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 Among the research work documented here is information concerning Schafer's unpublished “Safety Valve Theory,” his contributions to the Dictionary of American Biography (1926-1935), work on Wisconsin ferries and water mills, and his lectures on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.
