By Erin Clauss, Collections and Public Services Archivist, Harvard University Archives
What do a Harvard professor of history and government, a trustee of Howard University, a lifelong friend of Theodore Roosevelt, and a self-proclaimed waffle lover have in common? They are all the same person: Albert Bushnell Hart. While working with Hart’s collection of personal papers held by the Harvard University Archives, I had the opportunity to delve into this man’s rich and interesting life – despite his challenging and sometimes illegible handwriting.
Albert Bushnell Hart, Harvard College Class of 1880, taught history and government at Harvard from 1883 to 1926. He was a popular figure on and off campus and was frequently asked to give lectures and attend events for Harvard societies and student organizations such as the Harvard Advocate, for which Hart wrote while he was a student. Hart also taught many well-known students, acting as dissertation advisor to W. E. B. Du Bois, the first Black student to receive a Ph.D. at Harvard in 1895.
Much of Hart’s scholarship centered around race relations in the United States, and he taught students who went on to have careers as civil rights activists, such as Carter G. Woodson and Oswald Garrison Villard, with whom he kept in contact throughout their lives and careers. Hart’s correspondence with Du Bois, Woodson, Villard, and other activists documents their involvement in civil rights organizations such as the Niagara Movement, the NAACP, the Association for the Study of Negro Life & History, and historically Black universities such as Howard University.
A well-known public speaker and newspaper editorialist, Hart wrote and lectured on such topics as racial tensions in the United States, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, World War I, and the Armenian genocide. The breadth of Hart’s research interests and his sometimes-controversial views garnered him a wide and diverse audience; correspondence within the collection reveals that people from all walks of life attended his lectures and read his editorials, from formerly enslaved people to U.S. presidents.
Theodore Roosevelt was among those U.S. presidents with whom Hart frequently corresponded. Both members of the Class of 1880, Hart and Roosevelt met as first-year students. Correspondence between them details the lifelong friendship they shared and their close alignment on many political matters. Hart served as a Massachusetts delegate to the 1912 Republican National Convention and was a strong supporter of the Progressive Party movement that followed, campaigning for Roosevelt as a third-party candidate. After Roosevelt’s death in 1919, Hart led an effort to establish a national memorial to honor him.
For a man with such a serious academic career, Hart also had a playful sense of humor that permeates his correspondence. Among my favorite items in the collection is a letter Hart wrote to the Century Association in New York City, complaining about the lack of waffles in their breakfast spread. Hart invokes the “history” of waffles, from scripture to King Alfred to George Washington. This letter is, in my mind, quintessential Albert Bushnell Hart – witty, dry, and unapologetic about asking for what he wanted.
The Papers of Albert Bushnell Hart, held by the Harvard University Archives, have recently been fully digitized. Thanks to the incredible work of Harvard Library Imaging Services staff and funding from the EDIBA digitization program, there are now 2,061 digital objects containing a total of 156,708 images freely available online. The digital content can be accessed through the finding aid.