Loring Baker Walton Papers

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Nitrate negatives are closed to use; copies are available on request. Please contact Rubenstein Library Research Services for assistance.

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Four volumes of journal entries describe Loring Walton's daily life and thought as a student, first in Kansas City, Missouri, and later at Princeton University, which he entered in 1912. The journals record campus reaction to Woodrow Wilson's election to the presidency.

Walton was a graduate student at Harvard when he was discharged from ROTC, called to active duty in the U.S. Army, and assigned to the American Expeditionary Force in France and Germany in 1918-1919. During the war and its aftermath, Walton assembled postcards and some photographs which complement his journal entries and correspondence. Other photographs and negatives show Fort Douglas, Utah, in 1920, the campuses of Harvard and Princeton, 1920, and Hingham, Massachusetts. Negatives are closed to use; copies may be requested in advance.

Most of the letters in this series are addressed to Loring Walton's mother, Eleanore C. Walton, with a few to his grandmother and aunt in Kansas City, Missouri. Of interest are his characterizations of civilians during the war and occupation as well as his view of political conditions. For over 30 years Walton corresponded with A. Goderic A. Hodges, a British Army officer who lost a leg while in balloon service.

To a limited extent there is information in the series about Walton's literary and scholarly interests. A small quantity of correspondence is from figures such as philanthropist Wilmon Brewer (from Hingham, Mass.), antifascist politican and writer Count Carlo Sforza, and art historian and archaeologist Maurice Holleaux. Included is a letter written by Anatole France, which was given to Walton, and a handwritten, signed poem by Edmund Wilson. There are several draft versions of Walton's addresses or articles, mostly undated. While there are no papers or correspondence relating to Walton's study at the Sorbonne, one address refers to his living in the home of a French family and his observations of French culture and educational methods. This series also thinly documents his involvement with Duke University through the Interdenominational Church and the Erasmus Club, and his sabbatical in Europe while a member of the Department of Romance Languages.

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