Frank Alfred Golder (August 11, 1877 – January 7, 1929) was an American
historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...
and
archivist
An archivist is an information professional who assesses, collects, organizes, preserves, maintains control over, and provides access to Document, records and archives determined to have long-term value. The records maintained by an archivist c ...
specializing in the history of
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
. Golder is best remembered for his work in the early 1920s building the seminal collection of Slavic language materials residing today at the
Hoover Institution Library and Archives
The Hoover Institution Library and Archives is a research center and archival repository located at Stanford University, near Palo Alto, California in the United States. Built around a collection amassed by Stanford graduate Herbert Hoover prio ...
at
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
in
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
.
Biography
Early years
Golder was born August 11, 1877, near
Odessa
Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...
,
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
, then part of the
Russian empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
.
[Terence Emmons and Bertrand M. Patenaude (eds.), "Introduction" to ''War, Revolution, and Peace in Russia: The Passages of Frank Golder, 1914-1927.'' Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1992; pg. xi.] His family, who were ethnic
Jews
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
, emigrated to the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
during Golder's early boyhood years, probably in the immediate aftermath of the
Odessa Pogrom of 1881.
Golder was not a native speaker of either
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
or
Ukrainian
Ukrainian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Ukraine
* Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe
* Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine
* So ...
but is believed to have rather first spoken
Yiddish
Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...
before he learned English in America as a youth.
The Golder family established a home in
Bridgeton, New Jersey
Bridgeton is a city in Cumberland County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is the county seat of Cumberland County[peddler
A peddler, in British English pedlar, also known as a chapman, packman, cheapjack, hawker, higler, huckster, (coster)monger, colporteur or solicitor, is a door-to-door and/or travelling vendor of goods.
In England, the term was mostly used fo ...]
of small knickknacks.
It was in this way that he was befriended by a
Baptist
Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...
clergyman, who helped the boy escape life on the streets and to gain a first-rate education, including a stint at
Georgetown College
Georgetown College is a private Christian college in Georgetown, Kentucky. Chartered in 1829, Georgetown was the first Baptist college west of the Appalachian Mountains.
The college offers 38 undergraduate degrees and a Master of Arts in educat ...
, a
preparatory school in
Kentucky
Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...
.
[Emmons and Patenaude (eds.), "Introduction" to ''War, Revolution, and Peace in Russia,'' pp. xi-xii.]
Golder subsequently converted to
Unitarianism
Unitarianism (from Latin ''unitas'' "unity, oneness", from ''unus'' "one") is a nontrinitarian branch of Christian theology. Most other branches of Christianity and the major Churches accept the doctrine of the Trinity which states that there i ...
, a theological departure which caused a strain between him and his parents, who remained adherents of
Judaism
Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...
.
Upon completion of prep school, Golder enrolled in
Bucknell University
Bucknell University is a private liberal arts college in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1846 as the University at Lewisburg, it now consists of the College of Arts and Sciences, Freeman College of Management, and the College of Engineering. ...
in
Lewisburg, Pennsylvania
Lewisburg is a borough in Union County, Pennsylvania, United States, south by southeast of Williamsport and north of Harrisburg. In the past, it was the commercial center for a fertile grain and general farming region. The population was 5,1 ...
, a liberal arts college from which he graduated with a
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...
in 1898, having completed the requisite two-year program.
[Emmons and Patenaude (eds.), "Introduction" to ''War, Revolution, and Peace in Russia,'' pg. xii.]
Following graduation Golder moved to
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
, to which his parents had recently located.
[Alain Dubie, ''Frank A. Golder: An Adventure of a Historian in Quest of Russian History.'' Boulder, CO: East European Monographs, 1989; pg. 2.] Although he had sufficient academic qualification to teach school in the city, Golder did not find life in Philadelphia to his liking, so in July 1899 he applied through the
U.S. Department of the Interior
The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the mana ...
for a teaching position in
Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...
.
Golder was accepted for a position and in August of that same year he boarded a train to begin the 5,000-mile trek to a remote settlement
Unga Island
Unga Island (Uĝnaasaqax̂ in Aleut) is the largest of the Shumagin Islands off the Alaska Peninsula in southwestern Alaska, United States. The island has a land area of 170.73 sq mi (442.188 km2), making it the 36th largest island in the U ...
to teach the native
Aleuts
The Aleuts ( ; russian: Алеуты, Aleuty) are the indigenous people of the Aleutian Islands, which are located between the North Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea. Both the Aleut people and the islands are politically divided between the U ...
in a public school established there.
Golder remained at Unga Island until 1902.
The experience helped foster in Golder a lifelong interest in the
history of Alaska
The history of Alaska dates back to the Upper Paleolithic period (around 14,000 BC), when foraging groups crossed the Bering land bridge into what is now western Alaska. At the time of European contact by the Russian explorers, the area was pop ...
and would also be the source of material for his first book, a collection of
folklore
Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...
entitled ''Tales from Kodiak Island.''
