Papers of William Moulton Marston, 1852-1975

The collection consists of correspondence; photographs; published and unpublished articles; genealogical notes; clippings; diary entries; etc. The bulk of the material belonged to or was created by William Moulton Marston. Material belonging to Olive Byrne is limited to two drafts of an article entitled "Mothers on Trial: By Their Children You May Know Them." Material belonging to William Moulton Marston include a series of letters written to Marston and family by his mother Annie (Moulton) Marston. They include descriptions of the activities of his mother and aunts, particularly of their time with the New England Women's Club and the Riverside Club, family illnesses and deaths, aging and physical ailments, and a number of comments about an elderly female relative seemingly suffering from dementia. One letter mentions the publication of the first Wonder Woman comic (other than these references, there is no material documenting Marston's work on the Wonder Woman comic). Other material by Marston consists of published articles on the psychology of women; material from a research study at Columbia University using the lie detector to determine personality; a baby book describing the first year of his life; several transcript fragments of Marston's journals regarding his children; and a scrapbook documenting his high school football career, work on systolic blood pressure and the lie detector, work with the motion picture industry, and his prediction that women will rule the United States in one thousand years. Photographs in the collection document Marston's time in high school and at Harvard University (including playing team football); his life with Elizabeth (Holloway) Marston, Olive Byrne, and their four children; and his work with the lie detector and systolic blood pressure test, particularly when employed by Universal Studios. Folder titles were created by the archivist and arranged alphabetically.

Additional material received in 2019 (accession number 2019-M4) was added to the collection in March 2019. These materials are housed in #3.1-6F+B.1m. All other files remain in the same order. Folders are listed in intellectual, not numerical, order. This material consists of the correspondence of William Henry Moulton; an article written by and a scrapbook re: Margaret Sanger compiled by Olive Byrne; Marston's law licence, report cards, membership certificates, military papers, football score card, poetry, and several published articles and a manuscript draft by Marston. Additional material includes a volume by Ferdinand Moulton entitled Army and Navy Pension Laws, and Bounty Land Laws of the United States; draft and published articles by Henry William Moulton and Dalton Moulton; Stanford-Binet test results for Donn Marston; a small amount of genealogical material re: the Moulton family; and several photographs including one of Marston as a young boy, several of Moulton and Whittemore family members, and one of Moulton Castle in Newburyport, Massachusetts (no longer standing).

The correspondence of William Henry Moulton includes a series of twenty-five letters sent his wife, Susan (Whittemore) Moulton, in the early years of the United States Civil War. These letters document camp conditions, troop movements, and various engagements with Confederate troops in the Washington, D.C. area, Virginia, and Maryland, as well as the longing of a Union soldier for his family. Included are references to troops having encountered General Stonewall Jackson, General George B. McClellan, General Charles Griffen, and President Abraham Lincoln, and having traveled to Washington, DC; Alexandria, Virginia; and Fredericksburg, Sharpsburg, and Hagerstown, Maryland. Following his release from duty to Company C of the 32nd Massachusetts Volunteers, Moulton worked as a recruiter for the state of Massachusetts for the remainder of the war. His letter book was once a ledger book, or some other financial record, but most pages have been cut to the margin, and letters and other documents have been glued to the page stubs. A very small amount of financial information remains. Most letters concern Moulton's work as Commissioner of Enrollment for the Fifth District of Massachusetts in Salem, his time in Company H of the 32nd Regiment, Massachusetts Infantry Volunteers, and business, politics, and daily life in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Correspondents include Army officials, men with whom Moulton had served in Company H, state and local government officials, family and friends, and business partners. Some letters provide details of battles and field maneuvers, and many letters ask for Moulton's help, recommendations, or favors. The smaller amount of antebellum material largely concerns Moulton's work as a teacher and school principal in New England.

Most of the photographs in this collection are or will be digitized and available online. Other than photographs and published articles, there is no other material documenting his work on the systolic blood pressure test or the lie detector. Folder titles were created by the archivist. The collection is arranged alphabetically by individual followed by photographs.