Albert Galloway Keller papers

The Albert Galloway Keller Papers contain the writings, correspondence, teaching materials, financial records, and memorabilia of Albert Galloway Keller. The vast majority of these materials document Keller's professional and personal life between 1900 and 1956. Virtually no materials exist from his childhood. The Keller papers also include the records of the William Graham Sumner Club (1914-1949), an organization to which Keller was deeply committed.

Series I, Correspondence, is composed of approximately six thousand letters both to and from Keller. These letters chronicle his professional and private life from 1900 until 1956. This series also contains two hundred incoming letters not addressed to Keller but dealing with events in his life.

As a well-known sociologist Keller received letters from friends and former students who taught elsewhere. These scholars included Isaiah Bowman of Johns Hopkins, Henry E. Hawkes of Columbia, A.J. Todd of the University of Illinois, Lee D. McClean of Bowdoin, Frederick E. Lumley of Ohio State, J.E. Cutler, and C.W. Coulter of Western Reserve University. Each discussed people and events at their schools.

Discussion with other scholars, though, rarely touched on new sociological trends or theories. Because Keller saw himself as the protector of the "Sumner tradition," he sought little contact with sociologists who used different approaches to the discipline. Only F.L. Campbell, William E. Lawrence, and J.E. Cutler discussed substantive sociological issues in their letters.

Keller believed that Yale's presidents and faculty often treated him with "belittlement or at best indifference" for his support of Sumner. True or not, this belief prompted Keller to fight any change in Yale's curriculum, faculty, or budget which might lessen Sumner's influence. His greatest opponent was President Arthur T. Hadley who tried to prevent him from finishing Sumner's Science of Society. Keller also perceived this antagonism in Presidents James Angell and Charles Seymour. Other faculty members who discussed the internal politics and business of Yale were Frederick Jones, James Leyburn, Maurice R. Davie, Clarence Mendell, Chauncey Brewster Tinker, Alan Valentine, and Anson Phelps Stokes, Jr.

To preserve Sumner's ideas, Keller helped found the William Graham Sumner Club. Along with Keller, the moving forces behind the club were two brothers, Julius and William Peter. Both maintained an extensive correspondence with Keller on the club's finances, membership and publications. Others connected with the club in significant ways were James Leyburn, Arthur B. McGraw, Frederic Utley, and Alfred M. Lee. Keller's correspondence is also peppered with inquiries about or responses to club business and events. (For additional material, see Series IV, William Graham Sumner Club.)

Mark Granite, an ultra-conservative pamphleteer from New Hampshire, occasionally collaberated with the Sumner Club. Through his non-profit Granite Foundation, he regularly sent his publications to Keller and offered his foundation's support. Although Keller approached Granite's offers of aid warily, his correspondence reveals a close cooperation with him in an effort to fight the New Deal.

Clement Fuller, a high school and college friend of Keller's, never joined the Sumner Club but did offer incisive, critical comments about its membership and goals in the 1930s. He also entered into a long dialogue with Keller on the use of Sumner's name to oppose the New Deal and Roosevelt. Fuller insisted that he could "profess to believe in Sumner and still vote for Roosevelt."

Besides preserving the ideas of William Graham Sumner, Keller tried to preserve the memory of Sumner himself. Keller's correspondence is studded with discussions of his mentor's life and times. Harris Starr, Sumner's official biographer, discussed little of substance in his correspondence with Keller, but John R. Chamberlain, a journalist who seriously considered writing another biography of Sumner, received the full benefit of Keller's judgments and recollections. Maurice R. Davie compiled a comprehensive Sumner bibliography for Keller and often discussed textual problems with him. Charles Hine, secretary of the Connecticut Board of Education, evaluated Sumner's contributions to the board (folder 191), and G.P. Sawyer described a speech Sumner made in Buffalo during the 1870s (folder 489). Everett Meeks discussed Sumner's grading methods (folder 359), and Elizabeth Kellogg sent Keller two candid snapshots of Sumner relaxing on a yacht (folder 308). Two excellent accounts of Sumner's reaction upon receiving a Yale honorary degree came from Keller's wife Caroline and from Clarence Day, Jr.

Sumner's family also provided rare insights into his personality. His wife Jeannie and his son Graham explained on several occasions Sumner's attitudes and beliefs. Janet Camp Troxell, Sumner's niece, wrote a long letter to Keller describing her impressions of her uncle and her perceptions of tensions within the family (folder 541).

Keller's correspondence contains letters from many of his publishers, including Longmans, Green and Company, Ginn and Company, Macmillan and Company, and Alfred Knopf. However, Keller dealt most often with the Yale University Press which published many of his books, including his four volume Science of Society. Relations with the Press were generally cordial but occasionally rancorous. Keller's correspondence with the Press' editors and business managers, George P. Day, Norman Donaldson, Malcolm Davis, and R.V. Coleman, reflects this tension.

