GOSNELL, CULLEN BRYANT.
Cullen Bryant Gosnell papers, 1919-1964

Emory University

Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library

Atlanta, GA 30322

404-727-6887

rose.library@emory.edu

Permanent link: http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/8zbnv

Descriptive Summary

Creator: Gosnell, Cullen Bryant.
Title: Cullen Bryant Gosnell papers, 1919-1964
Call Number:Manuscript Collection No. 425
Extent: 4.25 linear feet (9 boxes), 1 oversized papers box (OP), and 7 oversized bound volumes (OBV)
Abstract:Papers of political scientist and educator Cullen Bryant Gosnell including correspondence, literary manuscripts, memoranda, pamphlets and other material relative to Gosnell's professional career.
Language:Materials entirely in English.

Administrative Information

Restrictions on Access

Unrestricted access.

Terms Governing Use and Reproduction

All requests subject to limitations noted in departmental policies on reproduction.

Source

Gift, 1963.

Citation

[after identification of item(s)], Cullen Bryant Gosnell papers, Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University.

Processing

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Collection Description

Biographical Note

Cullen Bryant Gosnell (December 14, 1893 - August 16, 1963), professor of Political Science at Emory, founder and director of Emory's Institute of Citizenship, and an active proponent of governmental reform in Georgia, was born in Spartanburg, S.C, the son of Jesse Holland Gosnell, a farmer, and his wife Corrie (Setzler) Gosnell. Cullen received the A.B. degree from Wofford College (1916), the A.M. from Vanderbilt University (1920), and the Ph.D. from Princeton (1928). During the summer of 1939 he studied at the Academy of International Law at The Hague. His scholastic career was interrupted by a tour of duty in the U. S. Navy, 1918-19, and he was discharged from the U. S. Naval Reserve as a Lieutenant (junior grade) in 1921. Prior to his enlistment in the Navy he had taught in high schools in South Carolina and Florida. Later he taught a year each at Wake Forest College, at Bessie Tift College, and at Furman University, and in 1927 he came to Emory as assistant professor of history and government. He was appointed professor in 1934. While at Furman he had organized the Institute of Politics, and during his first year at Emory he established the Southeastern Citizenship Conference, later called the Institute of Citizenship. This Institute Gosnell directed until his retirement in 1962. It brought laymen from all over the Southeast together with prominent scholars, government officials and newspapermen to discuss public problems, and it engaged in some extension work. Ever active in political reform Gosnell is most noted for his fight against the county unit system and in this cause he and Mrs. R. L. Turman of Atlanta filed an unsuccessful suit in the U. S. courts in 1946. Gosnell was one of the founders of the Southern Political Science Association and served as its president in 1933. In 1944 he was a vice president of the American Political Science Association. He was a member of the Georgia Academy of Social Sciences (pres. 1938-41), Phi Beta Kappa, Omicron Delta Kappa, Pi Sigma Alpha, and the Inquiry Club of Atlanta. He wrote Government and Politics of Georgia (New York: Nelson, 1936), numerous articles, was co-author of six other books: The Constitutions of the Americas with R. H. Fitzgibbon and others (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948); Democracy in America with W. M. Muthard and S.M. Hastings (New York: Nelson, 1940); Fundamentals of American National Government with L. W. Lancaster and R. S. - Rankin (New York McGraw-Hill, 1955); The Government and Administration of Georgia with C. D. Anderson (New York: Crowell, 1956); Readings in American Government with W. B. Stubbs (New York: Scribner, l948); and State and Local Government with L. M. Holland (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1951). Gosnell was a Methodist and a Democrat. His leisure hours he spent gardening, hunting, and working on his farm near Hogansville, Georgia On August 28, 1929, he married Louisa Allen, daughter of William Henry White of Columbus, Georgia and donor of these papers. The couple had no children.

Biographical Source: National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, IV, 649-650; Who's Who in America, XXVII (1952-1953), 944; Who's Who in America, XXXII 1962-1963), 1186; American Men of Science, 9th ed, 111, 753; and Marjorie Duncan, "Retirement of a Reformer," The Emory Alumnus, XXXVIII (July 1962), 16-18, 48-49.

