The papers were created and collected by Herbert Battles Tanner. His children Herbert Johnson Tanner and Blanche Lawe Tanner also worked with the papers, sometimes rearranging them or adding to them. (Examples of the handwriting of father, son, and daughter are included in the paper register file in the Archives Reading Room.) Herbert Battles Tanner arranged the papers genealogically; his son superimposed on this arrangement an alphabetical one. (For the transcription of the folder headings created by Herbert Johnson Tanner and marginally by Blanche Lawe Tanner, as received by the Archives in November 1981, see reel 13, frames 234-240). Documents dated after the death of Herbert Battles Tanner in most cases were written or received by Herbert Johnson Tanner or Blanche Lawe Tanner.
The present arrangement of the collection by the Archives differs in several respects from the previous arrangement. Several folders sometimes have been created from a single folder; for example, the folders for George Boyd, Jr., Robert Dundas Boyd, and William Henry Crawford Boyd (reel 14, frames 717-730; reel 15, frames 00-37 and 311-377) were formed from one folder, “Boyd, William; George; Robert - My Great Uncles (HJT).” The genealogical material in the collection has been restored to the original arrangement of Herbert Battles Tanner.
The collection is divided into two series: Herbert Battles Tanner and The Families of Herbert Battles Tanner and Mary Georgina Miller (Boyd) Tanner. The first part contains material on the life, career, and interests of Tanner. The subseries in the main are organized by activity. The second series contains material by or about past and contemporary relatives of Tanner and his wife; it also contains material relating to activities he and she shared (for example, Fiftieth Wedding Anniversary [1931, Sept. 1], reel 11, frames 706-769). The subseries in this part are organized genealogically: for Herbert Battles Tanner the subseries are Tanner and Battles; for his wife, Boyd, Johnson, Lawe, and Grignon. To facilitate the use of the second series, genealogical charts are provided in the paper register file in the Archives Reading Room; an index of individuals appearing in folder titles (usually in the second series) also is provided in the appendix of this finding aid.
Materials within folders usually are arranged in the following order: photographs; primary material, such as correspondence; notes by Herbert Battles Tanner and Herbert Johnson Tanner; newspaper clippings. Letters in the collection precede addresses and envelopes; originals precede transcripts. Folders titled Miscellany begin with a brief description of their contents; folders which are arranged alphabetically by correspondent begin with a list of the correspondents.
HERBERT BATTLES TANNER series
The Autobiographical Material subseries contains several of Tanner's biographical sketches, interesting recollections, especially of his youth, a few journal entries, diaries, and newspaper articles by or about him. The diary of 1880 is a record of events, experiences, and observations; the other diaries (1893-1933, except for 1897 and 1917) are registers of memoranda, addresses, and financial accounts.
The Travel subseries contains material on visits to the Centennial and Sesquicentennial Expositions at Philadelphia, 1876 and 1926, and three travel diaries. The folder on the Sesquicentennial Exposition and the diaries also include material relating to Tanner's genealogical and historical interests.
The Civic and Social Activities subseries contains fragmentary material relating to Tanner's participation in church and Masonic affairs. The major part of Church, 1870-1931, (reel 4, frames 237-330) consists of correspondence with the Reverend Quincy Lamartine Dowd, the minister who married Herbert Battles and Mary Georgina Miller (Boyd) Tanner. This folder and two others (reel 4, frames 331-394 and 400-452) include public addresses of Tanner. To appreciate the range of his civic activities and manner of expression at social gatherings, it also might be useful to examine the addresses he delivered to medical societies and Kaukauna's high school (reel 5, frames 00-118; and reel 9, frames 16-47). Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (reel 4, frames 395-399), consists of only three letters: in the first letter, February 7, 1905, Booker T. Washington acknowledged Herbert Battles Tanner's interest in the institute; in the second and third letters, August 1 and 5, 1939, George Washington Carver and Herbert Johnson Tanner discussed the southwestern peanut festival, which was included in the 13th annual county fair of Eastland, Texas.
The Medicine subseries contains fragmentary material relating to Tanner's medical studies and graduation, correspondence with fellow classmates and other alumni afterwards as well as with William J. Mayo; certificates of membership in state medical societies; medical examiner and railway surgeon appointments; correspondence on first world war service; addresses and papers; and physician's visiting lists. Indiana Medical College, 1876-1878, (reel 4, frames 475-510) includes, “Norie; or the adventures of two Medical Students,” written by Tanner in the autumn of 1877.
The Business subseries contains fragmentary material relating to business ventures as well as financial accounts and receipts. For material on the Rio Tamasopo Sugar Company, see the series Mexico (reel 8, frames 223-382).
