5	Material received, 1920-1927
Box   5 Folder   6	Material not received, 1921-1927
Box   5 Folder   7	General Studies: Vol. III, The Wisconsin Lead Region (draft of chapters I, VI, XI, & XV)
	Series: Writings and Addresses	⇧
	Titled writings
Box   5 Folder   8-10	“Acquisition of the Oregon Territory” - ”Our Children's Hour”
Box   6 Folder   1-7	“Parker Redivivus” - ”The Yankee and the Teuton in Wisconsin”
	Untitled and incomplete writings
Box   6 Folder   8	1939, undated
Box   6 Folder   9	“White Curtained Windows” (incomplete), undated
Box   6 Folder   10-11	Unidentified manuscript fragments, undated
Box   6 Folder   12	Translation, “Wisconsin's Deutsch-Amerikaner,” 1939, by Wilhelm Hense-Jensen
Box   7 Folder   1-2	Translation, “Wisconsin's Deutsch-Amerikaner,”, continued
	Series: Biographical and Family Material	⇧
Box   7 Folder   3	Autobiographical sketch, December 18, 1939
	Autobiography
	Handwritten draft
Box   7 Folder   4	Chapters III, V, VI, VII, VIII
Box   7 Folder   5	Unnumbered Chapters
Box   7 Folder   6	Typed draft (incomplete), Chapters I, III-VII
Box   7 Folder   7	Personal miscellany, 1894, 1937
	Summer School, University of Oregon
Box   7 Folder   8	Class, Faculty materials, 1920, 1921, 1931
Box   7 Folder   9	Lecture material, 1920
Box   7 Folder   10	Superintendent's position application, 1920
Box   7 Folder   11	Green Bay marker ceremony, 1924
GA 094 & VBA 890	Film: The Lake Pepin Historical Pilgrimage Organized by E.D. Rounds, 1927 Physical Description: 1 reel of 1; circa 400'; si; b/w; 35mm archival positive; and videotape user copy  Scope and Content Note: Five-hundred people watch ceremonies commemorating the claiming of the territory for France by Nicholas Perrot in 1689, on the site of Fort St. Antoine. Concludes with a pageant by students and faculty of the Eau Claire Normal School.
GA 095	Film: Dedication of Appleby Marker, 1926 Physical Description: 1 reel of 1; circa 350'; si; b/w; 35mm archival positive  Scope and Content Note: The Historical Society dedicates a marker to John F. Appleby, inventor of a knotting machine which made possible a twine binder for grain reaping machines; at the Orley Houghton farm near Whitewater.
Mss 746	Paul Schafer
Box   7 Folder   12	UW Extension geology course, 1921
Box   7 Folder   13	“Geology of the Balatoc Mine,” Baguio, Philippines, 1938
Box   7 Folder   14	Frederick Schafer, Art History exams, undated
Box   7 Folder   15	Family documents (mortgage, deed, land purchase record), 1862
	Series: Research Notes	⇧
Box   8 Folder   1	General research notes
Box   8 Folder   2	Oversize notes (from card boxes)
Box   8 Folder   3	UW Agricultural Short Course
Box   8 Folder   4	Oregon Question (notes & letter [Aberdeen to Pakenham, 1844])
Box   8 Folder   5	Rev. Samuel Parker research (correspondence and transcribed letters), 1930
Box   9-11	Index card boxes