Donald Harnish Fleming personal archive

The Donald Harnish Fleming personal archive documents the academic and professional career of Donald Fleming. A valuable resource for research in American and European intellectual history and the history of science, the collection reveals the strong relationships Fleming developed and maintained with his students, in particular the many graduate students at Harvard and Brown whose dissertations he supervised. Fleming was a dedicated correspondent with both colleagues and students and his correspondence, in particular the many letters of recommendation he wrote for former students, forms a large part of the collection. Fleming’s work on Perspectives in American History, a series of annual monographs co-edited with Bernard Bailyn (and later with Bailyn and Stephan Thernstrom), is represented through correspondence exchanged between the editors and contributors.

Fleming was well-known at Harvard for his lectures, and the collection includes a large number of his meticulously typewritten lectures, which he rewrote every year, as well as a large collection of the syllabi and examination questions assigned for courses. Courses taught at both Harvard University and Brown University are reflected in the collection, as is Fleming's gradual move away from the history of science towards American and later European intellectual history.

The collection also documents Fleming’s prolific production of scholarly works in the fields of the history of science and intellectual life, including his numerous book reviews and articles on attitude, conservation, and scientific figures, including Charles Darwin, Jacques Loeb, John William Draper, William H. Welch, and Walter B. Cannon. It also includes incomplete drafts of his unpublished manuscripts on the history of science in America and architects of modern thought (including Nietzsche, Freud, Rilke, and Conrad). Fleming’s research and reading notes supplement his written materials and reflect his continued interest in topics in the fields of history of science and intellectual history, including the work completed by colleagues and former students.

Fleming’s participation in the academic community on the topics of the history of science and intellectual history are reflected in his talks and lectures and collected papers from conferences. His close engagement with the Harvard community is reflected not only in the correspondence exchanged with colleagues but also in the records from committees and organizations of which he was an active member. These included the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Harvard University Press' John Harvard Library, and Harvard's committees on the history of science and research policy. In addition to the Harvard University Department of History and the Charles Warren Center for Studes in American History, Fleming worked closely with the Harvard University Press and its John Harvard Library, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Harvard committees on the history of science and research policy.

Biographical material in the collection is limited to sporadic diaries with only sparse entries, detailed journals listing purchases for his extensive personal library, and four color photographs of Fleming in his Widener Library study circa 1980s.