Cullen Bryant Gosnell (December 14, 1893 - August 16, 1963), professor of Political Science at Emory, founder and director of Emory's Institute of Citizenship, and an active proponent of governmental reform in Georgia, was born in Spartanburg, S.C, the son of Jesse Holland Gosnell, a farmer, and his wife Corrie (Setzler) Gosnell. Cullen received the A.B. degree from Wofford College (1916), the A.M. from Vanderbilt University (1920), and the Ph.D. from Princeton (1928). During the summer of 1939 he studied at the Academy of International Law at The Hague. His scholastic career was interrupted by a tour of duty in the U. S. Navy, 1918-19, and he was discharged from the U. S. Naval Reserve as a Lieutenant (junior grade) in 1921. Prior to his enlistment in the Navy he had taught in high schools in South Carolina and Florida. Later he taught a year each at Wake Forest College, at Bessie Tift College, and at Furman University, and in 1927 he came to Emory as assistant professor of history and government. He was appointed professor in 1934. While at Furman he had organized the Institute of Politics, and during his first year at Emory he established the Southeastern Citizenship Conference, later called the Institute of Citizenship. This Institute Gosnell directed until his retirement in 1962. It brought laymen from all over the Southeast together with prominent scholars, government officials and newspapermen to discuss public problems, and it engaged in some extension work. Ever active in political reform Gosnell is most noted for his fight against the county unit system and in this cause he and Mrs. R. L. Turman of Atlanta filed an unsuccessful suit in the U. S. courts in 1946. Gosnell was one of the founders of the Southern Political Science Association and served as its president in 1933. In 1944 he was a vice president of the American Political Science Association. He was a member of the Georgia Academy of Social Sciences (pres. 1938-41), Phi Beta Kappa, Omicron Delta Kappa, Pi Sigma Alpha, and the Inquiry Club of Atlanta. He wrote Government and Politics of Georgia (New York: Nelson, 1936), numerous articles, was co-author of six other books: The Constitutions of the Americas with R. H. Fitzgibbon and others (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948); Democracy in America with W. M. Muthard and S.M. Hastings (New York: Nelson, 1940); Fundamentals of American National Government with L. W. Lancaster and R. S. - Rankin (New York McGraw-Hill, 1955); The Government and Administration of Georgia with C. D. Anderson (New York: Crowell, 1956); Readings in American Government with W. B. Stubbs (New York: Scribner, l948); and State and Local Government with L. M. Holland (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1951). Gosnell was a Methodist and a Democrat. His leisure hours he spent gardening, hunting, and working on his farm near Hogansville, Georgia On August 28, 1929, he married Louisa Allen, daughter of William Henry White of Columbus, Georgia and donor of these papers. The couple had no children.

Biographical Source: National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, IV, 649-650; Who's Who in America, XXVII (1952-1953), 944; Who's Who in America, XXXII 1962-1963), 1186; American Men of Science, 9th ed, 111, 753; and Marjorie Duncan, "Retirement of a Reformer," The Emory Alumnus, XXXVIII (July 1962), 16-18, 48-49.

Scope and Content Note

The collection consists of the papers of Cullen B. Gosness from 1919-1964. It includes correspondence, literary manuscripts, memoranda, pamphlets and other material relative to the professional career of Cullen B. Gosnell. There are approximately 1580 letters, notes, telegrams and interoffice memoranda of which the largest part falls into the period 1949-1963. Much of the material relates to the Institute of Citizenship -- plans, speakers, participants, funding. There is considerable correspondence relative to the publication of his books, particularly Fundamentals of American National Government, to his Wofford College associations, and to the establishment of the Gosnell Book Fund in the Emory University Library. Notable among the correspondents is Herman Talmadge whose record as Governor and Senator Gosnell frequently praised and criticized. Other correspondents include World Court Justice Antonio Sanchez de Bustamente, Dr. Eugene P. Pendergrass of the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Robert S. Rankin of Duke University, Senator Richard B. Russell, and Herbert Waentig of McGraw-Hill Book Co.

Arrangement Note

Organized into four series: (1) General correspondence, (2) Literary materials, (3) Special files and misc. materials, and (4) Scrapbooks and oversized papers.

Finding Aid Note

A detailed correspondence index is also available in repository.

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