Golder left Alaska to enroll at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
, from which he received a second bachelor's degree in 1903
[ ] before beginning
doctoral studies
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...
in history at that same institution.
In the course of his graduate work Golder traveled to
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
and
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
, where he developed an affinity for the history of Russia, an area of specialization that was infrequently taught in the United States. Golder combined his interests in Alaska and the Russian Empire in his dissertation work, which related to the Russian Empire's expansion in the Pacific. Golder received his
Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
from Harvard in 1909 and his dissertation was published in book form in 1914, bearing the title ''Russian Expansion on the Pacific, 1641-1850.''
Academic career
Following the defense of his dissertation, Golder worked at two brief college teaching jobs as an instructor at
Boston University
Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...
and the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
in 1909 and 1910.
That led to a tenure-track appointment as assistant professor in the Department of Economics and History at
Washington State College
Washington State University (Washington State, WSU, or informally Wazzu) is a public land-grant research university with its flagship, and oldest, campus in Pullman, Washington. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest land-grant univer ...
, located in the small Eastern Washington town of
Pullman.
Golder remained there for a decade, albeit marked by long absences, gaining the academic rank of professor during that interval.
Golder sought to conduct research in Russia to compile a bibliography of historical works in libraries and archives there. To this end, Golder made the acquaintance of historian
J. Franklin Jameson
John Franklin Jameson (September 19, 1859 – September 28, 1937) was an American historian, author, and journal editor who played a major role in the professional activities of American historians in the early 20th century. He helped establish t ...
of the
Carnegie Institution
The Carnegie Institution of Washington (the organization's legal name), known also for public purposes as the Carnegie Institution for Science (CIS), is an organization in the United States established to fund and perform scientific research. Th ...
, who agreed to send Golder there on such a research mission.
[Emmons and Patenaude (eds.), "Introduction" to ''War, Revolution, and Peace in Russia,'' pg. xiii.]
Golder arrived in
St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
in February 1914 and remained there until November, an interval which placed him at ground zero to witness firsthand the declaration of
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
that summer.
[Emmons and Patenaude (eds.), "Introduction" to ''War, Revolution, and Peace in Russia,'' pg. xiv.] Despite the massive distraction and the wartime disorganization of Russian society, Golder nevertheless managed to complete his research mission, producing a bibliographic guide which eventually saw print in 1917 as ''Guide to Materials for American History in Russian Archives.''
Golder also managed to turn some of the historical knowledge which he gained in the process into articles in several of the leading academic journals of the day, helping cement his reputation as an expert in 18th and 19th Century Russian diplomatic history.
Coincidentally, Golder would again find himself at the center of the world-historical tornado during his second research trip to Russia, conducted in 1917. This time, Golder traveled on behalf of the
American Geographic Society
The American Geographical Society (AGS) is an organization of professional geographers, founded in 1851 in New York City. Most fellows of the society are United States, Americans, but among them have always been a significant number of fellows f ...
, which commissioned him to translate and edit the journals of Danish explorer
Vitus Bering
Vitus Jonassen Bering (baptised 5 August 1681 – 19 December 1741),All dates are here given in the Julian calendar, which was in use throughout Russia at the time. also known as Ivan Ivanovich Bering, was a Danish cartographer and explorer in ...
for publication.
[Emmons and Patenaude (eds.), "Introduction" to ''War, Revolution, and Peace in Russia,'' pg. xv.] Golder arrived to peruse the Bering papers in Petrograd (the past and future St. Petersburg) on March 4, 1917 — mere days before the eruption of the
February Revolution
The February Revolution ( rus, Февра́льская револю́ция, r=Fevral'skaya revolyutsiya, p=fʲɪvˈralʲskəjə rʲɪvɐˈlʲutsɨjə), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and somet ...
which would rapidly bring an end to the
Romanov dynasty
The House of Romanov (also transcribed Romanoff; rus, Романовы, Románovy, rɐˈmanəvɨ) was the reigning imperial house of Russia from 1613 to 1917. They achieved prominence after the Tsarina, Anastasia Romanova, was married to ...
and usher in the rise of a short-lived
constitutional democracy
Liberal democracy is the combination of a liberal political ideology that operates under an indirect democratic form of government. It is characterized by elections between multiple distinct political parties, a separation of powers into di ...
.
Golder once more somehow managed to stick to the academic task at hand despite chaos during his 1917 research visit, and the two volumes of ''Bering's Voyages'' would appear in print in 1922 and 1925.
Golder's Russian experiences made him a valuable asset to the administration of President
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...
, and he was named to a committee of experts assembled late in 1917 to compile background information for a forthcoming peace conference.
[Emmons and Patenaude (eds.), "Introduction" to ''War, Revolution, and Peace in Russia,'' pg. xvii.] The committee, known as "
The Inquiry
The Inquiry was a study group established in September 1917 by Woodrow Wilson to prepare materials for the peace negotiations following World War I. The group, composed of around 150 academics, was directed by the presidential adviser Edward Hou ...
