[COLLECTION OF RESEARCH MATERIAL RELATING TO THE HISTORY OF VOTING IN THE UNITED STATES, COMPILED BY NOTED HISTORIAN ALBERT BUSHNELL HART, WITH HUNDREDS OF EXTRACTS, CLIPPINGS, AND CITATIONS, PLUS OVER FORTY BALLOT-RELATED IMPRINTS AND EPHEMERAL ITEMS]

[Various locations, 1888-1920].. Hundreds of magazine extracts, book and newspaper clippings, and citations, as well as forty-two pamphlets and ephemeral items. Housed in four cardstock folders, manuscript titles on front cover and spine, Hart's name and address stamped in ink on the front of each folder. Moderate wear. Creasing and minor soiling to contents, a few items chipped, closed tears along right edge of many items. Generally in very good condition. A significant collection of research material on the history of the ballot in the United States, compiled by Albert Bushnell Hart, a prominent historian, writer, and editor based at Harvard University. Hart was a part of the first generation of professionally trained historians in America, described as "The Grand Old Man" of American History by Samuel Eliot Morison. A prolific author, Hart wrote numerous volumes on American government; the material in this collection was likely assembled for one such work. The present collection includes over one hundred magazine extracts, book and newspaper clippings, and numerous citations, as well as forty-four pamphlets and ephemeral items, all organized into four folders.

Most of the material relates to voting in the United States, though some foreign material is also present. One folder is dedicated to the principles and history of ballots; another is dedicated to absentee and mail-in voting; the third is devoted to the "Short Ballot"; and the fourth covers the "Australian Ballot," also known as the secret ballot. Each clipping or extract is accompanied by a citation in Hart's hand, possibly in an effort to produce a comprehensive bibliography of writings on these topics. Hart also often underlines passages in the extracts.

Among the pamphlets and ephemera is material produced in support of mail-in voting in the 1900s and 1910s, a collection of thirty pamphlets and ephemera produced in support of the "Short Ballot" in the 1910s (part of an effort led by Woodrow Wilson to centralize government by lessening the number of offices elected by popular vote), and items related to the secret ballot (also known as the "Australian Ballot" or the "Massachusetts Ballot"). Items in the latter category include a draft of the Massachusetts Ballot Law of 1888, the first statewide law requiring secret ballots, as well as a sample ballot for an 1889 election in Boston, providing an early example of a ballot produced by a state government rather than by a political party.

Hart almost certainly collected this material in order to produce a passage, chapter, or whole work regarding the ballot. While he did not produce a book-length study, he did include significant passages on elections and the ballot in his SCHOOL HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES (published in various editions between 1918 and 1934) and WE AND OUR HISTORY (1923). He may have also intended the present research to inform an entry on the ballot for the CYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN GOVERNMENT (two editions between 1914 and 1932, both of which Hart co-edited), but that assignment eventually fell to George H. Haynes. Hart may have lent the present materials to Haynes for his entry on the ballot, as it also contains significant separate entries for the Short and Australian ballots.

The collection of voting and ballot-related pamphlets and ephemera include works on the voting history, principles, organization, reform, distribution, and other issues. A more detailed list of the collection is available on request.

An informative and timely working collection of historical information on the ballot in America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, compiled by an eminent historian. (Inventory #: WRCAM56120)