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Joseph Rucker and Clarinda Pendleton Lamar papers
Descriptive Summary | |
| Title: Joseph Rucker and Clarinda Pendleton Lamar papers | |
| Creator: Lamar, Clarinda Pendleton, 1856-1943 | |
| Creator: Lamar, Joseph Rucker, 1857-1916 | |
| Inclusive Dates: 1792-1936 | |
| Bulk Dates: 1910-1915 | |
| Language(s): English | |
| Extent: 12.5 Linear Feet 11 document boxes, 3 half boxes, 6 oversize boxes, 1 oversize folder | |
| Collection Number: ms22 | |
| Repository: Hargrett Library | |
Collection Description
Historical Note
Joseph Rucker Lamar, son of the Rev. James Sanford Lamar (minister of the Disciples of Christ) and Mary Margaret (Rucker) Lamar, was born in Ruckersville, Elbert County, Georgia on October 14, 1857 and died in Washington, D.C. on January 2, 1916. He was raised in Augusta, Georgia next door to Woodrow Wilson (the 28th President of the Unites States); educated at Bethany College, West Virginia and Washington & Lee University, Virginia; practiced law in Augusta, Georgia; served in Georgia Supreme Court (1901-1905); and was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Taft in 1911 and served until his death in 1916. Justice Lamar was a writer and historian, served in State Legislature from 1886 to 1889, and was often in demand as a speaker. He was a member of Beta Theta Pi as were other members of the court. He published First Days of St. Paul's Parish, Augusta, GA (1910?), Trustees of Richmond Academy of Augusta, Georgia... and The Code of the State of Georgia in two volumes in 1896.
Clarinda Pendleton Lamar (1856-1943), daughter of William Kimbrough Pendleton (President of Bethany College) and Catherine Huntington (King) Lamar and the wife of Joseph Rucker Lamar, was born in Bethany, West Virginia on August 25, 1856 and died in Atlanta, Georgia on April 27, 1943. Mrs. Lamar held the office of President of The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America between 1914 and 1927, and was instrumental in the preservation of Sulgrave Manor in England (the ancestral home of George Washington), Dumbarton House in Washington, D.C. (headquarters of The National Society), and Gunston Hall (the home of George Mason). She published A History of the National Society of Colonial Dames of America in 1934. She served on many boards of directors and was on the executive committee for Georgia's bicentennial. Her The Life of Joseph Rucker Lamar 1857-1916, published in 1926 was very well received.
Scope and Content
This collection consists of the papers of Joseph Rucker and Clarinda Pendleton Lamar from 1792-1936 and includes correspondence, scrapbooks, certificates, engagement books, invitations, speeches, and telegrams pertaining to Joseph Lamar's service on the Georgia and U.S. Supreme Courts; Clarinda Lamar's involvement with the Colonial Dames of America; and the Lamars' personal and public life in Augusta, Georgia and Washington, D.C.
Correspondents of Justice Lamar, many of whom also continued to correspond with Mrs. Lamar after his death, included Augusta friends W. H. Barrett, J. C. C. Black, E. H. Callaway, Ed. B. Hook and Andrew J. Cobb of Athens. Other notables included Woodrow Wilson, William H. Taft, Charles Evans Hughes, Oliver Wendell Holmes, James A. Garfield, William Jennings Bryan, and Octave Thanet (pseudonym of author Alice French). Mrs. Lamar also corresponded with Helen Taft, Mary Custis Lee, Edith Bolling Wilson, Martha Berry, Daisy Low (Juliette Gordon), and Eleanor and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Organization and Arrangement
Arranged into eight series by content and/or record type:
Joseph Rucker Lamar papers; Clarinda Lamar papers; printed material by or about the Supreme Court and Justice Lamar; ledgers; historical material; graphic materials; cards; and scrapbooks.
Administrative Information
Preferred Citation
Joseph Rucker and Clarinda Pendleton Lamar papers. MS 22. Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, The University of Georgia Libraries.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Given by Clarinda Pendleton Lamar in 1938.
Finding Aid Publication
Finding aid prepared on: 2009 March 18.
General Notes
Digitization funded by Historic Augusta, Inc. through a grant from The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in the State of Georgia.