Guide to the Melville Weston Fuller Collection, 1879-1910
Melville Weston Fuller Collection, George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives, Bowdoin College Library
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Melville Weston Fuller was born in Augusta, Maine, on January 11, 1833, to Frederick and Catharine Fuller, who divorced soon after his birth. Fuller entered Bowdoin at the age of 16 and graduated Phi Beta Kappa with the class of 1853. After graduation he studied law at Harvard Law School and was admitted to the bar in 1855, after which he began working for a Chicago law firm.
In 1862, Fuller served as a delegate to the Illinois constitutional convention. He was a member of the Illinois House of Representatives from 1863 to 1865 and was a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions of 1864, 1872, 1876, and 1880. In 1888 Fuller was appointed chief justice of the Supreme Court, a position he held until his death in 1910.
He received L.L.D. honorary degrees from both Bowdoin and Northwestern in 1888. He served as a member of the Bowdoin board of trustees, as well as chairman of the trustees of the Peabody Educational fund and chancellor of the Smithsonian Institution. He died at his home in Sorrento, Maine, on July 4, 1910.
Contains correspondence mostly between Fuller and George T. Little, professor at Bowdoin College, during the years after Fuller's graduation from Bowdoin, as well as diaries and addresses given by Fuller. Also contains clippings and memorial materials on his death in 1910.
Contains letters between Melville Weston Fuller and Professor George T. Little of Bowdoin College. The correspondence, which spans the years 1888-1906, is chiefly posted from Chicago and Washington, D.C., and concern Fuller's relationship with the College.
Arranged chronologically.
M.W. Fuller to Prof. George T. Little, Chicago. 7 May 1888 [1 p.].
M.W. Fuller to "Dear Professor" [George T. Little], Chicago. 9 August 1888 [2 p.].
M.W. Fuller to "Dear Professor" [George T. Little], Washington [D.C.]. 6 October 1890 [1 p.].
Melville W. Fuller to Prof. Little, Washington D.C. 19 February 1894 [1 p.].
Melville W. Fuller to "Dear Professor" [George T. Little], Washington [D.C.]. 9 April 1984 [2 p.].
Melville W. Fuller to Professor Little, Washington D.C. 30 May 1894 [1 p.]
Melville W. Fuller to "Dear Professor" [George T. Little], Sorrento. 27 July 1894 [1 p.]. re: address, "The Supernatural in Fiction."
Melville W. Fuller to Professor Little, Sorrento. 6 August 1894 [1 p.].
Melville W. Fuller to Professor Little, Washington D.C. 24 October 1894 [1 p.].
Melville W. Fuller to Professor Little, Washington [D.C.]. 7 November 1894 [1 p.].
Melville W. Fuller to "Dear Professor" [George T. Little], Washington [D.C.]. 3 June 1903 [1 p.].
Melville W. Fuller to Professor Little, Washington [D.C.]. 18 October 1903 [1 p.].
Melville W. Fuller to President Hyde, Washington [D.C.]. 4 June 1904 [2 p.].
Melville W. Fuller to Professor Little, Washington [D.C.]. 27 February 1906 [1 p.].
H. Davis[?] to H.C. Wallace, Esq., New York. 27 April 1907 [1 p.].
Henry M. Hays to Melville Weston Fuller, n.p. n.d. [inside copy of "Charles Dickens" by G.K Chesterton] [1 p.].
Consists of three diaries for the years 1879, 1880, 1882. The entries primarily focus on Fuller's day-to-day professional activities.
Arranged chronologically.
Diary, 1879
Diary, 1880
Diary, 1882
Consists of a memorial scrapbook on the life and death of Melville Weston Fuller by an unknown compiler and a memorial publication for Fuller by the Supreme Court, dated December 10, 1910.
Scrapbook--"In Memoriam: Chief Justice Melville W. Fuller," 1910.
"Proceedings of the Bar and Officers of the Supreme Court of the United States in memory of Melville Weston Fuller," December 10, 1910.
Consists mainly of clippings about Melville Weston Fuller. Also includes an anniversary address given by Fuller at Bowdoin College in 1894.
Arranged chronologically by material type.
Address: "The Supernatural in Fiction." [with transcript of letter from M.W. Fuller to George T. Little accompanying address], [1853?].
Anniversary Address by Melville Weston Fuller. 28 June 1894 [2 copies]
Clippings: "A Review of 'Melville Weston Fuller, Chief Justice of the United States, 1888-1910'" by Willard L. King.
Clippings: miscellaneous, n.d.
Image: Melville Watson Fuller, n.d.