Waldo Gifford Leland

Background

Waldo Gifford Leland was born in Newton, Massachussets, the son of Luther Erving Leland and Ellen Gifford, both public school teachers.

Education

Upon graduating from Newton High School in 1896, Leland went to Brown University, where one of his history professors was J. Franklin Jameson. After receiving his B. A. in 1900, Leland enrolled at Harvard, where he switched from sociology to history, earning his M. A. in 1901. While in later life he would often be addressed as Dr. Leland, his doctorates all were honorary.

Career

In 1903, Harvard professor Albert Bushnell Hart offered Leland, then a teaching assistant, the opportunity to assist Claude H. Van Tyne in a survey sponsored by the newly founded Carnegie Institution of Washington. A six-month temporary assignment became the basis of Leland's twenty-four-year association with the institution. The Guide to the Archives of the Government of the United States in Washington (1904), coauthored by Leland and Van Tyne, was followed in 1907 by an edition revised and expanded by Leland. This period also marked the beginning of Leland's close relationship with the Library of Congress. He also became an active member of the Literary Society of Washington. When Jameson joined the Carnegie Institution in 1905, he promoted assistance to the American Historical Association (AHA). With Jameson's encouragement, Leland served as AHA general secretary, a position he held from 1909 to 1920. Leland's primary assignments were with the Carnegie Institution. After completing the Guide, he traveled to repositories throughout the eastern United States to collect letters of Continental Congress delegates. He then began work on his multivolume Guide to Materials for American History in the Libraries and Archives of Paris.

For extended periods from 1907 to 1914 and then again from 1922 to 1927, he served as the institution's principal representative in France. The first two volumes, on libraries and on the archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, were published in 1932 and 1943, respectively. Drafts for an additional three volumes are among the Leland Papers at the Library of Congress. In an associated activity, he directed the foreign copying program of the Library of Congress for French manuscripts relating to the United States. He also initiated work on what became the institution's two-volume Calendar of Manuscripts in Paris Archives and Libraries Relating to the History of the Mississippi Valley to 1803.

While Leland was in Europe he edited the AHA annual reports and prize essays, with many of his routine secretarial responsibilities being performed in the United States by Patty W. Washington of the AHA staff. On return trips to America, Leland involved himself in archival matters. He delivered the 1909 keynote paper at the first Conference of Archivists, a forum proposed by Leland that was the forerunner of the Society of American Archivists (SAA). He also presented papers at archives-oriented gatherings in 1910, 1912, 1915, and 1917. In his best-known archival-related activity he provided documentation and backup assistance for Jameson's campaign to establish the National Archives. In 1926, Congress voted funds for the building's construction.

During World War I, Leland served as secretary-treasurer of the Jameson-sponsored National Board for Historical Service and was the board's major stabilizing force. Leland and Newton D. Mereness coauthored Introduction to American Official Sources for the Economic and Social History of the War (1926). Leland had been an official American delegate to the International Congress of Historical Sciences (ICHS) in 1908 and 1913. As plans were being made for the group's first postwar gathering Leland noted two deficiencies: the exclusion of Germans as a national body and the lack of a follow-through mechanism for activities from congress to congress. In 1923 the ICHS appointed a committee that, under Leland's guidance, led to the formation in 1926 of the International Committee of Historical Sciences. Leland initially served as the new group's treasurer and in 1938 became its president, a position he held for ten years. During much of that period he also served as president of the International Union of Academies, or Union Académique International (UAI). In 1919, Leland acted as organizing secretary for a meeting of representatives from leading American scholarly societies in the social sciences and the humanities that led to the formation of the ACLS, a step taken to create an American organization eligible for membership in the newly reorganized UAI.

In 1927 the ACLS received a major grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, enabling it to secure the services of a full-time administrative officer. Leland left the Carnegie Institution to take the position. Leland, a bit formal, witty, and thoroughly professional, served as ACLS secretary from 1927 to 1939 and as director from 1939 until his retirement in 1946. Leland oversaw both the ACLS's international cooperative activities and its domestic programs, including publication of the Dictionary of American Biography (1927 - 1936) and the annual Handbook of Latin American Studies, begun in 1935. Through Leland's efforts, the ACLS distributed money to individual scholars to support research and publications. Also, through fellowships and the sponsorship of scholarly conferences, the ACLS was able to encourage the development of area studies in the United States for Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Iranian, Slavic, Near Eastern, and Latin American culture and civilization. During his term as director of the ACLS, Leland maintained an active involvement in archival matters. He served two terms in the early 1940's as president of the SAA.

During World War II, Leland served on numerous advisory committees. Even after his retirement he continued to be a part of the Brown University Board of Fellows, the chairman of the Advisory Board of the National Park Service, and, for one term, the president of the Cosmos Club. International intellectual cooperation remained an abiding interest. During the interwar years he worked with the League of Nations and served as a delegate to the 1945 London conference that led to the establishment of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and to the 1948 UNESCO General Conference in Beirut. From 1946 to 1949 he served as vice-chairman (under Milton Eisenhower) of the United States National Commission for UNESCO. He died in Washington, D. C.

Achievements

• Leland was instrumental in the founding of the National Archives. "The Guide to the Archives of the Government of the United States in Washington" (1904) established Leland as the nation’s leading authority on federal archives. He received the Pugsley Medal in 1949 for his service to the National Park System. The Society of American Archivists established a prize in his honor in 1959. The American Historical Association established a prize in his memory in 1981.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Archival Principles: Selections From the Writings of Waldo Gifford Leland (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Archival Principles: Selections From the Wri...)

  • Guide to the Archives of the Government of the United States in Washington, Issue 92

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • Protocols Of Conferences Of Representatives Of The Allied Powers Respecting Spanish America, 1824-1825 (Classic Reprint) (French Edition)

    (Excerpt from Protocols Of Conferences Of Representatives ...)

  • American Historical Review, Vol. XXII, No. 3, April, 1917; Protocols of Conference, of Representatives of the Allied Powers Respecting Spanish America, 1824-1825, pp. 595-616

    ( About the Book The Americas were settled by people migr...)

  • Guide to Materials for American History in the Libraries and Archives of Paris, Vol. 2: Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Guide to Materials for American History in t...)

  • Guide to the Archives of the Government of the United States in Washington, Issue 14

    (This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before ...)

  • The National Archives: A Programme...

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

  • Guide to Materials for American History in the Libraries and Archives of Paris, V1

    (In Two Volumes. Volume 1, Libraries; Volume 2, Archives O...)

  • International cultural relations: Historical considerations and present problems

    (culture)

  • UNESCO and the defenses of peace

Connections

On April 26, 1904, Leland married Gertrude Dennis, a Canadian-born violinist; they had no children.

Father:

Luther Erving Leland

Mother:

Ellen Gifford

Spouse:

Gertrude Dennis

References

• Waldo Gifford Leland and the Origins of the American Archival Profession