Skip to main content

John Higham papers

 Collection
Identifier: MS-0358

Scope and Contents

The collection consists of course notes, outlines, examination booklets, and other assignments completed during his undergraduate years at The Johns Hopkins University, 1937-1939, as well as material relating to Dr. Higham's teaching and writing career (which were closed until 2012). Notes from freshman and sophomore history classes are represented including those from a class taught by Professor Kent Roberts Greenfield: "Occidental Civilization from the Seventeenth Century to the Present." Higham's notes from Professor L. Wardlaw Miles's freshman English class in "Survey of English Literature" are also included.

Dates

  • Creation: 1937-1990s

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is housed off-site and requires 48-hours' notice for retrieval. Please contact Special Collections for more information.

Collection is open for use as of 2012, with the exception of files that contain student records, which are further subject to FERPA restrictions.

Conditions Governing Use

Single copies may be made for research purposes. Researchers are responsible for determining any copyright questions. It is not necessary to seek our permission as the owner of the physical work to publish or otherwise use public domain materials that we have made available for use, unless Johns Hopkins University holds the copyright.

Biographical Note

John Higham, historian and professor at The Johns Hopkins University, was born in Jamaica, N.Y. in 1920. Higham received the B.A. from Hopkins in 1941 and the master's from the University of Wisconsin in 1942. After service as historian for the 12th Air Force in World War II, he returned to Wisconsin and completed his doctorate work in 1949. Dr. Higham taught at Rutgers, Columbia University, U.C.L.A., and the University of Michigan before being appointed to the faculty at Hopkins in 1971. In 1975, Dr. Higham was named to the John Martin Vincent Chair in History at Hopkins, a position he held until his retirement as professor emeritus in 1989. Dr. Higham's principal field of interest was American social and intellectual history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Dr. Higham was the author of many books that led to reconsiderations in the area of 19th-century intellectual history. One of his works, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism, 1860- 1925, (1955) won the Dunning Prize of the American Historical Society (1956) and marked the beginning of an important shift in the analysis of immigration and movements to restrict immigration in the United States. His monograph, History, (1965) added a social dimension to subsequent publications on American historiography. An article by Dr. Higham dealing with the topic of multicultural education was included in the July 28, 1993 issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education and titled "Class has ceased to excite us, but the politics of race live on."

Dr. Higham held offices in many professional organizations and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1972.

John Higham died in July 2003.

Extent

45.57 Cubic Feet (33 record center cartons, 4 letter size document boxes, 2 letter half-size document boxes, 2 legal size document boxes, 1 legal half-size document box, 1 flat box (15.5 x 12 x 3 inches), 1 flat box (25 x 21 x 3 inches), 1 over-sized folder)

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

John Higham was a historian and professor at Johns Hopkins University with a principal field of interest in American social and intellectual history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The collection consists of holographic course notes, outlines, examination booklets, and other assignments completed during his undergraduate years at The Johns Hopkins University, 1937-1939, as well as material relating to Dr. Higham's teaching and writing career.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The student papers were accessioned in 1982. Dr. Higham donated the remainder of his papers in 2002. One accrual of Higham's letters was donated by David A. Hollinger in 2013.

Processing Information

This collection was processed by Joan Grattan. Additional processing by Annie Tang in October 2016.

Title
John Higham papers
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the Special Collections Repository

Contact:
The Sheridan Libraries
Special Collections
3400 N Charles St
Baltimore MD 21218 USA