The Lloyd Papers are arranged in five series: I. Correspondence; II. Writings; III. Research Materials; IV. Scrapbooks and Clippings; and V. Miscellany. Most of the collection's contents are available both in paper form and on microfilm.
Altogether these records cover the career of a remarkably perceptive pioneer in the study of corporate capitalism and business ethics, a champion of labor's right to organize and to secure improved working conditions, and a spokesman for many social and economic changes needed for the betterment of human welfare. In its broader significance, however, the collection constitutes a rich source for research in the rise and development of liberal and radical thought in the United States and for studies of American relationships and reactions to co-operative and socialist experiences elsewhere in the world. Each series is described individually.
Series I. CORRESPONDENCE, is subdivided into two subseries. The first of these, General Correspondence , 1866-1936, contains incoming and outgoing letters, arranged in a single chronological sequence, except that all enclosures have been placed with their covering letters. Because Lloyd did not systematically preserve copies of his outgoing letters, incoming ones are in the majority. From evidence in Caro Lloyd's correspondence, it appears that many of the copies of his outgoing letters were made by Caroline Stallbohm after his death from originals loaned to Caro by their recipients.
The earliest letters in 1866 concern Lloyd's part in a controversy between the Columbia Class of 1867 and Columbia College President Henry Barnard. A draft of a letter in 1868 to his former classmate Nicholas Fish is partially in Isaac Pitman's form of shorthand, a rapid writing system which Henry used throughout his career but which has since become obsolete. Shorthand drafts, with or without transcripts by Miss Stallbohm, are found scattered throughout the general correspondence. During the 1870's and 1880's the correspondence is sparse, but there are letters alluding to Lloyd's work with the American Free-Trade League, his editorial posts with the Chicago Tribune, his attempt to secure his own newspaper, and the beginning of his research on the Standard Oil Company. When he became an independent writer, lecturer, and traveler, he acquired an ever-widening circle of friends and correspondents at home and abroad, a fact reflected in the rapidly increasing number of letters for each year after 1888. Approximately three-fourths of his letters (Boxes 7-14 and Reels 5-16) fall within the period from 1896 through 1903, when he achieved world acclaim as an author, journeyed in England, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, was deeply involved in the Populist, Socialist, and labor movements, and was an avid investigator of social and economic conditions and experiments on many fronts. Hundreds of interesting and significant letters from men and women representing a cross-section of American society demonstrate the scope of his interests and activities during this period of social and economic ferment. Many other letters from foreign writers, particularly the leaders of the co-operative movement in England, show the friendship and esteem with which he was regarded outside the United States.
Although Lloyd's public career as a reform leader is well covered by correspondence, the collection contains relatively few personal or intimate letters exchanged between Lloyd and members of his family or close friends. Information on Lloyd's courtship and marriage to Jessie Bross is contained in correspondence, 1872-1876, with his brother, David Demarest Lloyd and with their friend and fellow suitor for Jessie, Henry F. Keenan. One notable series of family letters has survived, about 160 letters written by Henry to Jessie from October 7, 1902 through March 22, 1903, while Jessie was spending the winter in Boston and Henry was in Pennsylvania engrossed in the grueling anthracite coal strike and its arbitration. Most other letters from members of the Bross and Lloyd families are isolated items.
The concluding portion of the general correspondence is composed primarily of Caro Lloyd's correspondence, 1903-1936 (Boxes 13-16 and Reels 15-17). Documented are her lifelong efforts to collect letters and reminiscences by or about Henry, her arrangements for the editing and publishing of his additional books, her writing and publication of her biography of her brother, and her plans for the preservation of the Henry Demarest Lloyd collection.
The general correspondence has been completely indexed by name of correspondent. This Index to Correspondents constitutes Box 1 of the paper collection and has been microfilmed on Reel 1.
One folder of additional correspondence received after the microfilm and index was completed is present in Box 16.
The second subseries, Shorthand Correspondence Notebooks , 1896-1898, covers thirty-two notebooks in shorthand written by Miss Stallbohm and containing letters dictated to her by Lloyd from November, 1896, through December, 1898. As no series of transcripts has been located, the shorthand conceals the only copies of most of these outgoing letters. Consequently these notebooks have been retained and microfilmed (Boxes 17-19 and Reels 18-19).
