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[Identification of item], Weston La Barre Papers, University Archives, Duke University.
The Weston La Barre Papers was received by the University Archives as a gift in 1981, 1987, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1996, and 1997.
Processed by Valerie Gillispie
Completed January 15, 2005
Encoded by Valerie Gillispie, February 4, 2005
This finding aid is NCEAD compliant.
Weston La Barre was born on December 13, 1911, in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. Until about the age of 30, La Barre sometimes went by the names "I. Weston LaBarrer" and "Raoul La Barre" before using "Weston La Barre" exclusively. La Barre attended Princeton University and graduated with an A.B. degree in 1933. He then attended Yale University and received his Ph.D. degree in 1937. La Barre conducted a number of anthropological field trips beginning in 1935, when he studied Kiowa Indians. He conducted research on peyote in 1936, which grew into his dissertation and later his book,
La Barre began teaching in 1939 at Rutgers University, the same year he married Maurine Boie, a social worker. After World War II broke out, the La Barres moved to Utah to work for the War Relocation Authority. After a short period, Weston La Barre joined the Navy and was trained a parachutist. He was assigned to parachute into an area of Laos because of his previous study of Southeast Asian ethnography. However, due to changes caused by the newly created Office of Strategic Services, La Barre spent several months each in Calcutta, Kunming, and Chungking before being moved to Kandy, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) for nine months. He then returned to the United States and worked with the Atlantic Fleet before commissioned out of the naval reserve in 1946.
In that same year, La Barre was offered a teaching position at Duke University, a position he held until 1977. During his Duke career, La Barre taught many anthropology courses on culture, religion, psychiatry, and symbolism. He was known as a popular, if difficult, professor. He co-currently taught in the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill School of Medicine from 1956 to 1959, and was a visiting clinical professor of psychiatry at UNC from 1959 to 1969. In addition to his teaching duties, La Barre lectured at hundreds of universities and conferences and published numerous articles. He also published several books during his Duke career, including
La Barre retired in 1977, but continued to publish articles and books. Books published after La Barre's retirement include
La Barre's wife passed away in 1991. They had three children: John, David, and An. Weston La Barre passed away on March 13, 1996 in Chapel Hill. He was 84 years old.
The Weston La Barre Papers include correspondence, publications, lectures, committee materials, teaching materials, photographs, audio recordings, scrapbooks and other materials related to the personal life and professional career of anthropologist Weston La Barre. The collection is arranged into 8 series. The first series, Personal, contains materials related to La Barre's family, friends, education, and Navy career during World War II. The next series, Correspondence, contains extensive chronological files of letters to and from La Barre's colleagues and friends. Several correspondents were filed by name, including George Devereux, Allen Ginsberg, Alexander Morin, Richard Evans Schultes, and Howard Stein. The following series, Publications, includes articles and books that La Barre wrote during his long career. It also includes drafts, editing notes, correspondence, and other materials related to the writings. Next, Lectures and Addresses includes the text of many speeches La Barre made across the country, as well as materials related to the conferences and events at which La Barre spoke.
La Barre's participation in conferences, committees, editing projects, and research is documented in the Professional Activities series. The Duke University series contains teaching materials like tests, quizzes, and syllabi. It also contains administrative information from the Department of Anthropology, and a scrapbook and memoir by La Barre recalling the controversy over a possible Nixon Presidential Library at Duke. The next series, Audio Recordings, contains a small selection of speeches and music on anthropological subjects. Finally, the Scrapbooks series contains a number of scrapbooks documenting La Barre's travels in the Navy, on anthropological and research voyages, and for vacation. There are also a large number of scrapbooks in which La Barre appeared to collect clippings of anthropological or psychological interest.
For several of the series (including Correspondence, Publications, Lectures and Addresses, Professional Activities, and Duke University), La Barre annotated the folders with comments about the events, people, and places described within the documents. Because these folders were physically deteriorating, the comments have been photocopied and placed in the front of the corresponding file. La Barre also occasionally annotated individual items, apparently years after the documents were originally created.
These and related materials may be accessed under the following subject headings in the Duke University Libraries online catalog.
The Personal series contains an assortment of materials related to La Barre's family, education, his Navy experience during World War II, job searches, and tributes. Materials are organized alphabetically.
The Correspondence series contains mainly professional correspondence during and after La Barre's career at Duke. Because La Barre developed close friendships with fellow researchers and other professionals, much of the material contains personal as well as professional information. The materials are organized primarily by date in chronological order, but La Barre also collected the correspondence of certain correspondents separately, and this correspondence follows the yearly correspondence. It is arranged alphabetically by last name. Among these correspondents are George Devereux; Allen Ginsberg, the beat poet; Alexander Morin; Richard Evans Schultes; and Howard Stein.
At some point, La Barre re-read his correspondence and annotated the folders and, in some cases, individual letters with his summaries and comments on their contents. It is unclear exactly when these annotations were made. Because the folder annotations contained much information but were physically deteriorating, photocopies of LaBarre's folder comments have been made and inserted in the front of the corresponding folders.
