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COLLECTION Identifier: LAW-MMC-276

Stanley S. Surrey papers

Overview

Contains agenda, casebooks, correspondence, documents, memoranda, minutes, notes, newspaper clippings, printed materials, testimony and reports mainly concerned with Surrey's national and international interests and work; and his policy planning and implementation of laws and programs as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury and Chief Reporter of the American Law Institute Income Tax Project. Also includes materials relating to his teaching and writing.

Dates

  • Creation: 1913 - 1981

Conditions Governing Access

Files containing student information, such as grades, are closed for 80 years; those with Harvard Law School or Harvard University administrative records are closed for 50 years. All restrictions are noted in the container list below.

Access to these papers is governed by the rules and regulations of the Harvard Law School Library. This collection is open to the public, but is housed off-site at Harvard Depository and requires 2 business-day advance notice for retrieval. Consult the Historical and Special Collections staff for further information.

Conditions Governing Use

The Harvard Law School Library holds copyright on some, but not all, of the material in our collections. Requests for permission to publish material from this collection should be directed to the Historical and Special Collections staff. Researchers who obtain permission to publish from the Harvard Law School Library are also responsible for identifying and contacting the persons or organizations who hold copyright.

Extent

192.5 linear feet (428 boxes)

The Stanley S. Surrey Papers cover Surrey's entire career as a public servant in the Roosevelt, Kennedy, and Johnson administrations, and as a Professor of Law at Berkeley and Harvard. The collection spans the 1910s up to Surrey’s death in 1984. The majority of the collection is of a professional nature, though there are some notable personal materials including the draft of an unpublished memoir.

Surrey kept extensive subject files on national and international taxation. These personal reference files encompass almost Surrey’s entire career and contain essays, documents, memoranda, newspaper clippings, notes, printed material, reports, testimony, and material sent to him from colleagues for Surrey’s reference in his function as professor, author, and consultant. This collection also contains files Surrey kept as Assistant Secretary to the Treasury on Tax Policy. As Assistant Secretary to the Treasury (1961-1969) Surrey coined the term "tax expenditure" and was instrumental in defining and regulating tax expenditures.

Other material covers his role as Chief Reporter for the American Law Institute Income Tax Project, an extensive project which addressed issues in the United States Tax Code, and resulted in a series of publications; reference files and drafts for Pathways to Tax Reform (1973), Surrey’s seminal work; teaching files kept during Surrey’s time at Berkeley and Harvard; and files for Surrey’s work as a consultant to the government and to law firms in his many functions, most notably as consultant to the George McGovern presidential campaign, and to John F. Kennedy, as creator and director of the Harvard Law School International Program in Taxation, and as member of and contributor to a number of professional associations.

Biographical Information

  • 1910Born in New York, NY.
  • 1929 Graduated from City College of New York.
  • 1932 Graduated Columbia Law School.
  • 1933-35Worked in National Recovery Administration.
  • 1935-1937 Worked on the National Labor Relations Board.
  • 1937-1947Became the Special Representative of the Treasury General Council at the Internal Revenue Service.
  • 1944-46Served in the U.S. Naval Reserve.
  • 1947-1950 Professor of Law at Berkeley.
  • 1948-1961Chief reporter for the Income Tax Project of the American Law Institute (ALI).
  • 1949-1950On American Tax Mission to Japan.
  • 1950 Professor of Law at Harvard.
  • 1953-1961Director of Harvard’s Program for International Taxation.
  • 1954 Consultant to the Treasury Department, Puerto Rico.
  • 1961-1969 Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Tax Policy.
  • 1979-1980President of the National Tax Association.
  • 1980 Retired as Harvard Jeremiah Smith Professor of Law Emeritus.
  • 1984 Died in Cambridge, MA.