Series II. WRITINGS, also has two subseries. The first is Articles and Addresses , 1859-1903. Because many of Lloyd's lectures were reproduced in printed form in newspapers and periodicals, this section of the collection includes both manuscript and typewritten drafts and revisions for both speeches and essays. Among the early manuscripts are his “Note Book,” written as a youth in 1859 in Pekin, Illinois; several essays and speeches composed at Columbia University; and two pieces written in 1871 during his association with the free-trade movement. Also extant are examples of his articles and editorials for the Chicago Tribune as well as his early articles for the Atlantic Monthly (1881-1882) and North American Review (1883-1886). The majority of the pieces, however, Lloyd prepared after 1885.
The papers are arranged chronologically according to the date the article was first published or the speech was first delivered. The material is diverse and may include notes made by Lloyd in preparation for his writing, manuscript drafts, annotated typewritten drafts or revisions, galley proofs, newspaper tear sheets, or clippings of the printed version. For most titles, not all of these types of material have been preserved. For some of his popular lectures such as “No Mean City” (1893), “Uses and Abuses of Corporation” (1896), “Emerson's Wit and Humor” (1895), and “A Day with William Morris” (1896), there are several typed copies of each, for Lloyd often made different manuscript annotations on his standard text. Occasionally Caro Lloyd or Caroline Stallbohm made a manuscript transcript of a speech while Lloyd was delivering it; these have been included whenever they vary from Lloyd's own manuscript draft or typed copy.
Some printed copies of Lloyd's articles are found in this section because of related annotations or revisions. Some letters for publication which he addressed to editors of newspapers have been considered as newspaper articles and are also included, but if the original letters existed in manuscript form, they were also indexed and microfilmed in Series I, Correspondence. Some additional letters and other writings by Lloyd for publication in newspapers and periodicals may also be found in their printed forms in Series IV, Scrap-books and Clippings.
Material for one notable article has been omitted from this section: the manuscript notes and draft of Lloyd's article “The New Conscience,” a statement of his philosophy of social justice published in the North American Review for September, 1888. Used as a basis for a chapter of Man, the Social Creator (1906), edited by Jane Addams and Anne Withington, the manuscripts for the 1888 article have been kept with the papers pertaining to the book in order to preserve a coherent file on its development.
An itemized list of all articles, addresses, and related papers may be found as a preface to this section (Box 19 and Reel 20).
The second subseries, Books , deals with the five books Lloyd published during his lifetime, as well as the pamphlet and five additional books under his name, published after his death with the supervision of his family. In the order of their first publication, Lloyd's titles were:
-
A Strike of Millionaires Against Miners, or the Story of Spring Valley. An Open Letter to the Millionaires . Chicago: Belford-Clarke Company, 1890.
-
Wealth Against Commonwealth . New York: Harper & Brothers, 1896.
-
Labor Co-partnership. Notes of a Visit to Co-operative Workshops, Factories, and Farms in Great Britain and Ireland, in which Employer, Employee, and Consumer Share in Ownership, Management and Results . New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1898.
-
A Country Without Strikes. A Visit to the Compulsory Arbitration Court of New Zealand . New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1900.
-
Newest England. Notes of a Democratic Traveller in New Zealand, with Some Australian Comparisons . New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1900.
-
The Chicago Traction Question . Chicago: 1903.
-
Man, the Social Creator . Edited by Jane Addams and Anne Withington. New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1906.
-
A Sovereign People. A Study of Swiss Democracy . Edited by John A. Hobson. New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1907.
-
Men, the Workers . Edited by Anne Withington and Caroline Stallbohm. New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1909.
-
Mazzini and Other Essays . New York and London: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1910.
-
Lords of Industry . New York and London: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1910.
In the collection the book manuscripts are arranged chronologically by publication dates. All materials pertaining to each title have been grouped together.
