Overview
Correspondence, compositions, and other papers of American educator and philosopher Scott Milross Buchanan.
Dates
- Creation: 1911-1972
Creator
- Buchanan, Douglas (Person)
Language of Materials
Collection materials are in English.
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on physical access to this material.
Extent
25 linear feet (75 boxes)Consists of correspondence (including carbon copies of outgoing letters), writings of Buchanan and others, legal and financial documents, photographs, and printed material. Much of the correspondence concerns Buchanan's work with Mortimer J. Adler, Stringfellow Barr, and Robert M. Hutchins in curricular development at the University of Chicago and St. John's College. Also includes correspondence files, 1946-1949, for the Old Dominion Foundation and Liberal Arts, Inc. Writings of Scott Buchanan include student papers and early articles on philosophical subjects; writings on education, especially classics and the liberal arts; writings on political theory; and book reviews. Also includes letters to Miriam Buchanan on the death of Scott Buchanan , letters to Douglas Buchanan, and poems and correspondence of Mark Van Doren.
Biographical / Historical
Scott Milross Buchanan was an American educator, philosopher, and foundation consultant. He was dean of St. John's College, Annapolis (1937-1947). He was survived by his wife, Miriam Buchanan (formerly Miriam Damon Thomas), and their son, Douglas.
Arrangement
Organized into the following series:
- I. Letters to Scott Buchanan
- II. Letters from Scott Buchanan
- III. Letters to and from Liberal Arts, Inc.
- IV. Letters to Miriam Buchanan
- V. Letters to Douglas Buchanan
- VI. Other letters
- VII. Compositions by Scott Buchanan
- A. Early compositions, 1911-1924
- B. Compositions, 1924-1937
- C. Compositions, 1937-1946
- D. Compositions, 1946-1968
- E. Book reviews
- F. Lecture notes and subject files
- G. Miscellaneous and undated compositions and notes
- VIII. Compositions by others
- IX. Biographical material
- X. Printed material
- XI. Additions to collection
Please note that item numbers 1056-1065, 1505, 1605, 1636, and 1695 were inadvertently omitted from this finding aid.
Physical Location
Box 75 is located at 97M-1.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
*78M-49. Gift of Miriam Damon (Thomas) Buchanan; received: 1969.
97M-1. Gift of David Buchanan, 1997.
Processing Information
Processed by: Elizabeth Falsey.
Processing Information
In 2020-2021, as part of a conscious and inclusive re-description effort, entries were updated to include a woman’s first name when identified.
Miriam Damon (Thomas) Buchanan formerly listed as Mrs. Scott Buchanan.
Processing Information
This finding aid was revised in 2024 to address outdated and harmful descriptive language. During that revision, contextualizing processing notes were added to the description of one item. For more information on reparative archival description at Harvard, see Harvard Library’s Statement on Harmful Language in Archival Description.
Creator
- Buchanan, Douglas (Person)
- Title
- Buchanan, Scott Millross, 1895-1968. Scott Millross Buchanan papers, 1911-1972 (MS Am 1992): Guide
- Status
- completed
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou00498
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.
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