Collection
Guide
Administrative Information
Access and
Restrictions: This collection is open for research.
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Unpublished Materials"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access to the materials, published and unpublished, in its collections.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.
Scope and
Contents
In writing his book Thoreau and the American Indians (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1977), Robert F. Sayre assembled a group of research
materials that are worthy of preservation in their own right. The materials
are of three kinds: (1) photocopies of the eleven original Thoreau notebooks
held by the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York City, as M.A. numbers 596
through 606; (2) photocopies of typed and edited transcripts of each of
the notebooks, most done as part of a 1930s project centered at Columbia
University, New York City, principally supervised by Mary Dobbie, with
some sections presented as thesis work to that institution; and (3) bibliographic
and related notes generated by Sayre himself. Further information about
the use to which these materials were put can be found in Thoreau and the American Indians (Main
PS 3057.I5S2 1977), particularly in the introduction and postscript notes.
The photocopied notebooks are described here as Series
I. They contain a record of Thoreau’s systematic reading about
Native Americans. Each opening appears on one sheet, and the sheets for
each notebook have been placed in a binder. The binders are numbered
2 to 12. Notes in the collection indicate there was (and may still
be) some confusion in the numbering: the eleven notebooks were with a twelfth
notebook labeled “Canada &c.” which
turns out to be unrelated. It was originally numbered “1”.
The second series is composed of the Columbia transcripts followed
by Sayre’s notecards.
Related Materials
Sayre, Robert F. Thoreau and the American Indians. Main Library PS3057
I5 S2 1977
Acquisition and Processing
Information
These papers
were given to the University of Iowa Libraries by Robert
F. Sayre in 2005.
Guide posted
to Internet: March
2005
S. Huttner,
J. Roethler 2005
Box Contents List
Series
I
Notebooks 2 to 12. Photocopied on sheets about 11x16”
Series II
Box 1, folder
1. “Canada &c.” notebook
2. Notebook 2
3. Notebooks 2 and 3
4. Notebooks 4 and 5
5. Notebook 6
6. Notebook 7
7. Notebook 8, pages 1 --199. Edited by Marion A. Wells, MA thesis, 1931
Box 2,
folder, Notebook 8, cont.
1. ----, pages 200 -- 422
2. ----, pages 423 -- 507
3. Notebook 9, pages 1 -- 199
4. ----, pages 200 -- 437
5. Notebook 10, pages 1 -- 199
Box 3, folder, Notebook 10, cont.
1. ----, pages 200 -- 433
2. ----, pages 434 -- 667
3. Notebook 11
4. Notebook 12, pages 1 -- 199
5. ----, pages 200 -- 352
Box 4, folder
1. Procedures for bibliography of HDT’s “Indian
Book”
2. Bibliography
3. Bibliographic notes on 5x8” slips
4. Miscellaneous bibliographic notes
5. Bibliographic notes on 4x6” cards, A -- K
6. ----, L -- Z