Varying amounts of documentation for Lloyd's titles are in the collection. Appropriately the most voluminous file concerns Wealth Against Commonwealth, his most influential and best-known book, and the one on which he lavished the most time and care in research and writing. In crusading for social justice he determined in 1889 to write a book not only to expose the abuses perpetrated on the public by unbridled trusts and monopolies but also to demand that capitalistic business enterprises and modern technology should serve the general welfare, not coerce and repress it. Lloyd viewed the Standard Oil Company, which he had castigated editorially as early as 1878, as the prime example of the evils of the trust system, and its history and operations became the central topics of the book. For five and a half years he worked on this project. Research notes, manuscript drafts and revisions, annotated pages of proof, lists of corrections, publicity notices, and other materials document the evolution of Wealth Against Commonwealth through research, writing, and publication. As he struggled to determine the most effective presentation of his data, statistics, and ideas, he made numerous alterations in titles, text, and page and chapter order. Because of the many confusing variations between drafts and the final published version, a chart showing the tentative correlations between manuscript chapters and published chapters has been prepared and placed with the manuscript drafts, and additional notes on probable correlations have been placed with each chapter. Nevertheless the original location of some notes and fragments has not been determined. Papers pertaining to the publication of the book include a list of publishers who rejected it, criticisms by readers of the manuscript, memoranda on revisions and citations, annotated proof and corrections, and a list of newspapers which reviewed it.
For the four other titles issued from 1890 to 1900 the collection contains research materials, drafts, annotated pages of printed proof, and other papers related to publication. These are similar in types but much less in quantity than the records for Wealth Against Commonwealth.
Of the posthumous publications, three were begun by Lloyd himself. His pamphlet The Chicago Traction Question was in draft form when he contracted his fatal illness. This Jessie Bross Lloyd completed and had issued a few weeks after his death. His research file of notes, broadsides, petitions, and clippings, and his draft are in the collection.
Man, the Social Creator has as its central core Lloyd's “Manuscript of 1896,” a synthesis of his secular liberal religion and philosophy centered about his belief in the vast creative power of man, which he prophesied would eventually enable humanity to triumph over the evils of war, tyranny, disease, and poverty. Lloyd had expressly desired to have this 1896 draft edited and published in case of his death. His wishes were carried out by his heirs, who secured Jane Addams and Anne Withington as editors. Also used in the preparation of this volume were Lloyd's notes and drafts of “The Money of the New Conscience,” originally a lecture which appeared in published form in the September, 1888 issue of North American Review. The extensive research notes, manuscript and typewritten drafts, annotated pages of proof, and lists of corrections found in the collection record the development of this book from its inception by Lloyd until its publication in 1906.
During the summer of 1903 at “Watch House” in Rhode Island, Lloyd had begun the transcription of his notebooks on Switzerland in preparation for a book discussing his observations made in that country in 1901 and 1902. After his death the completion of this projected volume was undertaken by his friend, English economist John A. Hobson. Hobson fused together selections from Lloyd's notebooks using Lloyd's phraseology wherever possible, supplemented these by selections from literature which Lloyd had collected, and wrote the many necessary introductory and connecting passages to create A Sovereign People. A Study of Swiss Democracy (1907). For the production of this book this section of the collection contains only transcripts of Lloyd's research notebooks and a list of corrections for the printer.
The three remaining posthumous books were assembled by Lloyd's literary executors from his articles, essays, and speeches. For these titles the collection contains no original or significant material concerning the editing and publication processes, but each file includes a list of the articles and addresses reprinted in the volume.
Following the book manuscripts are Lloyd's memorandum discussing the publication of his writings in the event of his death, a group of mailing lists, and a fragmentary assortment of sales records, expense sheets, contract memoranda, and other business papers relating to some of the books.
A detailed list of the materials in this section appears as a preface to it in Box 25 and on Reel 26.
Series III. RESEARCH MATERIALS contains general research files. Throughout his adult life Lloyd was an avid reader of books, newspapers, and periodicals. For possible future use in his writings, he preserved quotations, summaries, news items, and other excerpts from his reading, and registered his own ideas and commentary which were inspired by his studies and observations. Research materials which have been clearly identified as pertaining to particular titles among his articles and books are filed in Series II, Writings. Many clippings which he saved are filed in Series IV, Scrapbooks and Clippings. Series III, therefore, is composed of Lloyd's general research files, which have been subdivided into four categories, preceded by an outline of arrangement.