" and headed by Wilson's close personal advisor Colonel
Edward M. House
Edward Mandell House (July 26, 1858 – March 28, 1938) was an American diplomat, and an adviser to President Woodrow Wilson. He was known as Colonel House, although his rank was honorary and he had performed no military service. He was a highl ...
, would remain active for two years, and Golder authored reports on Ukraine,
Lithuania
Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...
,
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
, and two regions of Russia.
Since Golder was not selected to travel to Europe as an expert at the
Paris Peace Conference, upon completion of the committee's activities he returned to Pullman to resume teaching at Washington State.
Hoover Library curator
The year 1920 found Frank Golder teaching summer classes at
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
, near
Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto (; Spanish language, Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree kno ...
.
That put the Russian expert Golder in the right place at the right time, as American Food Administrator and confirmed bibliophile
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...
had decided to transfer the mass of documents he had gathered during the wartime years to Stanford, his alma mater, as an archival collection.
Golder was quickly hired as curator of the Hoover War History Collection, a group of materials which formed the initial basis for the collection of the
Hoover Institution and Archives on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University.
Golder departed for
Soviet Russia
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...
on his first collecting trip in August 1920, an adventure that lasted three years and which resulted in the building of one of the seminal collections of Slavic books, posters, magazines, and government documents.
Great masses of material, some unique and ephemeral, were gathered by Golder from various locations throughout Europe, crated, and shipped back for archival storage in California.
Death and legacy
Frank Golder died in 1929.
He never married but was survived by his younger brother
Benjamin M. Golder, who sat as a
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
Congressman
A Member of Congress (MOC) is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The term member of parliament (MP) is an equivalen ...
from
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
at the time of his death.
The main accumulation of Golder's papers are housed at the
Hoover Institution Library and Archives
The Hoover Institution Library and Archives is a research center and archival repository located at Stanford University, near Palo Alto, California in the United States. Built around a collection amassed by Stanford graduate Herbert Hoover prio ...
at Stanford University in 43 archival boxes, including diaries which were extracted by historians
Terence Emmons and
Bertrand M. Patenaude for the publication of a book in 1992 entitled ''War, Revolution, and Peace in Russia: The Passages of Frank Golder, 1914-1927.'' A second smaller collection is housed at
Green Library
The Cecil H. Green Library (commonly known as Green Library) is the main library on the Stanford University campus and is part of the SUL system. It is named for Cecil H. Green.
Green Library houses 4 million volumes, most of which are relate ...
on the Stanford campus.
"Guide to the Frank Alfred Golder Papers, 1858-1927,"
Online Archive of California, Board of Trustees of Stanford University, 1998.
Footnotes
Works
* ''Tales from Kodiak Island.'' Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1903.
* ''Russian Expansion on the Pacific, 1641–1850.'' Cleveland, OH: Arthur H. Clark Co., 1914.
* "Catherine II and the American Revolution," ''American Historical Review,'' vol. 21, no. 1 (1915), pp. 92–96.
* ''Guide to Materials for American History in Russian Archives.'' New York: Carnegie Institution, 1917.
* ''Bering's Voyages: An Account of the Efforts of the Russians to Determine the Relation of Asia and America.'' In two volumes, with Leonhard Stejneger. New York: American Geographical Society, 1922–1925.
* ''Documents of Russian history, 1914–1917.'' (Editor.) Gloucester, MA: Smith, 1927.
* ''The March of the Mormon battalion from Council Bluffs to California: Taken from the Journal of Henry Standage.'' New York: The Century Co., 1928.
Further reading
* Alain Dubie, ''Frank A. Golder: An Adventure of a Historian in Quest of Russian History.'' Boulder, CO: East European Monographs, 1989.
* Harold H. Fisher, "Frank Alfred Golder, 1877–1929," ''Journal of Modern History,'' vol. 1, no. 2 (June 1929), pp. 253–255.
* Lincoln Hutchinson, "Frank A. Golder," ''ARA Association Review,'' vol. 4, no. 1 (February 1929), pg. 49.
* Ralph Haswell Lutz, "Professor Frank Alfred Golder," ''Stanford Illustrated Review,'' February 1929, pp. 249–250.
*Голдер Фрэнк Алфред // ''Иванян Э. А.'' Энциклопедия российско-американских отношений. XVIII-XX века. — Москва: Международные отношения, 2001. — 696 с. — .
External links
*
*
*
Frank Alfred Golder Papers
at th
Hoover Institution Archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Golder, Frank Alfred
1877 births
1929 deaths
American archivists
American male non-fiction writers
Bucknell University alumni
Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States
Harvard University alumni
Historians of Russia
Jewish American historians
Odesa Jews
Stanford University people
Unitarian Universalists
American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent