Writings and Research Series, 1793, 1835-2007 and undated, bulk 1876-2004

Extent:

66 boxes

Scope and content:

Writings, research materials, notes, and correspondence that document the genesis of Painter's major books and many articles, essays, and reviews. Contains significant amounts of correspondence with publishers, sources, and colleagues; articles and talks sent by colleagues; and copious notes and numerous photocopies of primary sources, including newspapers and government records. There are also many drafts of Painter's talks and writings, including manuscripts, typescripts, and printer's proofs.

Arranged in eight subseries, the first six of which are based on five of Painter's major books: Exodusters: Black Migration to Kansas After Reconstruction (1976); The Narrative of Hosea Hudson: His Life as a Negro Communist in the South (1979); Sojourner Truth, A Life, A Symbol (1996); Standing at Armageddon: The United States, 1877-1919 (1987); Creating Black Americans: African American History and Its Meanings, 1619 to the Present (2005); and The History of White People (2010). Each subseries is further divided into three subgroups, Correspondence, Drafts, and Research Materials; see specific subseries notes for further detail about the arrangement and content of these categories for each book. Materials unrelated to these five books--or whose relationship to them could not be established--have been placed in one of the final two subseries, Other Research Topics or Writings by Others. Note that while all the subseries contain writings by other authors, the main criterion for placing materials in Writings by Others is that the folder contains only such writing. If a folder contains Painter's notes and commentary in addition to writings by other authors or contains works by multiple authors that Painter gathered under a topical heading, then they are placed in one of the first five subseries or in Other Research Topics. This subseries, the largest in the Writings and Research Series, is further divided into subgroups by topic; see its subseries note for further details on its arrangement.

Several types of documents that appear in this series are supported by related material in other series. Three are of particular note: correspondence, addresses, and writing by other authors. Much correspondence appears in various subseries in Writings and Research, and it addresses many of the same topics broached in the Correspondence Series; it can be searched alphabetically or chronologically according to the arrangement of the particular subseries. Drafts of Painter's addresses and articles have generally been placed in the Writings and Research Series--especially in the Other Research Topics Subseries--if the folders consist mainly of substantive drafts of the work or research on it; but other versions may also appear in the Engagements Subseries of the Professional Service Series. Finally, a substantial amount of writing by other authors, especially when those authors were current or former students or advisees of Painter's, appears in two other series. Most such material appears as attachments to letters in the Student/Candidate Files Subseries of the Correspondence Series; a smaller amount, in the form of drafts unattached to correspondence, appears at the end of the Teaching Materials Series, Academic Files Subseries.

As mentioned in the Collection Overview, the dating of folder titles is of particular note in this series due to the large volume of photocopies and microform printouts of archival and historical material. If the folder contains Painter's notes or quotations from a primary source, the date corresponds to the time Painter worked on the subject. If the folder contains an original source or photocopy of one (almost always the latter), the date corresponds to when the intellectual content was originally produced or published.

Processing information:

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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