John Tate Lanning papers, 1926-1976

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Summary

Creator:
Lanning, John Tate, 1902-
Abstract:
John Tate Lanning (1902-1976) was a historian, colonial Latin America scholar, and Duke University Professor of History. This collection includes correspondence, manuscript materials, committee notes, student papers, newsletters, conference materials, curriculum materials, travel diaries, interview transcriptions, and field research notes. Major subjects include the Duke University Department of History, Duke University Research Council, Hispanic American Historical Review, Latin American library resources, student and teaching of Latin American history, research in the social sciences, and Latin American colleges and universities. English.
Extent:
36 Linear Feet
Language:
English.
Collection ID:
UA.29.02.0036
University Archives Record Group:
29 -- Papers of Faculty, Staff, and Associates
29 -- Papers of Faculty, Staff, and Associates > 02 -- Individuals

Background

Scope and content:

Contains personal and professional papers relating to John Tate Lanning's career as an educator, historian, and scholar of Latin American history. Types of materials include correspondence, manuscript materials, committee notes, student papers, newsletters, conference materials, curriculum materials, travel diaries, interview transcripts, and field research notes. Includes materials pertaining to Lanning's editorship of the Hispanic-American Historical Review, interactions with the journal's managing editors, Duke University's Research Council, and the Lanning family. Also contains a diary Lanning kept during a research trip in England, Spain, and France, 1926 October-1927 May. Materials range in date from 1926-1976.

Biographical / historical:

John Tate Lanning was born in Linwood, N.C. in 1902. He received degrees from Trinity College (A.B., 1924) and the University of California (A.M., 1925, Ph.D., 1928).

A teacher, lecturer, educator, and historian, Lanning began his career at Duke University in 1927. In 1942, he became a full professor, and became a James B. Duke professor in 1961. He was one of the first Guggenheim Fellows in the early 1930s and won several research awards in the field of history. In 1955, Lanning won the Carnegie Fund Prize for his manuscript, The 18th Century Enlightenment in the University of Can Carlos de Guatemala.

Lanning was the managing editor of the Hispanic American Historical Review (1939-1945) and held memberships in the American Historical Association, Phi Beta Kappa, and the Sociedad de Geografia e Historia de Guatemala. He specialized in colonial Hispanic-American history and wrote The Spanish Missions of Georgia (1935) and 10 other works.

A self-proclaimed bibliophile, Lanning regarded the Duke University's Perkins Library as the heart of the university. He was instrumental in developing Perkins Library's book collection on Hispanic America. Upon his death, Lanning was honored with three book funds established in his name: one by the Hanes Foundation of Winston-Salem, N.C. and the other two by his students.

Lanning married Elizabeth B. Williams in 1932 and died in Durham, N.C., on August 15, 1976.

Acquisition information:

Gift; 1977; 77-40.

Gift; 1978; 78-76.

Processing information:

Processed by University Archives staff

Completed November 2002

Encoded by Emily Glenn, April 2003

Arrangement:

Items are arranged into several alphabetical files, which have been loosely interfiled to preserve original order of the collection.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Contents

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Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

Copyright for Official University records is held by Duke University; all other copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

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Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], John Tate Lanning Papers, Duke University Archives, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.