Skip to main content
COLLECTION Identifier: HOLLIS 3093953

Lloyd K. (Lloyd Kirkham) Garrison papers

Overview

Contains a variety of materials relating chiefly to his personal, political, and civil rights activities. The collection contains family papers pre-dating Garrison's birth and other personal correspondence with his friends and colleagues. Much of this correspondence provides a unique look into the social and political milieu of New York City in the mid-Twentieth Century. A subseries titled, Major Correspondence, consists of correspondence with noted legal figures. The papers also include materials related to Garrison's work on the issues of global disarmament and non-violence.

Dates

  • Creation: 1893 - 1990

Conditions Governing Access

Access to these papers is governed by the rules and regulations of the Harvard Law School Library. This collection is open to the public, but is housed off-site at Harvard Depository and requires 2 business-day advance notice for retrieval. Consult the Special Collections staff for further information.

Conditions Governing Use

The Harvard Law School Library holds copyright on some, but not all, of the material in our collections. Requests for permission to publish material from this collection should be directed to the Special Collections staff. Researchers who obtain permission to publish from the Harvard Law School Library are also responsible for identifying and contacting the persons or organizations who hold copyright.

Extent

18 boxes

The Papers of Lloyd Kirkham Garrison contain twenty-five boxes of correspondence, diaries, legal documents, and unpublished manuscripts on global disarmament and nonviolence.

Included are a variety of materials relating chiefly to his personal, political, and civil rights activities. The collection contains family papers pre-dating Garrison's birth and other personal correspondence with his friends and colleagues. Much of this correspondence provides a unique look into the social and political milieu of New York City in the mid-Twentieth Century. A subseries titled, Major Correspondence, consists of correspondence with noted legal figures such as Adlai Stevenson, Felix Frankfurter, C. C. Burlingham, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Pauli Murray, and Martin Luther King. The papers also include materials related to Garrison's work on the issues of global disarmament and non-violence.

Biographical note

Lloyd K. Garrison was born on November 19, 1897 in New York City. Garrison was a great-grandson of the famous abolitionist, William Lloyd Garrison, and the grandson of Wendell Phillips Garrison, the literary editor of The Nation. After service in the Navy in World War I, rising to the rank of chief petty officer, he graduated from Harvard College in 1919 and from Harvard Law School in 1922. He commenced practice in New York City with the firm of Root, Clark, Buckner & Howland, now known as Dewey, Ballantine.

In 1930, his long career of government service started as Special Assistant to the Attorney General of the United States conducting an investigation of the bankruptcy laws. He served as the first chairman of the National Labor Relations Board in 1935, thereafter general counsel. Garrison was appointed a member of the National War Labor Board in 1944 and became Vice-Chairman in March of 1945. He was active as a mediator and referee in many labor disputes, including a threatened General Motors strike in 1945, which established the pattern for wage increases in post-war labor relations. In 1947, he was appointed by the United States Supreme Court as a Special Master in a dispute between the State of Georgia and twenty railroads.

He was Dean of the University of Wisconsin Law School from 1932 to 1945, making that institution rise to greater academic prominence as one of the top American law schools. After W.W.II, he became a member of the New York City law firm of Paul, Weiss, Wharton & Garrison and remained as a partner and counsel until his death. He was a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard University from 1938 to 1944, a member of the Board of Directors of the Field Foundation (1950-1973), a Trustee of the Taconic and Potomac Foundations (1953-1991), and a Trustee of Sarah Lawrence University and Howard University.

Long active in the civil rights movement, he was Director and then President (1947-1952) of the National Urban League. He remained active in the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the American Civil Liberties Union. Between 1962 and 1968, a turbulent period of educational crisis in New York City involving teachers strikes, deterioration of schools and issues of racial integration, decentralization and minority participation in the educational system, he was a member of the New York City Board of Education, serving as Vice President in 1963 and President from 1965 to 1967.

He was a leader in the Democratic Reform Movement in New York City and in 1952 was elected to the Democratic State Committee. He later was a key member in the effort led by him, Eleanor Roosevelt, Thomas Finletter, and Herbert Lehman to oust Carmine DeSapio as New York County Democratic Leader in the years 1958 through 1961. A long-time friend of Adlai Stevenson, he was Chairman of the 1952 Stevenson Citizens Committee in New York and an active supporter in 1956. It was largely through his efforts that Stevenson became a partner in the Paul, Weiss firm from 1957 to 1961.