1910
Born in New York, NY.
1929
Graduated from City College of New York.
1932
Graduated Columbia Law School.
1933-35
Worked in National Recovery Administration.
1935-1937
Worked on the National Labor Relations Board.
1937-1947
Became the Special Representative of the Treasury General Council at the Internal Revenue Service.
1944-46
Served in the U.S. Naval Reserve.
1947-1950
Professor of Law at Berkeley.
1948-1961
Chief reporter for the Income Tax Project of the American Law Institute (ALI).
1949-1950
On American Tax Mission to Japan.
1950
Professor of Law at Harvard.
1953-1961
Director of Harvard’s Program for International Taxation.
1954
Consultant to the Treasury Department, Puerto Rico.
1961-1969
Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Tax Policy.
1979-1980
President of the National Tax Association.
1980
Retired as Harvard Jeremiah Smith Professor of Law Emeritus.
1984
Died in Cambridge, MA.

Series List/Description

  1. Subseries A: Berkeley, 1947-1950

    Lecture notes, reference material and student papersfor Legislation Seminars conducted at the Berkley School of Law;alphabetical correspondence files of a personal and professionalnature; and correspondence, transcripts, and other materialsdocumenting Surrey’s participation in the Institute of FederalTaxation at U.S.C. and the Association of American Law Schools.Subseries is arranged alphabetically.

  2. Subseries B: Harvard, 1957-1980

    Assignments, bound course packets and binders withSurrey’s lecture notes, group work, student papers, and supplementarycourse material; materials generated in Surrey’s function as Advisor;and miscellaneous reference files related to Surrey’s work as afaculty member at Harvard including Brookings Institute, HarvardSchool of Governance and John F. Kennedy Presidential Librarymaterials. Treasury appointment files document opposition to andsupport of Surrey’s appointment as Secretary to the Treasury. Filesand bound course packets are arranged separately, both arealphabetical.

  3. Subseries C: Harvard, 1970-1978

    This subseries contains administrative files generated by Surrey’s work and correspondence with law firms, most notably Bingham, Dana & Gould and Foley, Hoag & Eliot, as advisor to Senator George McGovern’s 1972 presidential campaign, as advisor to Health, Education and Welfare Secretary Joseph Califano on a plan for National Health Insurance, as contributor to the National Housing Policy Review, as a member of the International Fiscal Association (IFA), and as a Professor of Law and active member of the Harvard Law School Faculty during the 1970s. Other materials include Surrey’s research files on topics such as tax simplification, tax reform, a capital gains tax, housing tax policy, the new jobs tax credit, and Puerto Rico's economy. File formats include agendas, correspondence, handwritten notes, memoranda, newspaper clippings, printed materials and reports.

Physical Location

Harvard Depository

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Donated to the Harvard Law School Library by Stanley Surrey in 1981.

Related Materials

For related material, see Fifty Years (A Half-Century) with the Internal Revenue Code. , Copy of Surrey's unpublished memoir. An earlier version is available in box 402.

General note

Within each series and/or subseries individual items or folders are identified by box and folder number. For example, the number 5-12 corresponds to box 5, folder 12.

Processing Information

Processed by Rachel Parker, 2017



While processing the Surrey Papers staff came across boxes of two distinctive groups of material. All of the boxes were marked as “File Cabinet Drawer” along with a draw number. The groups of material were distinguished by their housing with one in legal size folders with printed labels, and the other in letter size folders with handwritten labels. The material itself was very similar to that is Series I; Subseries A (reference files sorted topically by Surrey containing a variety of material (correspondence, printed material, newspaper clipping, reports, memos, and handwritten notes). The main difference was this material dated from the 1970s whereas the material in Subseries A dated pre-1960.



Originally, a decision was made to place the “labeled folders” and “unlabeled folders” as distinct record groups and organize them into separate subseries. The thinking being that the labels indicated an intentional organizational decision on the part of Surrey or his Faculty Assistant. However the content of this material, other than the differences in folders, was largely the same so the decision was made to interfile the two “File Cabinet Drawer” groups into one Subseries (B) along with other reference files post-1969.

Title
Surrey, Stanley S. Stanley S. Surrey papers, 1913-1981: Finding Aid
Author
Harvard Law School Library, Cambridge, MA 02138
Language of description
und
EAD ID
law00276

Repository Details

Part of the Harvard Law School Library, Historical & Special Collections Repository

Harvard Law School Library's Historical & Special Collections (HSC) collects, preserves, and makes available research materials for the study of the law and legal history. HSC holds over 8,000 linear feet of manuscripts, over 100,000 rare books, and more than 70,000 visual images.

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