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Collection Overview

Creator:
Baker, Ray Stannard (1870-1946)
Title:
Ray Stannard Baker Papers
Repository:
Public Policy Papers
Permanent URL:
http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/6395w709d
Dates:
1887-1944 (mostly 1909-1919)
Size:
30 boxes and 2 items
Storage Note:
  • Mudd Manuscript Library (scamudd): Box 1-30
Language:
English

Abstract

Ray Stannard Baker (1870-1946) was a journalist, editor, and author. He earned recognition for his articles on liberal reform, for his philosophical essays written under the pseudonym David Grayson, and for his authorized biography and other works on President Woodrow Wilson. Baker's papers contain materials collected for his biography of President Woodrow Wilson and related to the Paris Peace Conference (1919-1920), which he attended as Director of the American Press Bureau, and include correspondence, publications, photographs, and newspaper clippings.

Collection Description & Creator Information

Scope and Contents

Baker's papers contain materials collected for his biography of President Woodrow Wilson and related to the Paris Peace Conference (1919-1920), which he attended as Director of the American Press Bureau, and include correspondence, publications, photographs, and newspaper clippings. The papers on Wilson are predominately related to his presidency and decisions regarding World War I, but also include information on his tenure as governor of New Jersey and his time at Princeton University. Papers on the Paris Peace Conference are largely composed of meeting minutes of several committees and also document the debate regarding the formation of the League of Nations.

Please see the series descriptions in the contents list for additional information about individual series.

Collection Creator Biography:

Baker

Grayson

Ray Stannard Baker (1870-1946) was a journalist, editor, and author. He earned recognition for his articles on liberal reform, for his philosophical essays written under the pseudonym David Grayson, and for his authorized biography and other works on President Woodrow Wilson. He worked at the News-Record in Chicago, McClure's magazine, American Magazine, and as an independent author.

Baker was born on April 17, 1870 in Lansing, Michigan to Joseph Stannard Baker and Alice (Potter) Baker. Baker received a B.S. degree from Michigan Agricultural College in East Lansing in 1889. After working at his father's real estate business, Baker returned to college, entering the University of Michigan for law school in 1892. He shifted his study to literature and studied journalism under Fred Newton Scott, leaving the university after a semester to pursue a career in journalism.

His first job in the field of journalism was in 1892 as a cub reporter at the Chicago News-Record, an independent newspaper. His coverage of a restaurant strike earned him a promotion to a regular staff job. He continued to report on strikes and labor unrest, crime, and the plight of the urban poor, and his coverage of the march of Coxey's army, a labor group, in 1894 earned him an editorship at the News-Record. While at the News-Record, Baker also began writing independently for periodicals.

In 1897, Baker joined the staff of McClure's magazine, which was at the forefront of a new style of journalism that emphasized critical investigative reporting that became known as "muckraking." He was managing editor of McClure's Syndicate from 1897 to 1898 and associate editor of McClure's magazine from 1899 to 1905. He also continued his freelance work and traveling the country and abroad. Baker was the author of many articles on social and economic problems, as seen from a liberal viewpoint, with the purpose of exposing corruption and instigating reform. He earned a national reputation for his writings on industrial relations, including coverage of strikes and working conditions. In 1906, after internal conflict at McClure's, Baker and several other journalists, including John S. Phillips, Lincoln Steffens, and Ida M. Tarbell, left and purchased the American Magazine, where he continued to write progressively on social and political issues. He was the editor of American Magazine from 1906 to 1915.

Beginning in 1899, Baker also began writing and publishing books. His works include Boys' Book of Inventions (1899), Seen in Germany (1901), Following the Color Line (1908), The Spiritual Unrest (1910), and The New Industrial Unrest (1920). His greatest popularity as a writer, however, was under the pseudonym of David Grayson. These books, collections of philosophical essays on various aspects of nature from the point of view of a farmer, include Adventures in Contentment (1907), Adventures of Friendship (1910), The Friendly Road (1913), Adventures in Understanding (1925), and Adventures in Solitude (1931). Baker also wrote his autobiography, in two volumes: Native American (1941) and American Chronicle (1945).