Please note: there are two folders of personal correspondence in the Personal series. These letters are to and from family members, and were filed separately from the bulk of La Barre's correspondence.
The Publications series contains many of the articles, reviews, and books that La Barre wrote during his long career. In addition to the final, published versions, La Barre often kept early drafts, correspondence with publishers, edited manuscripts, and notes. The series begins with a list of publications compiled in 1992, and follows with three folders of book reviews and other short publications. The Publications series is then divided into two main subseries: Articles and Books. La Barre published frequently throughout his career. His articles were published in scholarly publications as well as the popular press. La Barre frequently kept notes, drafts, editorial comments, correspondence, and these have been retained. Articles are arranged in chronological order. The second subseries, Books, is arranged in alphabetical order because many of La Barre's books were revised and reprinted over a period of years. The Books subseries contains published editions in addition to drafts, edited manuscripts, and correspondence. In most of the published editions, La Barre meticulously recorded positive reviews and compliments about the books given to him by colleagues.
At some point, La Barre re-read his papers and annotated some folders and, in some cases, individual items with his summaries and comments on their contents. It is unclear exactly when these annotations were made. Because the folder annotations contained much information but were physically deteriorating, photocopies of LaBarre's folder comments have been made and inserted in the front of the corresponding folders.
Articles are arranged in chronological order.
Books are arranged in alphabetical order because many of La Barre's books were revised and reprinted over a period of years.
The Lectures and Addresses series begins with a "List of Major Lectures" and a collection of 1960s-era programs and clippings. The bulk of the series, however, contains the text of La Barre's speeches, as well as correspondence and other materials related to the speech. The Lectures and Addresses series is arranged chronologically by the date each speech was given. Occasionally, La Barre gave the same speech over a number of years. In that case, folders are filed by their earliest date, but the date range of the folder contents are provided.
At some point, La Barre re-read his papers and annotated some folders and, in some cases, individual items with his summaries and comments on their contents. It is unclear exactly when these annotations were made. Because the folder annotations contained much information but were physically deteriorating, photocopies of LaBarre's folder comments have been made and inserted in the front of the corresponding folders.
La Barre had many interests in the field of anthropology and psychology, and was involved in committee and conference work throughout his career. This series contains four subseries: Committees, Conferences, Landmarks in Anthropology, and Research. The Committees and Conferences subseries are arranged alphabetically. The Landmarks in Anthropology subseries contains records from La Barre's editorship of the Landmarks in Anthropology series, which reprinted important anthropologial writings. The Research subseries has some information on grants and fellowships that La Barre received, as well as two folders of photographs which date from the mid-to-late 1930s and early 1940s. All of La Barre's field notes were donated to the Smithsonian Institution's National Anthropological Collection before La Barre donated the rest of his materials to Duke University.
At some point, La Barre re-read his papers and annotated some folders and, in some cases, individual items with his summaries and comments on their contents. It is unclear exactly when these annotations were made. Because the folder annotations contained much information but were physically deteriorating, photocopies of LaBarre's folder comments have been made and inserted in the front of the corresponding folders.
The Duke University series contains materials related to La Barre's teaching career, participation in the faculty and administration of the Anthropology Department, and his interest in the Nixon Presidential Library controversy. The Teaching subseries contains quizzes, exams, syllabi, and other documents that La Barre used in teaching anthropology courses at Duke. It also contains information about him becoming a James B. Duke Professor, and a retirement letter he sent to all of his former students, as well as their replies. The Anthropology Department subseries contains information about staff meetings, department courses, and general administrative information. The Nixon Controversy subseries includes a scrapbook of clippings gathered during the debate over whether to place Nixon's Presidential Library at Duke. It also contains a memoir of personal recollections of that time written by La Barre.
At some point, La Barre re-read his papers and annotated some folders and, in some cases, individual items with his summaries and comments on their contents. It is unclear exactly when these annotations were made. Because the folder annotations contained much information but were physically deteriorating, photocopies of LaBarre's folder comments have been made and inserted in the front of the corresponding folders.
The Audio Recordings series is a small collection of what appear to be homemade recordings of music and lectures about anthropological topics. All of the recordings were made on 1/4 inch audio tape on 7 inch reels, and appear to be the master copies. Listening copies must be made prior to use; please contact University Archives for more information.
The Scrapbooks series includes a variety of scrapbooks created by LaBarre. Some of the scrapbooks were collections of clippings saved by La Barre due to their anthropological or psychological interest. Some of the scrapbooks, including the "Ceylon," "Navy," and "China-India" volumes date from La Barre's service in World War II, and contain a number of original photographs. Other scrapbooks seem to be travel diaries, and include handwritten notes, ticket stubs, photographs, clippings, and other materials collected on his journies. La Barre also collected reviews and advertisements about his own books, and these materials were also pasted into scrapbooks. For this series, those books that had a title or obvious theme have been identified as such; those books that appeared to be a mix of subjects are classified as "Untitled."