Huntington Library general correspondence collection

The collection contains over three hundred folders of correspondence that are arranged alphabetically by correspondent in fifty-eight boxes. The collection ranges from 1878 to 1972, with the bulk of the correspondence being from the years 1900 to 1979. The correspondence includes letters, telegrams, postcards, photographs and one record disc (box 26). The correspondence is mainly related to the library collection itself or to the library as an institution. The letters include commentary on the collection, the acquisition and transfer of items, inquiries about the holdings of the library, letters of thanks and congratulations from visitors, financial transactions, and letters between members of the staff. Box 52 contains miscellaneous files labeled as crank files which are often unsolicited.

Correspondence from the years before the late 1920s are addressed to or written by either Henry E. Huntington or George Watson Cole. The bulk of the later correspondence is to and from Leslie E. Bliss, with the remainder being to or from the rest of the staff. Other correspondents include Dr. Max Farrand, Robert O. Schad, early curator of rare books, and William A. Parish,the curator of prints.

The collection also includes correspondence between people associated with the Huntington Library and influential people of the early to mid-twentieth century. Box 38 contains letters written in the 1920s between Theodore Roosevelt and Henry E. Huntington about Huntington's library collection. Box 51 contains correspondence from John Leighton Stuart while he served as the President of the Yenching University to Leslie E. Bliss as a member of the university's advisory board. Stuart served as the United States ambassador to China from 1946 to 1949 when relations between the two countries were closed. The letters contain Stuart's commentary on the state of China during the 1930's.