Correspondence Series, 1862-2008 and undated, bulk 1970-2007

Extent:

98 boxes

Scope and content:

Contains professional correspondence between Painter and her professors, colleagues, and students over the course of her career; personal letters to and from family, friends, and colleagues; and some administrative and interdepartmental memoranda from each of the universities at which Painter served as professor. Documents Painter's personal life, education, and career from her graduate years at Harvard in the late 1960s up through her retirement from Princeton in 2004. Major figures who corresponded with Painter include African-American novelist Toni Morrison; professors of English Houston A. Baker, Jr., Werner Sollors, and Nellie Y. McKay; and historians Darlene Clark Hine and William L. Andrews. Theirs and others' correspondence may appear in either the Chronological Subseries or Alphabetical Subseries. Professional correspondence also includes some letters related to editorial matters, organizations such as the National Endowment for the Humanities, and such publishers as Heinneman of the African Writer's Series. Arranged in four subseries: the Chronological, Alphabetical, Student/Candidate Files, and Nellie Y. McKay (CLOSED).

Materials Retrieval Note: In addition to the material gathered in this series, Painter's extensive correspondence can be found in many other places in the collection. This is particularly true of the Writings and Research Series and the Professional Service Series. In the case of the former, each of the five subseries for Painter's major books contains a Correspondence subgroup within it related to research and publication of the book, and correspondence also appears in various folders throughout the other two subseries. In the Professional Service Series, correspondence appears in both subseries--Organizations and Engagements--though more substantially in the former. Thus in order to be sure of seeing all correspondence that might relate to a particular book, for example, patrons should retrieve not only the correspondence from that book's subseries in the Writings and Research Series, but also any boxes in the Correspondence Series that originate from any applicable time spans or persons in the Chronological and Alphabetical subseries, respectively.

Processing information:

Processing Note: Letters often include attachments, such as photographs, articles, newspaper clippings, and booklets related to Painter's research or academia in general, and abstracts and drafts of dissertation chapters from students. Unattached photographs have been removed to the Photographic Materials Series. Unattached book manuscripts and articles from colleagues have been removed to the Writings and Research Series, Writings by Others Subseries. Unattached departmental memoranda, course syllabi, and writings by students have been removed to the Teaching Materials Series.

Processing Note: Materials in this series containing mold have been remediated, replaced in the collection, and so identified on the folder and in the box list. See Processing Information section of this finding aid for more complete information.

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