Earl Dean Howard (1876-1956) Papers

The Earl Dean Howard Papers document Howard's life as an educator and authority on labor-management relations. The Papers span the period from 1896 to ca. 1978 and are arranged in four subseries including: biographical materials, general correspondence, journals and scrapbooks, and writings.

Comprising one folder, the biographical materials span the period 1899 to 1959 and include curricula vitae, genealogies, documentation of awards and appointments, and clippings.

The general correspondence spans the period from 1905 to 1951 and is arranged chronologically by date within six folders. The bulk of the correspondence consists of letters between Howard and Margaret Allen from the period 1906 to 1907 and chronicles their meeting, courtship, and plans for marriage. Interspersed among these letters are others from family, friends, and academic associates. Undated correspondence, arranged at the end of the subseries, includes letters from Joseph Schaffner.

Howard kept rather detailed journals documenting his activities as a young man in Chicago and later at the Wharton School in Philadelphia. The earliest journals, in three volumes, include almost daily entries for the period 1896 to 1897 when he worked for his father at the family lumber company. These journals portray Howard as a serious young man with a strong desire to resume formal education. Howard also loved music and the theatre and participated in many professional theatrical productions as a “super” with actresses such as Ellen Terry. No journals exist for the period from spring 1897 to 1906 when, after a rigorous course of preparatory study, Howard studied at the University of Chicago. A 1906 journal, entitled, “Trip to Covington,” begins with an account of his meeting with Margaret Allen in Covington, Virginia, but extends beyond that event and includes notes for articles on economics. Howard also kept a journal of his 1922 trip to Europe and the Soviet Union. His notes describe Soviet industry and its need of foreign investment capital.

Howard's scrapbooks date from 1899 through the early 1940s. They are arranged chronologically within three folders and one oversize container. The scrapbooks include Howard's early school records, honors and awards, and numerous newspaper clippings pertaining to his college activities, editorship of the University of Chicago's Daily Maroon, and his public life as a labor negotiator. There are also mementos from his travels abroad and souvenirs from White House dinners attended during his government service in Washington, D.C.

Howard's writings span the period from ca. 1887 through 1951 and include childhood works as well as notes, outlines, drafts, and published versions of books, articles, and addresses pertaining mainly to economic theory, industrial relations, and government regulation of business and industry. The writings are arranged in ten folders chronologically with shorter articles and lectures foldered together at the end of the subseries.