As a lawyer, he handled many significant cases including: the litigation which blocked the construction of a power plant at Storm King Mountain; the representation of the poet Langston Hughes (1953) and the playwright Arthur Miller before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (1956); and the defense of J. Robert Oppenheimer when the Atomic Energy Commission sought to remove his security clearance.

Series List

  1. SERIES 1: Autobiographical Materials, 1902-1986 1902-1986 Box 1

    This SERIES, arranged by topic chronologically, includes a varietyof materials written by Garrison and related to his personal life,his family, and his career. (Miscellaneous and undated materials areplaced last.)

  2. SERIES 2: Correspondence, 1895-1990 1895-1990 Boxes 2-7 This SERIES contains correspondence divided into threecategories:
  3. ___SUBSERIES A: Major Correspondence, 1931-19881931-1988arrangedalphabetically by correspondent, comprises letters to and fromGarrison involving major correspondents.
  4. ___SUBSERIES B: Family Correspondence, 1895-19901895-1990arrangedchronologically, comprises correspondence of Garrison's familymembers.
  5. ___SUBSERIES C: General Correspondence, 1932-19901932-1990alsoarranged chronologically, comprises general correspondence of both apersonal and professional nature.(Note: Correspondenceinvolving individual legal cases is not generally included in thesepapers.)
  6. SERIES 3: Manuscripts, Articles, Speeches and Tributes, 1946-1984 1946-1984 Boxes 8-10 This SERIES includes both published and unpublished materialswritten by Garrison, and is arranged by topic.
  7. ___SUBSERIES A Manuscripts, Notes and Source Materials, 1946-1984 1946-1984 consistsof two categories:
  8. ______BOX 8 contains manuscripts, notes and source materials for anunpublished book on non-violence.
  9. ______BOX 9 contains manuscripts and notes on several other topics,arranged alphabetically.
  10. ___SUBSERIES B: Articles, Speeches and Tributes, 1946-1982 1946-1982
  11. ______BOX 10 divided into three categories (each arranged alphabetically):articles (including an indexed notebook) and similar materials;speeches; and memorial tributes to friends and colleagues.
  12. SERIES 4: Political, Legal and Civic Activities, 1933-1990 1933-1990 Boxes 11-16 This SERIES includes a variety of materials concerning Garrison'sinvolvement in activities such as civil rights, disarmament, laborlaw, and politics.
  13. ___SUBSERIES A: Major Activities, 1938-19851938-1985containsmajor activities and is arranged alphabetically by generaltopics.Labor ActivitiesLaw FirmActivitiesNew York Board of EducationNewYork Democratic PoliticsOppenheimer, J. RobertUniversity Of Wisconsin Law School
  14. ___SUBSERIES B: Other Activities, 1933-19901933-1990is analphabetical arrangement of other activities.
  15. SERIES 5: Other Personal Papers and Ephemera, 1893-1991 1893-1991 Boxes 17-18 This SERIES includes assorted materials written by persons otherthan Garrison. It is divided into four SUBSERIES, each arrangedalphabetically by topic:
  16. ___SUBSERIES A: Family Papers and Related Materials, 1893-1986 1893-1986includesa variety of family papers.
  17. ___SUBSERIES B: Other Articles, Essays, Reports and PressClippings, 1916-19821916-1982includesarticles, essays, reports and press clippings, including a folder ofpress clippings covering much of Garrison's long career.
  18. ___SUBSERIES C: Awards, Tributes and Certificates, 1923-19911923-1991containsGarrison's awards, tributes and certificates.
  19. ___SUBSERIES D: Other Materials, 19591959contains allother materials not included in other topics within thiscollection.

Physical Location

Harvard Depository

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The Papers of Lloyd K. Garrison were donated to the Harvard Law School Library by Mrs. Ellen Jay Garrison, May 1992.

Processing Information

Processed by Geraldine Azzata, March, 1993.

Title
Garrison, Lloyd K. (Lloyd Kirkham). Papers, 1893-1990: Finding Aid.
Author
Harvard Law School Library, Cambridge, MA 02138
Language of description
und
EAD ID
law00054

Repository Details

Part of the Harvard Law School Library, Historical & Special Collections Repository

Harvard Law School Library's Historical & Special Collections (HSC) collects, preserves, and makes available research materials for the study of the law and legal history. HSC holds over 8,000 linear feet of manuscripts, over 100,000 rare books, and more than 70,000 visual images.

Contact:
1545 Massachusetts Avenue
Langdell Hall
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
(617) 495-4550