Special topics, 1886 - 1927

This series contains subject files Hart created concerning his work with professional and social organizations, teaching and student life at Harvard, boards on which Hart sat, professional travel and speaking engagements, and controversy over Hart’s political loyalty during World War I.

Meeting records, correspondence, and manuscripts document Hart’s work as a board member, editor, and contributor to the American Historical Association, American Political Science Association, American Year Book and Dictionary of American Biography, Association for Negro Life and History, Massachusetts Historical Society, and Military Historical Society of Massachusetts. The series also contains records of social and political organizations to which Hart belonged, including the Loyal Order of the Moose and Mooseheart school, National Municipal League, National Security League, and local Boston/Cambridge clubs the Cambridge, the Colonial, the Examiner, and the ? Club (also known as the Query Club).

Teaching records include course outlines and lecture notes. Hart’s involvement in campus life at Harvard and Radcliffe is evidenced through correspondence regarding lectures Hart gave for Harvard student clubs and at Radcliffe events, as well as invitations to events. Hart’s extensive travels to give lectures for alumni at Harvard Clubs are also documented in the series.

Hart was involved in schools and universities outside Harvard as well. He spent semesters as visiting professor at universities in the United States and Germany, as documented in records of his travels. He also sat on the board for Constantinople College (also known as the American College for Girls at Constantinople) and Howard University.

Other professional engagements are documented in the records, including Hart’s travels on lecture tours in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Also represented are Hart’s writings and lectures on the “Armenian Situation” (i.e. the Armenian genocide and fight for independence). A controversy over Hart’s political loyalty during World War I is documented in “Trail of the German,” an account of Hart being accused of being “pro-German” and a subsequent testimony to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee to clear his name.

The first folder in each subseries contains a description of the materials created upon initial processing of the collection at the Harvard University Archives.