http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8v129ht No online items Robert Hine papers: Finding Aid Finding aid prepared by Aubrey Adams. Manuscripts Department The Huntington Library 1151 Oxford Road San Marino, California 91108 Phone: (626) 405-2203 Fax: (626) 449-5720 Email: [email protected] URL: http://www.huntington.org © March 22, 2011 The Huntington Library. All rights reserved. Robert Hine papers: Finding Aid mssHine papers 1 Overview of the Collection Title: Robert Hine papers Dates (inclusive): 1841-2004 Bulk dates: 1960-1990 Collection Number: mssHine papers Creator: Hine, Robert V., 1921- Extent: Approximately 20,150 items in 49 boxes, plus oversize box and folders. Repository: The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens Manuscripts Department The Huntington Library 1151 Oxford Road San Marino, California 91108 Phone: (626) 405-2203 Fax: (626) 449-5720 Email: [email protected] URL: http://www.huntington.org Abstract: The collection contains the professional papers of Robert V. Hine (1921-2015) reflecting his work as a historian of the American West and a writer, and includes research notes, photocopied manuscripts, newspaper clippings, interviews, correspondence, and other research related papers. The papers chiefly relate to Hine's research on Californian utopian colonies and communes, John Russell Bartlett, Josiah Royce, Edward Kern, and Theodore Talbot, as well as some materials related to his memoir on going blind. Language: English. Access Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader Services. Publication Rights The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher. Preferred Citation [Identification of item]. Robert Hine Papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California. Provenance The collection was a gift from Robert V. Hine; donated in portions between the years 1990 and 2004. Biographical Note Robert V. Hine (1921-2015) is a prominent historian of the American West. Hine earned his Ph.D. in history from Yale University in 1952 and spent a year as a fellow at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California, before accepting a faculty position at the University of California, Riverside, in 1954. Hine remained a member of the History Department at UC Riverside for most of his long career. A prolific writer, Hine authored numerous historical monographs and edited volumes, several textbooks, two personal memoirs, and two historical novels. In 1971, due to a lifelong eye condition, Hine lost his eyesight; in 1986, after 15 years of blindness, a surgical operation restored it. Hine's memoir Second Sight is a reflection on losing his sight, living and working without it, and the experience of regaining it. Scope and Content The collection spans the years 1841-2001, though the majority of it dates between 1960 and 1990. Almost all of the materials dated before the 1950s are reproductions made at Hine’s request for reference in his research and writing, and many of them concern the 19th century figures Edward Kern, John Russell Bartlett, Josiah Royce and Theodore Talbot. The collection is organized to preserve, whenever possible, Robert Hine’s original order. This includes most of his original folder titles, the original order of folders, and the original order of some of the boxes. As such there are small portions of it that do not follow the rules of cataloging to the letter (as in ascending date orders, etc). The collection contains Hine’s professional work as a historian of the American West and a writer, and includes research notes, photocopied manuscripts, newspaper clippings, interviews, correspondence, and other research related papers. As such, the original order of Hine’s papers reflects his process of collecting and referencing them as he worked on various book projects. In some instances, his original folders provide insight into the kinds of questions or themes he was pursuing in the course of his work. Box 16, Robert Hine papers: Finding Aid mssHine papers 2 Folder 6, for example, relates to his work on California’s colonies and communes and is titled “Family,” reflecting his special interest in this aspect of communal life. Hine also revised the organization of these papers as he prepared them for donation to the Huntington Library in the late 1990s. Despite Hine’s own curatorship, some of his papers remained unsorted and unorganized at the time of this collection’s cataloging. Those have been organized by the cataloger to reflect, as much as possible, Hine’s own organizational methods. To this end, the boxes of the collection are organized largely