Conditions Governing Use

Before publishing quotations or excerpts from any materials, permission must be obtained from the Curator of Manuscripts and Rare Books, and the holder of the copyright, if not Swem Library.

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open to all researchers. Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, such as the Virginia Public Records Act (Code of Virginia. § 42.1-76-91); and the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (Code of Virginia § 2.2-3705.5). Confidential material may include, but is not limited to, educational, medical, and personnel records. If sensitive material is found in this collection, please contact a staff member immediately. The disclosure of personally identifiable information pertaining to a living individual may have legal consequences for which the College of William and Mary assumes no responsibility.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift, 1964

Scope and Contents

Includes letters to Spingarn, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People from Lowell Thomas, Sumner Welles, Edward Steichen, Charles A. Beard, Henry F. Du Pont, H. L. Mencken, and Owen Roberts concerning horticultural matters. Also includes correspondence, 1938, of Congressman Hamilton Fish, Jr., Walter White, and Springarn concerning remarks made by William E. Borah concerning lynching.

Much of the correspondence deals with gardening.  He sends clematis seeds to friends.

Related Material

The main collections of Joel E. Spingarn papers are in the New York Public Library, Howard University, and in the James Weldon Johnson Collection at Yale University. There are also materials at the Library of Congress.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• African Americans
• Horticulture
• Lynching--United States--History
• Mencken, H. L. (Henry Louis), 1880-1956
• National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
• Roberts, William Thomas