The major collection of the Carl P. Russell papers is housed in the Pullman Library of Washington State University.
The Historical Society's collection of Russell's papers is concerned mainly with the early history of Fall River and the Russell family. There is little reflecting his personal life. The papers have been separated into two segments: Carl P. Russell's personal papers (1914-1915, 1946-1967); and Russell family and Fall River papers (1823-1912, 1946-1967).
RUSSELL'S PERSONAL PAPERS include general correspondence (1948-1967); correspondence, clippings, and memorabilia relating to his honorary doctorate from Ripon College (1951), Ripon College social and athletic events (1914-1915), and Russell's correspondence with the college alumni office (1946-1966); and some miscellaneous drafts and notes for his 1957 book, Guns On the Early Frontiers. In many of the pre-1960 letters, Russell exchanges information with other authorities re cannons and guns. The post-1960 correspondence is almost entirely with Fall River people, particularly Walter Wright. The Russell-Wright correspondence reminisces, discusses Fall River history, and bears upon Wright's projects and the Zebulon Russell scrapbooks and columns.
The RUSSELL FAMILY AND FALL RIVER segment of the papers is a small artificial collection of original and copied manuscripts and clippings. It includes three books of accounts which are rudimentary ledgers and/or day-books (1823-1864) probably kept by Franklin Russell for three forges operated in Clinton and Franklin counties, New York; an 1889 mortgage indenture; typed copies of two items referring to John S. Mosby's oath of allegiance in 1865; and a copy of an itinerary entitled “Theatre of Action, 19th Wisconsin Volunteers, 1862-1865.” The last three items are papers of Carl Russell's father, A. W. Russell. Also collected here are copies of a Civil War diary and fourteen Civil War letters of two Fall River men: Elisha A. Dean, Co. B, 7th Wisconsin Volunteer Cavalry, and Freeman H. Coon, Co. K, 32nd Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry; a Zebulon Russell letter and news items (1861-1898) which Walter Wright copied from old newspapers for his own use and Xeroxed for Russell; Zebulon Russell's scrapbooks (1889-1912); and contemporary clippings about Fall River (1946, 1958-1964). The Zebulon Russell scrapbooks contain an incomplete file of his news column, “Fall River News,” from the Columbus Journal-Republican (1893-1912), and also articles on the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, historical figures, restorations of old buildings, et cetera. Under each of the above headings the arrangement of the material is chronological.