In addition to his professional correspondence, Keller wrote to close friends about events in both his professional and private life. One of his closest friends and steadiest correspondents was Yale classmate Clarence Day, Jr. With several exceptions, only Day's letters to Keller survive. Day frequently read Keller's manuscripts and made editorial recommendations, which Keller often heeded. Rarely did he examine Keller's ideas since he claimed no expertise as a sociologist; rather he commented on Keller's writing style. As class secretary of 1896 and as owner of the Yale Alumni Weekly, Day had a keen interest in the fortunes of the college, and often he and Keller discussed Yale's problems at length. Day frequently confided to Keller his private thoughts on religion, philosophy and life in general. He also did not hesitate to point out weaknesses as well as strengths in Keller's personality. Besides being well-written and witty, Day's letters to Keller contain drawings to illustrate comments in the body of the letters.

Carl T. Keller, Albert's cousin, was another friend with whom Keller felt free to discuss all subjects candidly. Albert's correspondence with Carl, both incoming and outgoing, begins in 1912, but there are few letters until 1932. Because Carl and Albert shared the same political beliefs, long discussions developed on the treachery of Roosevelt and the means by which the Sumner Club would oppose him. Albert's bitterness toward Yale went undisguised in his letters to Carl as did his contempt for other sociologists who used different approaches than he. Albert also wrote about his friendship with H.L. Mencken. Both discussed events in the lives of their families, and Albert even wrote openly of his unhappy childhood and the effects it had on his adult life.

Although Keller spent his entire career at Yale, he did take several leaves of absence. In 1918 he joined the military as a captain in the Morale Division of the Army's General Staff. Stationed in Washington, he and other sociologists wrote educational lectures for American troops in Europe. Correspondence with J.E. Cutler, Edmund L. Munson, Floyd Y. Keeler (folder 218), and E.C. Mateja (folder 358), reflect this experience.

In 1930 Keller again took a leave of absence and travelled to Europe. There he and his family met Selma Junkers and her husband, who ran a small pension in Munich, Germany. The two families became close friends and corresponded regularly with each other. Junkers (who signed her name as Mutter Nortland) and her husband (Vater Nortland) watched with anger and fear as Hitler rose to power. Their comments throughout the 1930s and late 1940s document the reactions of a German middle-class family to the rise of fascism.

Series II, Writings, has five sections: Published Books; Unpublished Books; Fiction; Essays, Lectures and Notebooks; and Miscellaneous Writings.

Published Books contains the manuscripts, typewritten copies, proof-sheets, and book reviews of Keller's published books. These include Keller's three main contributions to sociology: Homeric Society (1901), Societal Evolution (1915), and Science of Society (1927). This section also includes Man's Rough Road (1932), Keller's one volume trade version of Science of Society, as well as his polemical writings against the New Deal in Brass Tacks (1938) and Net Impressions(1942).

Unpublished Books consists of five manuscripts written between 1935 and 1952. Four of these, "Twilight of Common Sense" (1935), "Elementary Sociology" (1942), "Word Genealogy and Survivals" (1950), and "Pedagography" (1952) were rejected by publishers. The manuscript for "Clarence Day: The Journeyman Years" (1949) was accepted by Alfred Knopf, but Day's widow blocked publication in 1950.

Fiction contains three plays, three poems and three novels. None was published.

Essays, Lectures and Notebooks includes one hundred and sixty-seven essays. Both published and unpublished, these essays take the form of articles, book reviews and letters to editors. Their subjects range from sociology to politics, from education to eugenics. This section also contains forty-seven lectures. Twenty-five are lectures written by Keller while in the Morale Division of the Army's General Staff. Eighteen others take the form of notes taken by students in Keller's sociology classes, and four more are in Keller's own hand. Finally, this section contains six notebooks compiled by Keller while a Yale undergraduate.

Miscellaneous Writings holds a variety of manuscripts including Keller's recollection of a 1910 meeting with President Hadley at which Hadley tried to prevent Keller from finishing Science of Society. There is also a progress report on the Keller-Sumner magnum opus (1917) and a transcript of Keller's interview with Mussolini [1930-1931?]. In addition, this section has several bibliographies and lists concerning Sumner which were compiled by Keller.

Series III, Gradebooks and Examinations, is composed of Keller's one hundred and fifty gradebooks, spanning four decades of teaching (1900-1941). Most of the gradebooks were used in Keller's Anthropology and Science of Society courses. In all, nearly sixteen thousand names appear in these records. All gradebooks are restricted until 2016. This series also encompasses ten folders of examinations from Keller's courses.

Series IV, William Graham Sumner Club, contains the correspondence, bulletins, and financial records of the William Graham Sumner Club. The club was founded in 1914 by Julius Peter, William Peter and Russell Sullivan, all Yale alumni who wished to see Keller complete Sumner's work. Working in cooperation with Keller, they solicitated $10,000 to finance the publication of Science of Society.

