Walton family papers, 1730-1980 and undated, bulk 1890-1975

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Collection is open for research. Nitrate negatives are closed to use; access copies are available on request. Please contact the Rubenstein Library before coming to use this collection.
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Summary

Creator:
Walton family
Abstract:
The papers of the Walton family comprise journals and diaries; correspondence; writings; photographic materials; clippings; and printed material. Early items pertain to the Baker family of Hingham, Massachusetts, and letters document the Walton's courtship and early marriage. Papers from the 1920s to 1948 relate to Eleanore Walton's work with societies and clubs, and as a motion picture censor in Kansas City, Missouri. The larger Loring B. Walton Series documents Walton's student days, his service as a U.S. Army officer in the American Expeditionary Force in France and Germany, 1918-1919, and his lengthy correspondence with his mother, Eleanore, and with A. Goderic A. Hodges, a British Army officer. In addition there are a few letters from authors such as Wilmon Brewer, Count Sforza, Maurice Holleaux, and Anatole France, and a poem by Edmund Wilson. Walton's involvement with Duke University as a Romance Languages faculty member is also documented to a lesser degree. Photographs and negatives are of family member portraits, Princeton and Harvard campuses, 1920, Fort Douglas, Utah, also 1920, Hingham, Massachusetts, and unidentified subjects.
Extent:
4.5 Linear Feet (9 boxes; 2 oversize folders)
Physical description:
Approximately 1700 items
Language:
Materials in English.
Collection ID:
RL.01339

Background

Scope and content:

The Walton family papers date from 1730 to 1980, and comprise journals and diaries; incoming and outgoing correspondence; writings; postcards, photographs, albums and negatives; clippings; printed material; and genealogical information and history relating to Hingham, Massachusetts.

Small groups of early materials refer to the lives of Eleanore's father James Loring Baker and the history of Hingham, Massachusetts. Later correspondence documents the courtship and early marriage of Eleanore Coolidge Baker and George E. Walton; an 1896 diary recounts George Walton's trip to Florida by wagon. A larger series of papers and correspondence relates to Loring Baker Walton's student years, travel abroad, service in World War I, and his role as academic author and professor of Romance Languages at Duke University. Letters in this series also document Loring B. Walton's relationship with his mother Eleanore and her involvement in various societies, clubs, and employment as a film censor in Kansas City, Missouri.

Photographs, postcards, and negatives in the collection include portraits of family members; images of travel abroad in France and Hingham, Massachusetts, circa 1920s; Fort Douglas, Utah, 1920; and the campuses of Harvard and Princeton in 1920, and unidentified subjects.

Addition (03-053)(175 items, .2 lin. ft.; dated 1917-1968) comprises materials on Loring Baker Walton, and consists primarily of scholarly correspondence and materials concerning his work on Anatole France and other projects (1932-1968). Also includes his class notes from Harvard (1917-1918), and from his training and service with the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I.

Addition (08-184)(375 items, .4 lin. ft.; dated 1891-1980 and undated) contains primarily material related to Loring Baker Walton's background and service with the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I. Includes information regarding Walton family property settlements for land they owned in Germany that was damaged during WWII. There are also letters (1891-1951) for George E. and Eleanore C. Walton.

Biographical / historical:
George E. Walton
Date Event
1839, Dec. 25
Born in Cincinnati, Ohio to Charles and Sarah Underwood Horsey Blake Walton
1864
Graduated from Bellevue Medical College (N.Y.).
Served as Assistant Surgeon in the Union Army
1865
Toured Europe to study methods of surgery and medicine
1866
Began medical practice in Cincinnati, Ohio
circa 1870
Married Marion Young of Pittsburg, Pa.
Had two sons and two daughters
1880
Assumed Chair of Medicine and Surgery at Cincinnati Academy of Medicine
1880-1881
President of Cincinnati Academy of Medicine
1883
Published The Mineral Springs of the United States and Canada with Analyses and Notes on the Prominent Spas of Europe, and a List of Sea-Side Resorts (D. Appleton)
1890
Moved to DeLand, Florida area
1892, Fall
Married Eleanore C. Baker in St. Augustine, Fla. Son was Loring Baker Walton
1917, June 25
Died in Terre Haute, Indiana
Eleanore Coolidge Baker Walton
Date Event
1865, March 18
Born Eleanore "Nellie" Coolidge Baker in Hingham, Massachusetts to Susan L. and James Loring Baker
1880s
Studied in Chicago
Attended Hingham Academy (Hingham, Mass.).
1891
Moved to Florida because of illness, treated by Dr. George E. Walton
1892, Fall
Married George E. Walton in St. Augustine, Fla. Son was Loring Baker Walton
circa 1898
Moved to Kansas City, Mo. and became active on the Board of the Women's and Children's Hospital, and in the Missouri Society for Crippled Children, the Women's Chamber of Commerce, the YWCA, and the 2nd District Federation of Women's Clubs for Missouri
1933, May
Appointed Assistant to Film Censor for Kansas City
1938, December
Appointed Film Censor for Kansas City
1948
Retired and moved to Durham, N.C.
1958, July 12
Died in Durham, N.C.
Loring Baker Walton
Date Event
1893, November 17
Born in Deland, Florida to Eleanore C. and George E. Walton
1898
Moved to Kansas City, Mo. with his mother
1916
Entered Harvard University as a graduate student
A.B. degree from Princeton University.
1918-1920
Served in the U.S. Army in France, Germany, and Fort Douglas, Utah
1920, November
Employed by Guaranty Trust Company in New York City
1923 (?)
Returned to Europe for study and travel
1924
Awarded License-en-Lettres from the Sorbonne in Paris in classical languages
1924-1929
Instructor of Romance Languages at Princeton University
1925, December
Married Susanne Joseph Lindlar. Children were Loring B. Walton, Jr. and Eleanore
1929-1963
Professor of Romance Languages at Duke University
1943
Ph.D. degree from the University of Chicago
1975, February 9
Died in Durham, N.C., buried in Maplewood Cemetery

Published: Anatole France and the Greek World (Duke University Press: 1950), A Manuscript of Thais(PMLA: 1956), and Anatole France and the First World War: the Correspondence with Carlos Blacker (1962).

Acquisition information:

The papers of the Walton family were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library as a gift from 1984-1987 by Mrs. Loring B. Walton, Loring B. Walton, and Eleanore Walton Bequaert.

Additions to the collection were received in 2003 and 2008.

Processing information:

Processed by: Fran Tracy-Walls and Sharon Knapp, 1992.

Encoded by Stephen D. Miller.

Additions encoded by Alice L. Poffinberger, February 12, 2009.

Nitrate negatives rehoused and description revised by Paula Jeannet, October 2018

Physical facet:
Approximately 1700 items
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Contents

Using These Materials

Using These Materials Links:

Using These Materials

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Nitrate negatives are closed to use; access copies are available on request.

Please contact the Rubenstein Library before coming to use this collection.

Terms of access:

The copyright interests in the Walton family papers have not been transferred to Duke University. For further information, see the section on copyright in the Regulations and Procedures of the Rubenstein Library.

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