The papers of Horace S. Oakley, 1874-1929, deal primarily with his private life and scarcely touch his professional work in law. Although Oakley's own papers end with his death in December, 1929, the collection continues to 1938. After his death, Oakley's half-sister, Mary Oakley Hawley, continued to correspond with friends, associates, and organizations that were close to her brother and her papers constitute important segments of two series in the collection. The collection has been arranged in four series: Personal Correspondence, Subject File, Printed Material, and a University of Michigan Scrapbook.
The PERSONAL CORRESPONDENCE consists of the letters of Horace S. Oakley and Mary O. Hawley and is concerned with social events, mutual friends, travel news, financial advice, and family affairs. Mary Hawley's correspondence, continued after her brother's death, contains many reminiscences about his life written by friends and associates.
The SUBJECT FILE, which is largely correspondence, is arranged alphabetically and deals with specific time periods, activities, interests, and events in Oakley's life. Items in this file which are dated after December 15, 1929, were collected by Mary Hawley. None of the files completely documents Oakley's connection with any of the organizations mentioned. Most of the papers either cover lightly a wide range of years or focus on one particular period of Oakley's association with the organization. However, the papers and letters concerning Oakley's death on board a steamer and his sister's subsequent journey to bring the ashes back to Wisconsin are relatively extensive.
The Florentine villa file includes the papers relating to its purchase and plans for reconstruction. The Forest Hills Cemetery file contains the correspondence of Horace and his sister dealing with the purchase of a family plot, acquisition of the deed of title, and the financial settlement.
In the file of the National Cyclopedia of American Biography are the letters exchanged by Mary Hawley and that firm as they planned a life sketch of Horace Oakley to be published. Mary Hawley's correspondence with Harriet Monroe, editor of Poetry: A Magazine of Verse and financial reports of the publication constitute the file under that title. Oakley's generosity had helped to establish the magazine in 1912.
PRINTED MATERIAL is arranged alphabetically by the title or descriptive key word. Contained here are the works written by Oakley in both a professional and civic capacity, works written exclusively about him, and printed material that he collected.
The UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SCRAPBOOK is a collection of memorabilia, programs, and invitations from Horace Oakley's college years.
