Edward C. Carter Collection

Collection Summary

Repository: University of Vermont Libraries Special Collections Burlington, Vermont 05405-3596
Creator: Carter, Edward C. (Edward Clark), 1878-1954.
Title: Edward C. Carter Collection
Quantity: 34 cartons
Location: Library Research Annex.
Language: English
Abstract: The Edward C. Carter papers contain correspondence, reports and memoranda, notes, typed and printed material, newspaper clippings, articles by Carter and other published material relating to the many concerns and organizations he participated in.

Preferred Citation:

[Identification of item] Edward C. Carter Collection, Special Collections, University of Vermont Library.

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Administrative Information

Publication Information

University of Vermont, Bailey/Howe Library, Special Collections 1998

Publication Rights:

All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Curator of Manuscripts.

Acquistion Information

Donated by Norman Simpson and Kenneth Pendar, Stockbridge Mass., Jun 30, 1970

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Edward C. Carter was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts on June 9, 1878. He was educated at Lawrence and Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, received an A.B. degree from Harvard University in 1900, and carried on graduate work there until 1902. He was married to Alice Olin Draper on August 5, 1908, and raised four children: William Draper, Edward Clark, John Alden and Ruth Dana. During his long career of service, Carter was secretary of the Y.M.C.A. in India from 1902-1908 and 1911-191?, secretary of the North American Student Movement (1908-1911), secretary of the Paris Y.M.C.A. (A.E.F.) and the London Y.M.C.A. from 1917-1919 and 1920-1922 consecutively. In 1922 he became secretary of The Inquirv, a publication on world affairs, and remained with the publication, serving as its chairman from 1930, for eleven years.

Carter's reputation as an educator and a scholar, however, reached its peak during the years he spent with The Institute of Pacific Relations, an organization formed to increase and spread knowledge of the Eastern hemisphere in the West. Carter was secretary of the I.P.R. from 1926 to 1933, secretary general from 1933 to 1946 and executive vice-chairman from 1946 to 1948. He retired from the I.P.R. in 1948 to take the position of Provost of The New School for Social Research in New York City, and in 1950 he became Director of the school's division of International Studies. It was during his years at The New School that the McCarran Committee was formed to investigate the affairs of the I.P.R. as part of a general probe of the Department of State being conducted by Senator Joseph McCarthy. Carter came to the aid of the I.P.R. by preparing massive statements and briefs describing the beneficial work done by the non-partisan organization, but became implicated himself in the committee's hunt for communists.

Carter's other activities include: The Russian War Relief Fund, chairman (1941-1945), United States Service to China, director, (1948), United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East, consultant (1948) and a member of the United China Relief. He was a Decorated Officer of The Order of the British Empire, Officer of the French Legion of Honor, received into the Order of the Crown of Siam and the Order of the Red Banner of Labor (U.S.S.R.). He died on November 9, 1954.

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Scope and Content

The Edward C. Carter papers contain correspondence, reports and memoranda, notes, typed and printed material, newspaper clippings, articles by Carter and other published material relating to the many concerns and organizations described above. The collection is divided into three general categories: correspondence and reports, newspaper clippings, and published materials. The materials within each category have been arranged in a loose chronological order.

The papers arrived in very poor condition, and no overall order was discernable. However, some order was evident in a few specific areas, and this order was maintained where possible. In general, a chronological order which attempts to follow Carter's career, was imposed upon the collection, but due to overlapping concerns and miscellaneous papers, a total chronological arrangement was impossible. Most of the correspondence has been grouped in two categories and arranged alphabetically. This was done because Carter kept personal correspondence and correspondence relating to the McCarran investigation in this arranged alphabetically. Other correspondence found with a particular subject and relating to that subject was kept where it was found because its importance and relevance are derived from association with particular group of papers. The attached inventory makes note of correspondence wherever it appears. A list of notable correspondents is appended to the inventory.

Correspondents of Note

Personal Correspondence:: Brooks Atkinson; Pearl S. Buck; Frederick Field; Alger Hiss; Herbert H. Lehman

T.P.R. McCarran Investigation-Correspondence:: Sen. William Benton; Sen. Paul Douglas; John Fairbank; Sen. Homer Ferguson; Frederick Field; Sen. Theodore Green; William Holland; Sen. Irving N. Ives; Sen. Kenneth Keating; Sen. Estes Kefauver; Sen. Harley M. Kilgore; Owen Lattimore; Sen. Herbert H. Lehman; Sen. Pat McCarran; Sen. Robert Morris; Sen. Wayne C. Morse; Sen. Millard E. Tydings

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Controlled Access Headings

Corporate Name(s)

Armenian Russian Institute
Institute of Pacific Relations
New School for Social Research (New York, N.Y.)
YMCA of the USA
Inquiry
Russian War Relief
United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary
Institute of Pacific Relations

Genre(s)

Correspondence
Reports
Memoranda
Notes
Clippings Newspapers

Occupation(s)

Educators Vermont

Personal Name(s)

Atkinson, Brooks, 1894
Buck, Pearl, 1892-1973
Carter, Edward C. (Edward Clark), 1878-1954.
Field, Frederick Vanderbilt, 1905-
Hiss, Alger, -1997
Lattimore, Owen, 1900-
Lehman, Herbert Henry, 1878
McCarran, Patrick
McCarthy, Joseph 1908-1957
Morse, Wayne L. (Wayne Lyman) 1900-1974
Pearson, Drew, 1879-1969
Tydings, Millard E.

Subject(s)

Pan-Pacific Relations
Anti-communist movements United States
World War, 1939-1945

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