In 1918, Baker served as Special Commissioner of the State Department in Great Britain, France, and Italy. In this capacity, he traveled through Europe, meeting with statesmen and leaders of liberal movements and reporting on potentially disruptive radicals in those countries. In 1919, Baker served as Director of the Press Bureau of the American Commission to Negotiate Peace at the Paris Peace Conference, a role that essentially made him the President's press secretary. This began an association with Wilson that would last for the rest of Baker's life. Baker became a strong advocate of Wilson's work as a peacemaker and especially of the League of Nations. Baker wrote What Wilson Did at Paris in 1919 and in 1922 published a three-volume work entitled Woodrow Wilson and World Settlement to describe Wilson's struggles to establish a lasting peace. Baker also co-editing the six volume The Public Papers of Woodrow Wilson with William E. Dodd, published from 1925 to 1927. Wilson asked Baker, shortly before his death, to write his authorized biography. Baker spent fifteen years on the biography; the first two volumes of Woodrow Wilson: Life and Letters appeared in 1927 and six additional volumes were published during the next twelve years, for which he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1940.

Baker married Jessie Irene Beal, the daughter of his former college botany professor, on January 1, 1896. They had four children: Alice Beal (Hyde), James Stannard, Roger Denio and Rachel Moore (Napier). Baker died on July 12, 1946 in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Collection History

Acquisition:

Contributions from Friends of the Library enabled Princeton University Library to purchase the papers of Ray Stannard Baker, biographer of Woodrow Wilson, in November 1942 . The purchase also included 800 books from Mr. Baker's library, which were added to the special Wilson collection and cataloged under the symbol WW. An addition to the papers was received from Baker in June 1945 .

Custodial History

A portion of the collection was transferred to the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library from the Manuscripts Division of Special Collections, Princeton University in December 1990. An additional five folders were transferred in 2010.

Appraisal

No appraisal information is available.

Access & Use

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research use.

Conditions Governing Use

Single copies may be made for research purposes. To cite or publish quotations that fall within Fair Use, as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission is required. For instances beyond Fair Use, it is the responsibility of the researcher to determine whether any permissions related to copyright, privacy, publicity, or any other rights are necessary for their intended use of the Library's materials, and to obtain all required permissions from any existing rights holders, if they have not already done so. Princeton University Library's Special Collections does not charge any permission or use fees for the publication of images of materials from our collections, nor does it require researchers to obtain its permission for said use. The department does request that its collections be properly cited and images credited. More detailed information can be found on the Copyright, Credit and Citations Guidelines page on our website. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us through the Ask Us! form.

Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

For preservation reasons, original analog and digital media may not be read or played back in the reading room. Users may visually inspect physical media but may not remove it from its enclosure. All analog audiovisual media must be digitized to preservation-quality standards prior to use. Audiovisual digitization requests are processed by an approved third-party vendor. Please note, the transfer time required can be as little as several weeks to as long as several months and there may be financial costs associated with the process. Requests should be directed through the Ask Us Form.

Credit this material:

Ray Stannard Baker Papers; Public Policy Papers, Department of Special Collections, Princeton University Library

Permanent URL:
http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/6395w709d
Location:
Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library
65 Olden Street
Princeton, NJ 08540, USA
(609) 258-6345
Storage Note:
  • Mudd Manuscript Library (scamudd): Box 1-30

Find More

Related Materials

This collection is part of a group of over 20 collections held at the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library related to Woodrow Wilson, which can be located by searching for the subject "Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924" on the Princeton Finding Aids website or in the Princeton Library Main Catalog.

Please see Woodrow Wilson: A Guide to Selected Resources in the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library for more particulars.

Additionally, the Library of Congress and the Jones Library in Amherst, Massachusetts hold important Ray Stannard Baker collections. His papers at the Library of Congress document his career as a journalist and writer, including authoring the Wilson biography, and his participation at the Paris Peace Conference. His papers at the Jones Library are predominantly related to his writing under the pseudonym David Grayson.

Bibliography

The following sources were consulted during the preparation of the biographical note: Grantham, Dewey W. "Baker, Ray Stannard," American National Biography. http://www.anb.org/articles/15/15-00031.html Online February 2000. "Ray S. Baker Dead; Noted Biographer." The New York Times, July 13, 1946. Seymour-Smith, Martin and Andrew C. Kimmens, eds. World Authors, 1900-1950. New York: H.W. Wilson Company, 1996. Whitman, Alden, ed. American Reformers. New York: H.W. Wilson Company, 1985.

Subject Terms:
Biographers -- United States.
Peace treaties.
World War, 1914-1918 -- Peace.
World War, 1914-1918 -- United States.
Genre Terms:
Clippings.
Correspondence
Official reports.
Photographs, Original.
Names:
United States. American Commission to Negotiate Peace
League of Nations.
Baker, Ray Stannard (1870-1946)
Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924.
Places:
United States -- Foreign relations -- Treaties.
United States -- Politics and government -- 20th century.