The club's correspondence between 1914 and 1923 chronicles the campaign to secure $10,000 in pledges. Between 1923 and 1927 it deals with the club's efforts in cooperation with Yale Treasurer George P. Day to collect and disburse the funds. From 1927 until 1932 it records the club's negotiations with Yale University Press and others to bring out a popular version of Science of Society, Man's Rough Road(1932).

In 1932 the club's members reorganized themselves into a more formal organization with yearly dues, quarterly bulletins and special events. Their explicit purpose was to support and defend Sumner's approach to sociology. Their implicit purpose was to preach Sumner's social, political and economic ideas and apply them to the problems of the times. The club's correspondence during these years deals with the maintenance of the new organization as well as the planning of special events. For example, it documents the arrangements made for a testimonial dinner for Keller in 1937. At that dinner Keller's colleague presented him with a collection of sociological studies written by his students and admirers. (See: folders 1453-1459.) The club's correspondence also chronicles the preparations for celebrating Sumner's 100th birthday in 1940.

After 1940 the club tried unsucessfully to expand its membership, and by 1949 it had ceased to function. The correspondence follows this decline and ends in 1949. In all, the club generated over one thousand letters in its thirty-five year existence.

Series IV also contains a nearly complete set of the Bulletin of the William Graham Sumner Club. Edited at first by James Leyburn, the publication was taken over by Keller and William Peter in the early 1940s.

There are several folders of financial records and membership lists in this series, but they are incomplete and scattered.

Series V, Financial Records, contains four notebooks with incomplete records of Keller's personal finances, four folders of receipts for health care, insurance, fuel, books, and household items, and two folders of cancelled checks. There are also six folders of royalty statements from Keller's publishers and one publisher's contract.

Series VI, Memorabilia, has three sections: Writings of Others, Drawings and Photographs, and Tributes to Keller. Writings of Others contains one folder of printed material on William Graham Sumner and another folder of printed material on Clarence Day, Jr. In addition, this section has ten folders of miscellaneous writings by others between 1894 and 1955. Drawings and Photographs has one folder of sketches by Clarence Day, Jr. and another folder of photographs of Keller's friends and relatives. There is also a group photograph taken at the Sumner centennial in 1940. Tributes to Keller contains several folders of articles about Keller's career and several certificates, but the bulk of the material in this section deals with two testimonial dinners for Keller. At the first dinner (1937) Keller was presented with a collection of sociological essays by his students and admirers. This section contains the actual manuscript as well as the correspondence related to it. The second dinner, held in 1942, honored Keller upon his retirement, and this section includes the correspondence of the Keller Dinner Committee.

Keller papers exist in several other collections in Manuscripts and Archives. Papers of the Sociology Department (filed as part of a Yale Archives record group, consult with Reference Archivist) contain material on Sumner Today and departmental and correspondence files on Keller, 1924-1967. These files were accumulated, for the most part, by Maurice Rea Davie, and include material forwarded by Keller to Davie. A copy of the original preliminary inventory for these papers is kept in the complete register file for this collection.

The papers of Loomis Havermeyer (MSS Group 632) also contain Keller material including correspondence between Keller and Havermeyer and other material pertaining to a book on which the two men were to collaborate. The material dates ca. 1913-1919.

It will be noted on the folder list for Correspondence that the Keller Papers contain no correspondence with William Graham Sumner. All letters between Keller and Sumner were kept with the Sumner Papers (Group # 291A) when the original Sumner-Keller Collection was reorganized. Letters to Keller from Sumner will be found in box 35, a box containing all of Sumner's outgoing letters in chronological order. A list of Sumner's letters to Keller, copied from the Sumner register, has been added to this register as the appendix.

The Albert Galloway Keller Papers came to Yale in stages over a fifty-year period. It is therefore impossible to date the acquisition of every single item. It is, however, possible to give a general account of how and when large blocks of the papers arrived.

In 1914 the Sumner family gave Albert Keller control over all of William Graham Sumner's "notes, manuscripts, and other materials." Keller used many of these materials to write Science of Society (1927) and then gave them and his own manuscript to the Yale University Library. These materials formed the nucleus of the original Sumner-Keller collection. In 1943, Keller also donated the thousands of notecards he and Sumner had once used as well as manuscripts from his services as an Army officer in World War I. After his death in 1956, Keller's children donated most of his personal papers to Yale. Thereafter they continued to find and donate additional Keller items throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. In 1961, Julius Peter donated the correspondence and writings of the William Graham Sumner Club, an organization to which Keller was closely connected.

All of these papers remained together as the Sumner-Keller Collection until 1976 when the collection was reprocessed to separate the papers of Sumner from the other papers. This reprocessing was completed in 1977, forming the William Graham Sumner Papers, MSS Group Number 291A, and MSS Group Number 768 for these Keller papers.