The Politics subseries is divided geographically into three parts: a description of the St. Louis railroad strike, July 25, 1877; Wisconsin politics, especially in the 1890s; and, Texas politics, almost completely in the 1920s. The Wisconsin correspondence concerns local political races as well as Tanner's appointment as state supervisor of state inspectors of illuminating oils; the Texas correspondence principally pertains to his race in the seventeenth congressional district in 1926. For Tanner's activities as clerk of the school board of Kaukauna's south district, circa 1890, see Schools of Kaukauna, 1891-1926 (reel 9, frames 16-47); for his observations on United States foreign policy and Mexico, see Letters from United States Politicians, 1910-1924, and Correspondence, 1908-1930, 1937 (reel 8, frames 286-382).
The Mexico subseries consists of family letters and correspondence with United States politicians, businessmen, newspaper editors, and the war department. It contains some information on the difficulties of the Rio Tamasopo Sugar Company from 1913 on, descriptions of the Mexican revolution, and suggestions on foreign policy.
The Kaukauna subseries contains interesting material relating to Tanner's historical interest in Kaukauna. It also includes some material on his involvement in the town's schools as well as on local celebrations and pageants. The section History of the Streets of Kaukauna [1931] is divided into drafts, related correspondence, and research.
The Other Historical Interests subseries contains material on Indians, in large part made up of newspaper clippings, three notebooks, and correspondence with the State Historical Society of Wisconsin and the West Texas Historical Association.
The Entertainment and the Arts subseries includes correspondence with authors, editors, and journalists; theatre and concert programs collected by Herbert Battles Tanner and Herbert Johnson Tanner; and aphorisms which Herbert Battles Tanner collected.
The Newspaper Clippings subseries consists of articles on people, things, and events, which Tanner collected. James Whitcomb Riley [1849-1916, Indiana poet], 1929, (reel 10, frames 51-57) includes an article written by Tanner about his days as a newsboy in Indianapolis.
THE FAMILIES OF HERBERT BATTLE TANNER AND MARY GEORGINA MILLER (BOYD) TANNER series
The arrangement of the six subseries of series two is genealogical in the following order: the paternal and maternal sides of Herbert Battles Tanner--Tanner and Battles; and of Mary Georgina Miller (Boyd) Tanner--Boyd, Johnson, Lawe (including Rankin), and Grignon. Children follow parents. A wife, whose maiden and married name both are represented by series titles, appears in both series; for example, Mary Ann (Battles) Tanner can be found in the subseries Tanner, after her husband, and in the subseries Battles, after her father. Folder titles do not include the names of relatives of the principal, such as husband, wife, or children, except for a daughter who has married and consequently may be known by her married name; for example, the title of frames 395-468 on reel 10, organized around Julia Ann (Tanner) Eaton, names her married daughter, Josephine (Eaton) Marquisee, but not her husband, James Eaton Jr., or her other daughter, Annie S. Eaton, although they too appear in the folder.
The subseries are preceded by a genealogical notebook (reel 10, frames 60-140) in which Tanner made entries from 1903 to circa 1933. The notebook is especially helpful in providing information on the more recent generations of his and his wife's family; it is a good supplement to the genealogical material which he gathered and which appears throughout series two. The genealogical material beginning each of the subseries usually takes up two folders: charts, sketches, and notes in the first folder; related correspondence in the second. When studying an individual and Tanner's research, it may be useful to look at the two folders beginning the relevant subseries as well as the folder devoted to the individual. It would be worthwhile to examine the folders on close relatives: the correspondence of nineteenth-century figures appearing in the papers is usually with parents, brothers and sisters, husband or wife, or children (for example, “Boyd's seven devils,“ reel 14, frames 717-868 and 971-1022; reel 15, frames 00-193 and 311-377); the correspondence of twentieth-century figures often is with Tanner himself, and may contain past as well as current information. (For example, Imogene (Tanner) Stanton [1816-1888] and Vina (Stanton) Stark, 1855-1931, reel 10, frames 529-573.)
The subseries contain some information on the early history of Wisconsin, since they include papers of some of its first settlers; for example, George Boyd, Indian agent for the federal government in the 1820s and 1830s (reel 14, frames 482-640). Students of United States history also may be interested in the correspondence between Louisa Catherine (Johnson) Adams, wife of John Quincy Adams, and her sister, Harriet (Johnson) Boyd (reel 14, frames 667-716).
Herbert Johnson Tanner, with the help of his sister, compiled scrapbooks, “Blanche Lawe Tanner, Her Family Tree” (reel 12, frames 951-1065) and “The Family Tree of Herbert Johnson Tanner” (reel 13, frames 106-233 and reel 15, frames 641-727), consisting of photographs, genealogical charts, and copies of letters which they considered especially important for the history of the family. The original letters appear in their appropriate folders elsewhere in the papers; as an extreme example, virtually all of the letters of Louisa Catherine (Johnson) Adams to her sister, Harriet Johnson Boyd (reel 15, frames 641-727), appear again as transcripts made by Herbert Battles Tanner in his son's scrapbook (reel 15, frames 641-727). Each of the two folders which contain Blanche's scrapbooks is introduced with a description of its contents; the five folders containing Herbert's scrapbooks have general titles in the contents list indicating their contents.
