Guide, George Wharton Pepper Papers (UPT 50 P423)
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A Guide to the George Wharton Pepper Papers 1797-1956 (bulk 1889-1956) 39.0 Cubic feet UPT 50 P423 Prepared by Deborah Singer and Desiree Price July 2006, June 2009 The University Archives and Records Center 3401 Market Street, Suite 210 Philadelphia, PA 19104-3358 215.898.7024 Fax: 215.573.2036 www.archives.upenn.edu Mark Frazier Lloyd, Director George Wharton Pepper Papers UPT 50 P423 TABLE OF CONTENTS PROVENANCE...............................................................................................................................1 ARRANGEMENT...........................................................................................................................1 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE................................................................................................................2 SCOPE AND CONTENT...............................................................................................................6 CONTROLLED ACCESS HEADINGS.......................................................................................11 INVENTORY................................................................................................................................ 13 BIOGRAPHICAL MANUSCRIPTS...................................................................................... 13 CORRESPONDENCE.............................................................................................................18 SPEECHES..............................................................................................................................25 WRITINGS AND PUBLICATIONS......................................................................................66 SUBJECTS.............................................................................................................................. 71 ARTIFACTS............................................................................................................................89 CERTIFICATES, AWARDS, AND HONORS......................................................................91 George Wharton Pepper Papers UPT 50 P423 Guide to the George Wharton Pepper Papers 1797-1956 (bulk 1889-1956) UPT 50 P423 39.0 Cubic feet Prepared by Deborah Singer and Desiree Price July 2006, June 2009 Access is granted in accordance with the Protocols for the University Archives and Records Center. PROVENANCE This collection was accessioned by the University Archives in four pieces: accessions 1971:26 and 1981:28 from Van Pelt Library, and accessions 1982:62 and 1988:01 from George Wharton Pepper III. The Van Pelt holdings had been acquired from George Wharton Pepper, sr., and his estate in five installments from 1955 to 1963. ARRANGEMENT This collection documents George Wharton Pepper’s political and legal careers and his involvement in the University of Pennsylvania Alumni Society and religious organizations. It also includes biographical materials, awards and citations, and genealogical materials. The personal records of George Wharton Pepper are sorted into seven series: biographical manuscripts, correspondence, speeches, writings and publications, subjects, artifacts, and certificates, awards, and honors. • The biographical manuscripts series have been kept as Charles J. Reinhardt originally arranged them, into 21 books, which are roughly in chronological order. - 1 - George Wharton Pepper Papers UPT 50 P423 • The correspondence series is divided into three sub-series: by date, by subject, and by correspondent. With the exception of the correspondence sub-series arranged by date, each sub- series is arranged alphabetically between folders. • The speeches series is arranged chronologically. • The writings and publications series is arranged chronologically by year and alphabetically within each year. • The subjects series includes the following sub-series: political issues, law practice and legal issues, religious matters, miscellaneous, family materials, University of Pennsylvania, and senate campaigns. Within this subject series, the politics, law, religion, miscellaneous, family materials, and University of Pennsylvania sub-series are arranged alphabetically according to topic. The senate campaigns sub-series is divided between the 1922 and the 1926 campaigns and arranged alphabetically within each of those two years. • The artifacts series are arranged alphabetically by type of artifact. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE George Wharton Pepper - distinguished Philadelphia lawyer and U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania - was born in Philadelphia on March 16, 1867 to George Pepper, a physician, and Hitty Markoe Wharton. His parents were descendents of two old and socially prominent Philadelphia families. Pepper's birthplace and first residence, 1215 Walnut Street, evidences the extent of his family's wealth; at the time, an address on Walnut Street was a statement of financial and social success. Pepper's father, who graduated from the College of the University of Pennsylvania in 1862, died in 1872, when Pepper was only five years old. Thereafter, his mother assumed responsibility for his early education. From a young age, Pepper's poor eyesight prevented him from attending school; consequently, he was taught at home, first by his mother and later by a tutor. Home-schooling provided the opportunity for Pepper's mother, a deeply religious woman, to instill in her son a strong religious conviction. Through her, he became and would remain an active parishioner at St. Mark's, an Episcopal Church still located in Center City, Philadelphia. In 1883, with his eyesight vastly improved, Pepper entered the University of Pennsylvania, where he became an extremely active participant in athletics, drama, and student government. According to the 1887 Record, Pepper was class president the first term of his freshman year. He was a member - 2 - George Wharton Pepper Papers UPT 50 P423 of the Record committee and involved in a number of social organizations. He participated in a wide variety of sports, ranging from crew to football, cricket, and baseball. Most notably, he was a four-year member of the football team and captain of the same for three of his four years. He was editor-in-chief of both the student newspaper, The Pennsylvanian, and a student literary magazine, the University Magazine, before the two merged to become the Daily Pennsylvanian. Additionally, Pepper was a member of Philo and played the part of Dikaiopolis in the College's production of The Acharnians, a Greek play by Aristophanes. At the conclusion of his senior year, Pepper was named Spoon Man, the first of four honor awards given during Hey Day to senior men. Pepper received his Bachelors of Arts in 1887, graduating first in his class. Following graduation, Pepper immediately entered the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He worked for the prestigious Philadelphia law firm Biddle and Ward while in school and graduated, again first in his class, in 1889. Upon graduation, Pepper received two awards from the Law School: the Sharswood Essay Prize and the P. Pemberton Morris Examination Prize. His prizewinning essay, "The Borderland of Federal and State Decisions," was cited by Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis nearly fifty years later in the landmark Erie Railroad v. Tompkins opinion. Pepper also was selected to deliver the Law School's commencement address. His topic, "The Rights of Married Women," proved rather prescient. One year later, on November 25, 1890, Pepper married Charlotte Root Fischer, the daughter of George P. Fischer, a Yale professor and dean of the Yale Theological School. They had three children. Over the next twenty years, Pepper developed an increasingly successful private law practice while also teaching at the University of Pennsylvania and editing and writing legal reference works. After four years as a teaching fellow at Penn, he became the Algernon Sydney Biddle Professor of Law in 1893, a position that he held until 1910. In 1907 he received an honorary degree from Penn. Following his retirement from teaching, which was a result of his expanding private practice, Pepper became a trustee of the University from 1911 until his death in 1961. His work in both the classroom and at the bar concentrated primarily on constitutional and corporate law. At the Law School, he taught classes on the nuances of corporations, partnerships, and insurance. He advocated that law students work by induction from the examination of judicial decisions instead of listening to lectures or studying textbooks. In 1895, at a meeting of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, Pepper presented a paper on legal education and admission to the bar that became a focal point for later reforms. Pepper's publications while at Penn were both practical and scholarly. He compiled, in collaboration with William Draper Lewis, the massive Digest of Decisions and Encyclopedia of - 3 - George Wharton Pepper Papers UPT 50 P423 Pennsylvania Law, 1754 - 1898 (1898 - 1906). In addition, he authored The Way: A Devotional Book for Boys (1909), A Voice from the Crowd (1915), and Men and Issues (1924). For several years, Pepper also served as the editor of the American Law Register and Review. Politically, Pepper's party affiliation changed abruptly in the last years of the nineteenth century. A Democrat prior to 1892, Pepper had voted for Grover Cleveland in 1888. In his mid-twenties, however, Pepper changed his views and became henceforth a loyal and conservative Republican. The same year that he resigned from the faculty of the University, Pepper served as counsel to