General Correspondence, 1966-12

The Gwendolen M. Carter Papers chronicle Carter's career as a political scientist and Africanist from the 1930's through the 1970's (a small amount of earlier material is also included.) The bulk of the collection dates from approximately 1960 through approximately 1975. Carter's South African research interests and her activities as director of Northwestern University's Program of African Studies are especially well documented.

The collection is divided into eight sections: Personal Papers; Administrative Files; South African Research Materials; Papers and Speeches; Research Files; Manuscript of National Unity and Regionalism in Eight African States; Dissertation Research Materials; and Scrapbooks.

Personal Papers: This small file includes personal and family correspondence, mementos, documents such as transcripts and recommendations, and similar items relating to Carter's personal life. Most of this material dates from the 1950′s or earlier.

Administrative Files: This material, principally correspondence and from Carter's tenure as director of Northwestern's Program of African Studies, is organized into three groups: General Correspondence, Letters of Recommendation, and Subject Files. General Correspondence includes letters, both incoming and outgoing, arranged chronologically. Letters of Recommendation are also arranged chronologically, and include requests for such letters as well as Carter's recommendations.

Subject Files consist primarily of correspondence, but reports, memos, proposals, and similar supporting materials are included as well. Subjects are arranged alphabetically; within these subdivisions, arrangement is chronological.

South African Research Materials: South Africa was Carter's major field of concentration since the late 1940′s, and various facets of her South African interests are documented here. The subseries is divided into eight sections: Correspondence, Documents, Biographies and Interviews, Administrative Files, Manuscripts, Background Information, the 1953 Elections, and Card Files.

Correspondence dates from 1943 until 1977. Arranged by subject, it concerns resources for study, Carter's research, and current South African affairs.

Documents include minutes, constitutions, legislation, official statements and memoranda, and similar material relating to South African events and organizations from the 1920′s through the 1960′s. The largest portion of the material relates to the Natal, South African, and Transvaal Indian Congresses. Arrangement is alphabetical by subject.

Biographies and Interviews consist of memoirs, interviews, and other biographical information about South African activists, black and white. The material dates from the 1940′s through the 1960′s and arrangement is topical.

The Administrative Files are composed of indexes, reports, and other records pertaining to the organization and management of the South African Documents' Survey Project. Reports and records are arranged alphabetically by subject.

Manuscripts include articles about South Africa written by Carter, as well as a manuscript version of From Protest to Challenge, a documentary history edited by Carter and others.

Background Information, arranged alphabetically by subject, includes informational material covering a wide range of South African topics, including communism, nationalism, and religion. Bibliographic information is also included here.

The 1953 Elections section includes election returns, constituency reports, information about the United and Nationalist parties and their candidates, and propaganda, arranged alphabetically by subject. This section concludes with a large file of clippings from South African newspapers.

Card Files consists of three sets of subject files, each arranged alphabetically, pertaining to South African affairs. Two are unidentified, and the final set is dated 1964.

Papers and Speeches consist of papers by students or other scholars. A general sequence of papers (alphabetical by author's surname) is followed by alphabetical sequences of dissertation proposals, miscellaneous proposals, and papers from the American Negro Leadership Conference in 1964 and the CSA Meeting of Specialists on Urbanization and Urban Development in 1961. Finally, there is a set of these submitted to Carter by Smith College students, arranged alphabetically by surname of author.

Research Files include clippings from newspapers and magazines, reprints of articles, and notes are included here. The majority of the material is filed alphabetically by African nation. A sizable file of general material on Africa follows this sequence, then by an alphabetical file of subjects, such as art, education, and drought. Although material in this subseries dates from the late 1940′s though the 1970′s, much of it is undated. Folders unmarked as to date may span this thirty-year period. A small group of card files concludes this section.

Manuscript of National Unity and Regionalism in Eight African States consists of a typescript draft of the publication, which Carter edited.

Dissertation Research Materials include notes and research materials collected by Carter while researching the League of Nations for her dissertation. The subseries is arranged topically.

Scrapbooks are filled with newsclippings about world affairs between the 1930′s and the 1960′s. Most date from during and immediately after World War II. Scrapbooks 1-45 are bound; most of these were numbered by Carter. Numbers 46-82 are bundles of unbound scrapbook pages, arranged in no particular order.