The first category is Research Materials for Articles and Addresses , 1887, 1901-1902. Although these typewritten papers have not been identified with any specific title, they appear to have been copied or noted by Lloyd for use in his writings or his lectures. The materials relate to two topics only: the case of the Chicago anarchists in 1887 and the anthracite coal mine ownership discussions in the Massachusetts legislature in 1901-1902.
The second is Card Notes , 1896-1900. Lloyd's file of manuscript notes, written on 852 index cards between 1896 and 1900, are alphabetically arranged, and span a wide assortment of subjects from Africa to Richard Wagner. This set is accompanied by three smaller undated groups of note cards in other formats. One packet may have been used by Lloyd in the preparation of his “Manuscript of 1896.” Sometime after Lloyd's death Caroline Stallbohm made the typewritten transcription of the card notes which follows the manuscript cards.
The third is Notebooks , 1866-1903. From his college days until his death Lloyd kept small notebooks readily at hand so that he could quickly jot down facts, ideas, impressions, and observations. One hundred twelve of these notebooks form the core of his research materials in this series.
For Lloyd's years as a college undergraduate, law student, and young reformer, three notebooks, 1866-1871, are found in the collection. In these College Notebooks he recorded lecture and reading notes on Greek language and culture, optics, metaphysics, metallurgy, and political science and law.
Eighty-six notebooks compose the subunit titled “Research Series”. In these Lloyd recorded quotations, comments, and impressions garnered from his reading, his fact-finding investigations, and his foreign travels. Often these volumes contain the first evidence of an interest or an inquiry into a topic which he later expanded into an article, speech, or book. Notes on his reading show clearly the sources and authors which inspired and stimulated his creative thought and the development of his political, social, and ethical philosophy. From the Research series Notebooks Lloyd's literary executors and editors drew material used in two works issued after his death, Man, the Social Creator (1906) and A Sovereign People (1907).
Prior to 1870 Lloyd studied and began to use Pitman shorthand, a form which today is very difficult to decipher. Fortunately during his later years Lloyd usually gave his notebooks to Miss Stallbohm to transcribe, but for some volumes only partial copies are extant. After 1903 Miss Stallbohm also transcribed and typed copies of his earlier notebooks. Whenever a transcript exists, it has been microfilmed immediately following its original volume.
A subunit titled “Memorandum Books,” twenty-three in number, date from 1875 to 1902, but most pertain to the years after 1888. Lloyd's entries are diverse and personal, including the cost of building supplies and repairs for his homes, traveling expenses, appointment dates, and names and addresses of persons to whom he intended to write. Notations on Winnetka Council meetings are included in the early 1886 volume.
Within each group of Notebooks--College, Research, and Memorandum--the arrangement is chronological by year. In the Notebooks subseries, most of the volumes were given numerical or alphabetical designations by Miss Stallbohm; these are listed in an itemized list preceding the notebooks (Box 45 and Reel 61).
Some original notebooks and transcripts may also be found within other series in the Lloyd collection. Thirty-two shorthand notebooks kept by Miss Stallbohm, which record letters Lloyd dictated between November, 1896, and December, 1898, have been placed with his correspondence in Series I. Lloyd's schoolboy “Note Book” of 1859, in reality an essay, has been included with his other articles and addresses in Series II, Writings, and five of his research notebooks on trusts and on the Standard Oil Company form integral segments of the materials chronicling the development and writing of Wealth Against Commonwealth. In the same series the subject file compiled by Miss Stallbohm for the editors of Man, the Social Creator contains the only transcripts for some passages from some of the Research Notebooks. One additional notebook containing minutes of the Chicago Campaign Committee of the People's Party, March 7-April 3, 1896, is among the People's Party Papers in Series V.
