Joseph Oliver Carter Papers

The collection consists of 177 letters, two manuscripts, 1 piece of ephemera and 17 newspaper clippings.

The majority of the collection is correspondence written to Joseph Oliver Carter (there are only two letters written by him, one of which is to Queen Liliuokalani). Notable participants include: Joseph K. Aea, attorney for the Queen; Calvert T. Bird, attorney for the James Campbell estate; Charles Reed Bishop; J. A. Cummins, Hawaiian royalty and businessman; attorney Clarence Woods DeKnight; journalist Julian Hawthorne; Hawaiian diplomat and politician Curtis Pi'ehu 'Iaukea; Prince David Kawananakoa; William Kinney, Hawaiian businessman; G. W. MacFarlane, attorney for the Queen; reporter Julius A. Palmer; Abigail Campbell Parker, widow of James Campbell and mother of Princess Abigail Kawananakoa; Senator Richard F. Pettigrew; Hawaiian Chief Justice Alexander George Morison Robertson; Hawaiian politician Robert W. Shingle; Hawaiian minister David Willis Keliiokamoku White; Albert Shelby Willis, United States Congressman and Minister to Hawaii; and Charles Burnett Wilson, Marshall of Kingdom of Hawaii and Royal Guard.

Most of the collection is about Queen Liliuokalani, her property and finances, and politics in Hawaii including the 1893 revolution and its consequences for Carter, Hawaiian annexation by the U.S., the Hawaiian government and royalty. (Letters between Carter and Senator Pettigrew are all about the Hawaiian government and annexation by the U.S. as are the letters between Carter and his friend Ned McFarlane.) Other subjects include: James Campbell and his estate; Samuel Mills Damon; Benjamin Franklin Dillingham; Sanford B. Dole; Princess Kaiulani; Princess Abigail Campbell Kawananakoa; education in Hawaii; the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum; Punuhou School; Chinese and Japanese immigrants in Hawaii; Mormons in Hawaii; and sugar growing and tariffs.

The letters by L. M. Keaunui and S. K. Mahoe to Queen Liliuokalani are in Hawaiian.

The two manuscripts consist of a copy of a resolution made by C. Brewer & Co. stating that it is in full support of the provisional government of Hawaii and that any officer or employee that shows "any other disposition on the part of the Company as against the said Government, such action is disavowed by us as Stockholders…" and a printed copy of the "Proposed Investigation of the Government of the Territory of Hawaii: Hearing Before the Committee on Territories and Insular Affairs United States Senate," from 1932, January 16.

The ephemera consists of a sheet of paper with three signatures including the Governor of Maui, John M. Kapena. The 17 newspaper clippings are about the Hawaiian Princess Abigail Kawananakoa, the possible statehood of Hawaii, and the Virgin Islands.