Manuscript Register

This document describes a collection of materials held by the
Special Collections Department
University of Iowa Libraries
Iowa City, Iowa 52242-1420
Phone: 319-335-5921
Fax: 319-335-5900
e-mail: lib-spec@uiowa.edu

Posted to Internet:March 2000

Acquisition Note:This collection was donated to the University of Iowa Libraries in 1981 by the descendents of Harry Harper, represented by his daughter Virginia Harper.

Access and Restrictions: This collection is open for research.

Audio Material: Audio casette tapes box 1

Digital Surrogates: Except where indicated, this document describes but does not reproduce the actual text, images and objects which make up this collection. Materials are available only in the Special Collections Department.

Copyright:  Please read The University of Iowa Libraries' statement on "Property Rights, Copyright Law, and Permissions to Use Unpublished Materials"

Use of Collections: The University of Iowa Libraries supports access to the materials, published and unpublished, in its collections. Nonetheless, access to some items may be restricted by their fragile condition or by contractual agreement with donors, and it may not be possible at all times to provide appropriate machinery for reading, viewing or accessing non-paper-based materials. Please read our Use of Manuscripts Statement.

Abbreviations: For an explanation of the abbreviation and dating conventions used in the finding aids, see Abbreviations.

 Biographical Note

Fort Madison native, Harry Dandridge Harper was born on February 12, 1900. He graduated from the University of Iowa and from Howard University of Washington, D.C. Dr. Harper practiced medicine in Fort Madison, Iowa for more than fifty years. He was very involved in civil rights activities in Iowa. He was chairman of the Iowa Civil Rights Commission and president of the Fort Madison branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Active in other community affairs, Dr. Harper was a past vice-president of the Chamber of Commerce and a charter member of the Kiwanis club. Dr. Harry D. Harper died in January 1977, at the age of seventy-six.

Scope and Contents

The papers of Harry D. Harper are comprised of three boxes (or 1.5 linear feet) of manuscripts dating from 1946 to 1985. Autobiographical and biographical sketches, correspondence, civil rights speeches, newspaper clippings, etc. document Dr. Harper's life and career. There are three audio cassettes of an interview with George Garcia consisting of reminiscences of Harper's civil rights work. There is also a box relating to a discrimination controversy involving U.S. Highway 61 in Fort Madison, Iowa.

Letters. Mexico trip, January -- February 1950.

Letters, drafts of letters, Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, American Association for the UN. Fragments, 1946 -- 1969 and undated. Including two letters from Dorothy Schramm.

Autobiographical sketches and fragments, undated.

Civil rights speeches, activities, and fragments, 1963 -- 1974 and undated.

Interview of Harry Harper by George Garcia, Fort. Madison, August 23, August 25, and September 13, 1976. 3 cassettes.

Appointment book, 1975.

Biographical sketches of Dr. Harper for published reference works, n.d.

Correspondence

1926 -- 1959.

1960 -- 1969. Including letters from Roy Wilkins and Fred Schwengel.

1970 -- 1985.

Undated or incomplete. Including letters from Edward Mezvinsky and "Duke" Slater.

Harper family reunions, 1935, 1949, and 1950.

Hunting and fishing licenses, 1946, 1958, 1972.

Newspaper clippings, 1948 -- 1985.

Speeches, 1964.

U.S. Highway 61, Fort Madison, Iowa. Discrimination controversy:

Correspondence

1969 -- September 1974.

October 1974 -- 1975.

Undated.

Newspaper clippings, 1974 -- 1975.

 

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