At the end of the Research Materials series are Research Fragments . A small group of random manuscript notes and thoughts by Lloyd compose this section. Some may have been jottings to record an idea or quotable phrase. Others appear to have been excised from drafts of letters and articles, but their precise origins have not been determined.
Series IV is SCRAPBOOKS AND CLIPPINGS. Possessing an ever-alert interest in current world affairs and a keen appreciation for the potential historical and research value of contemporary publications, Lloyd gathered and read newspapers, pamphlets, broadsides, and leaflets representative of numerous sources and shades of opinion in the United States and abroad. From these publications Lloyd and his secretarial aides marked and clipped articles which Lloyd himself had written as well as those which discussed his life, his writings, or particular topics of interest to him. After 1903 these procedures were continued by Miss Stallbohm. Over the years, therefore, a massive collection of clippings accumulated; some were mounted and bound into fifteen scrapbooks, many others were loose and unmounted. Although these papers have been grouped by format and chronology, into three subseries, there is unavoidable overlapping and duplication of content among the portions of the series. This series is available only on microfilm as the originals were discarded after microfilming due to their bad physical condition.
The first subseries, Unindexed Scrapbooks , 1869-1914, has seven volumes (Reel 67). Volume I, 1869, contains the earliest clippings in the collection: copies of Lloyd's letters signed “No Monopoly” published in the New York Evening Post and articles which he saved on the coal and iron monopolies, railroads, the shipbuilding industry and sailors' rights, labor organizations, immigration of Chinese laborers, tariff reform, and other aspects of manufacturing and trade. Other papers illustrative of his interests in the early 1870's are found in Volumes II and III, with articles, handbills, and other memorabilia pertaining to the Mercantile Library Association, the New York Liberal Club, the American Free-Trade League, the Liberal Republican National Convention of 1872, and the Chicago Sunday Lecture Society. Spanning mainly the years 1870-1893, Volume II also includes clipped commentaries on articles written by Lloyd beginning in 1882. Clippings in Volume III range in date from 1872 to 1912; among them are numerous reviews of Lloyd's speeches, articles, and books, as well as copies of articles written by him, including several for Boyce's Weekly in 1902-1903. In Volume IV are clipped articles written by Lloyd and others, material on the Populist movement and Lloyd's candidacy for Congress in 1896, and items on the strike of the Milwaukee Street Railway Workers in 1896. A diverse assortment of topics is found in Volume V, 1881-1916; among the subjects are an academic freedom controversy centered about Edward W. Bemis, the history of the fort at Louisburg in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, trusts and monopolies, railroad land grants, and Caro Lloyd's criticisms of the Czarist regime in Russia in 1905. Obituaries of Lloyd, dated 1903-1906, fill Volume VI. Volume VII is composed of undated articles primarily pertaining to travel and to literature, with notice of such contemporaries as George Eliot and Mark Twain.
The second subseries, Indexed Scrapbooks , 1883-1903, consists chiefly of printed lectures and articles by Lloyd. For these an “Index,” or more accurately a table of contents, was prepared, probably by Miss Stallbohm, and it has been microfilmed preceding the volumes (Reel 68). Originally this group numbered nine volumes, of which eight are known to be extant and in this collection. Volume VI on “The New Conscience” was never received or located by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Volumes in the subseries include: I. Newspaper articles, 1883, 1888-1901, 1903; II. Lectures, 1889, 1892-1896; III. Trusts, 1881, 1886, 1896-1897, 1903; IV. Wealth Against Commonwealth articles, 1895-1898; V. Municipal ownership of street railways, 1895-1898, 1903; VII. Co-operation, 1897-1898, 1901; VIII. New Zealand and Australia, 1899-1903; and IX. Boyce's Weekly articles, 1903.
The third subseries, Unbound Clippings , 1882-1934, is further subdivided into two unindexed groups. The first and smaller is a file of press comments and reviews of Lloyd's books and of Caro Lloyd's biography of her brother. These range in date from 1889 to 1912, and are arranged by title of the books in the chronological order of their publication. In this file no reviews are found for two posthumous compilations of Lloyd's writings, Mazzini and Other Essays and Lords of Industry.
