The Oliver Otis Howard Papers Online

Selected Bibliography

Manuscript Collections at Bowdoin College

Carpenter, John A. An Account of the Civil War Career of Oliver Otis Howard Based on His Private Letters. 1953. TMs., 241 leaves. M194.C377.: Preliminary typescript draft of a Ph.D. dissertation, completed under the same title for Columbia University in 1954.
Gray, Mary Augusta Dix. Recollections of Mother and Life with Her. 19--? TMs (copy), 27 p. M194.G739.: Duplicated typescript memoir of the granddaughter of Oliver Otis Howard, centering on the author's mother (a daughter of O.O. Howard) and her growing up in a military family stationed in the American West.
Howard, Charles H. Collection. 1808-1957. 1 linear foot. M90.: Letters, articles, addresses, diaries, etc., including material on the Civil War, on Charles Henry Howard's experiences at Kents Hill School and Bowdoin College, and on Howard and his family.
Howard, Rowland B. Papers. 1807-1937. 3.5 linear feet. M92.: Letters, diaries, journals, pamphlets, sermons, clippings,and speeches from the personal papers of Rowland Bailey Howard; the correspondence is primarily from Howard to family members but also includes a significant number of letters to Rowland from his brother Oliver Otis Howard.
Howard/Gray Family Papers. 1986. Photocopies, 216 p. M194.P4756.: Photocopies of "letters & misc. papers from the personal scrapbook and memoirs of Grandmother Grace Ellen Howard Gray & her daughter Mary Augusta Gray & also from Aunt Bessie's collection."
Powell, Laurel Shanafelt. Genealogy of the Howard Family, Descendants of General Oliver Otis Howard and Elizabeth Ann Waite. 1988. TMs, 1 v. M194.P694.: Genealogy of the Howard, Waite, and Powell families dating from the mid-nineteenth to late twentieth centuries

Manuscript Collections Held Beyond Bowdoin College

Howard University: Moorland-Spingarn Research Center: Oliver Otis Howard Papers: 6 linear feet.
1.5 lin. ft. of correspondence and personal papers, chiefly letters between Howard and his mother while he was a West Point cadet (1850-1854); printed articles and statements related to Howard’s career, especially concerning the Freedmen’s Bureau and the founding of Howard University; diaries, photographs, misc. writings, and framed realia.
Lincoln Memorial University: Carnegie-Vincent Library: Oliver Otis Howard Papers: 4 linear feet.
Family correspondence, mainly from 1882-1909; records relating to L.M.U., especially fund raising.
University of Vermont: Bailey/Howe Library: Oliver Otis Howard Papers: 3 linear feet.
U.S. Army general and special orders (printed and mss.), 1861-1865; Howard family papers (only a few letters by or to O.O. Howard), chiefly correspondence post-dating Howard’s death; and, articles and speeches by O.O. Howard dating from the 1890s-1900s.

Records documenting O.O. Howard’s role as commissioner of the Freedmen’s Bureau are held by the National Archives: Records of the Bureau of refugees, Freemen, and Abandoned Lands (Record Group 105).

For a more exhaustive list of manuscript resources pertaining to Oliver Otis Howard, search:

Published Works

For a list of works about the life and career of Oliver Otis Howard, consult the Bowdoin College Library online catalog.

Other Recent Selected Works of published scholarship that cite the Oliver Otis Howard Papers:

Creighton, Margaret. The Colors of Courage: Gettysburg’s Forgotten Battles. N.Y: Basic Books, 2005.

Fitzgerald, Michael. Urban Emancipation: Popular Politics in Reconstruction Mobile, 1860-1890. Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 2002.

Foner, Eric. Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877. N.Y.: Harper & Row. 1988.

Green, Chris. The Social Life of Poetry: Appalachia, Race, and Radical Modernism. N.Y.: Palgrave-Macmillan 2009.

Hampton, Bruce. Children of Grace: The Nez Perce War of 1877. N.Y.: H. Holt, 1994.

McPherson, James M. and Alan Brinkley. Days of Destiny: Crossroads in American History. N.Y.: Dorling Kindersley, 2001.

Sharfstein, Daniel. The Invisible Line: Three American Families and the Secret Journey from Black to White. N.Y.: Penguin, 2011.

Sweeney, Edwin. Chiricahua Apache Chief. Norman: U. of Oklahoma Press, 1991.

Venn, George. Soldier to Advocate: C.E.S. Wood's Diary of Alaska and the Nez Perce Conflict. La Grande, OR: Wordcraft of Oregon, 2006.

West, Elliott. The Last Indian War: The Nez Perce Story. N.Y.: Oxford, 2009.