according to the book or other scholarly project for which Hine obtained them, with the exception of the boxes that house correspondence. Boxes 1-22 pertain to Hine’s work on California’s colonies and communes, and in particular the books California’s Utopian Colonies (1973) and Community on the American Frontier: Separate but Not Alone (1985). Within this series, boxes 1-12 are an alphabetical subseries of the communes by name; boxes 13 and 14 are a subseries dedicated specifically to the Llano Commune; boxes 15-18 are a miscellaneous subseries organized largely by subject (i.e. Family in colonies and communes); boxes 19-22 are miscellaneous notes, citations, and bibliographic index cards. Boxes 23-26 pertain to Hine’s research into John Russell Bartlett and the book Bartlett’s West: Drawing the Mexican Boundary (1969); boxes 27-30 relate to his work on Josiah Royce and the book Josiah Royce: From Grass Valley to Harvard ; boxes 31-33 relate to his work on Edward Kern and the book In the Shadow of Fremont: Edward Kern and the Art of American Exploration (1982); boxes 34-35 pertain to his research into Theodore Talbot and the book Soldiers in the West: Letters of Theodore Talbot During His Services in California, Mexico, and Oregon, 1845-53 (1972); box 36 relates to his memoir Second Sight (1993); boxes 37-39 contain miscellaneous research material, including chapter notes for California’s Utopian Colonies, scholarly reviews of his books, and miscellaneous secondary scholarship; boxes 40-43 contain correspondence, largely with other historians but also notably with (then California governor) Ronald Reagan; boxes 44-47 contain bibliographic index cards; box 48 contains audio-visual material; box 49 contains ephemera; and lastly box 50 contains oversize material. There are a few things to note about the collection. First, it contains a number of oversize items housed in separate oversize folders. The items are marked by the presence of a “dummy folder” where they would have been filed, had they not been oversize. Many of the oversize items are duplications (photocopies, prints) of artwork done by John Russell Bartlett and Edward Kern, made while Hine was researching their artistic work in the West. This collection also contains a number of boxes in which the material is not sorted into numbered folders. These are the indexcard boxes (Boxes 19-22 and 44-47), which contain bibliographic records and the Miscellaneous Notes and Citations boxes, which contain half-sheet sized research notes, many regarding the secondary literature relevant to his book projects. In some respects, the kinds of notes contained in these boxes are similar to the notes Hine filed in folders in the grey upright boxes, and in some cases he made makeshift dividers to separate the notes into related groups. Lastly, it is important to note that Hine took many notes in Braille during the years he was blind. In some cases, Hine himself translated the Braille into English as he prepared the collection for donation to the Huntington Library; often, however, the Braille remained untranslated. The boxes relating to Hine’s work on Colonies and Communes contain the majority of the Braille notes. Arrangement Organized in the following manner: • Boxes 1-22: Colonies and Communes • Boxes 23-26: John Russell Bartlett • Boxes 27-30: Josiah Royce • Boxes 31-33: Edward Kern • Boxes 34-35: Theodore Talbot • Box 36: Second Sight • Boxes 37-39: Miscellaneous Research Material • Boxes 40-43: Correspondence • Boxes 44-47: Index Cards • Box 48: Audio-Visual Material • Box 49: Ephemera • Box 50: Oversize. Indexing Terms The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Huntington Library's Online Catalog. Subjects Bartlett, John Russell, 1805-1886. Hine, Robert V., 1921- Robert Hine papers: Finding Aid mssHine papers 3 Hine, Robert V., 1921- -- Health. Kern, Edward Meyer, 1823-1863. Manson, Charles, 1934- Royce, Josiah, 1855-1916. Talbot, Theodore, 1825-1862. Llano Colony (Secular community) Heaven's Gate (Organization) Blind -- United States. Blindness. Collective settlements -- California. Collective settlements -- United States. Communal living -- California. Communal living -- United States. Cooperative societies -- California. Cooperative societies -- United States. Historians -- California -- Archives. California -- History -- 19th century. California -- History -- 20th century. West (U.S.) -- History -- 19th century. West (U.S.) -- History -- 20th century. Forms/Genres Braille -- United States -- 20th century. Clippings (information artifacts) -- United States -- 20th century. Letters (correspondence)