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Phillip Shaw Paludan Papers

 Collection
Identifier: MS 0021

Scope and Contents

The bulk of the collection relates to Paludan’s scholarly and teaching responsibilities, and contains research, article and chapter drafts, lecture notes and graphics, syllabi, assignment prompts, correspondence, and related materials. This collection is divided into five series: American Civil War, General History, Courses Taught, General Work Files, and Digital Family Photos.

Series I: American Civil War, 1772-2007 contains material relating to the American Civil War, including the factors leading to it and its aftermath. This series is divided into three sub-series: General Civil War Research, Notecards, and Victims: A True Story of the Civil War.

Series I, Sub-series A: General Civil War Research, 1772-2007 contains wide-ranging research relating to the civil war, with subjects including slavery and the lives of enslaved peoples, economy and politics in the North and South, abolition movements, Abraham Lincoln, the experience of war, and Reconstruction. In addition to original research and manuscripts, many folders include material relating to Paludan’s teaching responsibilities such as lecture notes, transparencies used during lectures, and assignment prompts. Arranged alphabetically.

Series I, Sub-series B: Notecards, circa 1965 contains notecards related to civil war research, includes original notes, transcriptions of sources, and bibliographic information. Some cards are handwritten while others are typed. Organized by subject in their original order.

Series I, Sub-series C: Victims: A True Story of the Civil War, 1863-2003 contains material related to Paludan’s monograph on the Shelton Laurel Massacre, primarily notes and chapter drafts. Arranged alphabetically.

Series II: General History, 1799-2006 contains scholarly historical material not related specifically to the Civil War. Many folders include material relating to Paludan’s teaching responsibilities such as lecture notes, transparencies used during lectures, and assignment prompts. This series is divided into four sub-series: Colonial America and the Revolutionary War, Constitutional Law, Jacksonian America, and Historical Practice.

Series II, Sub-series A: Colonial America and the Revolutionary War, 1799-2006 contains material relating to British colonies in North America, the American Revolutionary War, and the early years of the United States of America. Arranged alphabetically.

Series II, Sub-series B: Constitutional Law, 1907-2006 contains material relating to American constitutional law, including the intentions of the framers, constitutional interpretation over the centuries, and major legal cases relating to civil rights and the constitution during the 20th century. Arranged alphabetically.

Series II, Sub-series C: Jacksonian Era, 1981-2006 contains material relating to early 19th century politics, economic development, and treatment of Native Americans. Arranged alphabetically.

Series II: Sub-series D: Historical Practice, 1966-2000 contains material relating to the study and practice of history, including notes, articles, and lecture materials on the nature of history, historiography, and historical writing. Arranged alphabetically.

Series III, Courses Taught, 1975-2007 contains syllabi, lecture notes, assignment prompts, class readings, and similar materials relating to courses taught by Paludan. This series contains folders clearly labeled as relating to a specific course; there are also teaching materials present in many folders in Series I and Series II. Arranged chronologically according to the term during which the course was taught.

Series IV: General Work Files, 1965-2007 contains additional material relating to Paludan’s career, including correspondence, book reviews, and files relating to events attended, speeches given, and historical organizations participated in. Arranged alphabetically.

Series V: Digital Family Photos, 2003 contains one Zip drive of twenty-nine photographs collected for a birthday party for Marty Paludan, wife of Phillip Paludan. Photos span from the 1930s to the 1990s. Digital files are stored in Box.

Dates

  • 1772-2007

Creator

Access

The collection is open under the rules and regulations of the University of Illinois- Springfield (UIS).

Copyrights

Copyrights to this collection are held by UIS.

Biography

Phillip Shaw Paludan was born on January 26, 1938 in St. Cloud, Minnesota. He received his B.A. and M.A. from Occidental College in 1960 and 1963. He attended U.C.L.A from 1962-1963 and received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in 1968.

Paludan joined the History Department at the University of Kansas as an Assistant Professor in 1968, rising to Associate Professor in 1973 and Professor of History in 1978. He was a Visiting Professor of Modern History at University College in Dublin, Ireland from 1978-1979 and a Visiting Professor of History at Rutgers University from 1995-1997. In 2001, Paludan joined the University of Illinois-Springfield as the first Naomi Lynn Distinguished Chair of Lincoln Studies.

Paludan was a leading scholar on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. He wrote four books on the subjects: A Covenant With Death: The Constitution, Law, and Equality in the Civil War Era (1975), Victims: A True Story of the Civil War (1981), A People’s Contest: The Union and Civil War 1861-1865 (1988), and The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln (1994) and contributed to others in addition to writing numerous articles.

Paludan married his first wife, Marsha Rose McMann, on July 26th, 1963 in Arcadia, California. They had two daughters together, and divorced circa 1984. Paludan met Martine F. Hammond (Marty) shortly after, and they married in 1990.

Paludan died of illness on August 1, 2007.

Extent

9 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Provenance

Transferred to the UIS archives in September 2007 by Marty Paludan.

Property Rights

UIS owns the property rights to this collection.

Processing Information

This collection was reprocessed in March 2025.

Title
Finding Aid to the Phillip Shaw Paludan Papers
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the UIS Archives/Special Collections Repository

Contact:
Archives/Special Collections LIB 144
One University Plaza, MS BRK 140
Springfield IL 62703-5407 US
217-206-6520