The second and much larger group of unbound pieces are clippings from newspapers and magazines arranged chronologically by year from 1882 to 1936, and undated. General topics emphasized are Lloyd's writings, travels, and interests in labor, socialism, trusts, and monopolies. Reviews of the books by both Henry and Caro may be found in this section as well as in the preceding one.
The last series, V. MISCELLANY, is subdivided into four small groups of records, significant primarily for their biographical content about Lloyd.
The first group, People's Party Papers, 1894 March 7-1896 September, document Lloyd's participation in the Populist movement. In a small notebook he recorded minutes, 1896 March 7-April 3, of the campaign committee of the People's Party of Chicago. During his participation in the state convention of the party in that year and his candidacy for Congress, he preserved broadsides and newspaper reports, as well as drafts or copies of his speeches. A draft of one page for the Illinois party platform is partly in Lloyd's handwriting and partly in that of Clarence Darrow. Similar materials show Lloyd's association with party affairs in Chicago during the next year. At the national convention in St. Louis in 1896 Lloyd, an opponent of the movement for “free silver” and the merger of the Populists and the Democrats, did not deliver the speech which he had prepared. The manuscript draft and typed version of it are among these records, however, together with fragments of his draft of proposed convention resolutions and articles about the convention which he wrote for Review of Reviews (September, 1896) and the Chicago Tribune (July 26, 1896).
The second group, Papers Concerning Lloyd's Civic Activities in Winnetka, 1880-1907, is a fragmentary assortment of records attesting to Lloyd's participation in the development of the village of Winnetka and his concern for its welfare and progress. In 1880 he penciled the draft of an ordinance to regulate the building and operation of a rail line through the village by the Chicago and Lake Superior Railroad Company. Other records include printed pamphlets and scattered related papers, 1880-1898, on the village public school system; a report on the work of the village trustees in 1882 entitled “To the Winnetka Improvement Society”; and village financial statements, 1884-1887. Material concerning the issue of public versus private ownership of village utilities, 1898-1907, includes broadsides, drafts of ordinances, and copies of letters. One pamphlet (1907) was written by Henry's son, William Bross Lloyd. Undated drafts of floor plans and watercolor sketches of two exterior views of the proposed H. D. Lloyd Memorial Library designed by Chicago architect W. A. Otis conclude this section of the collection.
The third group is Biographical Materials Compiled by Caro Lloyd, 1840-1937. Many of these papers concern the preparation of Caro Lloyd's biography of her brother (1912). Some portions of her drafts for the book were preserved, including introductions by her and by Charles Edward Russell which were not included in publication. Throughout her life Caro continued to gather information by or about her brother. “Stray Notes about Henry D. Lloyd” she wrote in 1936-1937 to record some of her personal anecdotes about him, his quotations which she considered of special significance, and notations about many topics: persons associated with Lloyd such as James D. Carrothers and “Mother” Jones; Lloyd's religious views; the People's Party movement in 1896; Lloyd's efforts to buy a daily newspaper; the contest between Judge F. S. Monnett of Ohio and the Standard Oil Company; and the Lloyd family residences in Chicago and Winnetka. For encyclopedia publishers she also wrote short biographical accounts of Henry D. Lloyd. Among her other papers are two broadsides written in 1860 by John Crilley Lloyd, grandfather of Henry and Caro, a genealogical article by their father Aaron Lloyd, and notes by Caroline Stallbohm on the reading, appearance, and working habits of Henry.
The fourth group is Other Biographical Materials, 1857-1903. Aside from typewritten copies of a very few representative memorial notices about Lloyd in 1903, two groups of materials comprise this final portion of the Lloyd Papers: a collection of broadsides and programs announcing addresses by Lloyd, 1889-1903, and a collection of photographs, 1857-1903. Among the latter are pictures of Henry Demarest Lloyd as boy and as adult and photographs of the Lloyds' homes in Illinois and Rhode Island. There are also a few photographed cartoons and broadsides concerning the referendum on the nationalization of Swiss railroads in 1901 and photographs of Pennsylvania miners and breaker boys involved in the anthracite coal strike in 1902-1903.
