Indiana Historical Society - Manuscripts and Archives Department

ROBERT C. FAIRBANKS
PAPERS, 1898-1918

Collection #
M 0101

Table of Contents

Collection Information
Biographical Sketch
Scope and Content Note
Box and Folder Inventory
Cataloging Information

Processed by
Charles Latham
November 1989

COLLECTION INFORMATION

VOLUME OF COLLECTION:

1 manuscript box (.33 c.f.)

COLLECTION DATES:

1898-1918, n.d.

PROVENANCE:

 

RESTRICTIONS:

none

REPRODUCTION RIGHTS:

Permission to reproduce or publish material in this collection must be obtained in writing from the Indiana Historical Society.

ALTERNATE FORMATS:

none

OTHER FINDING AIDS:

none

RELATED HOLDINGS:

M 0100, Charles W. Fairbanks

ACCESSION NUMBER:

 

NOTES:

 

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Robert Fairbanks (c1887-1951) was born in Indianapolis, the youngest son of Vice President and Senator Charles Warren Fairbanks and of Cornelia Cole Fairbanks. He attended Phillips Academy at Andover, Mass., and Yale University. Fairbanks spent most of his life in California, apparently in ill health, but returned to Indianapolis in 1946 to make his home with his sister, Adelaide Fairbanks Causey.

Fairbanks's brother, Richard M. Fairbanks (1883-1944), also attended Andover and Yale. He was an infantry captain in World War I, and was active in the Indianapolis News. His first wife was Louise Hibben (d. 1913), his second Robertine Buchanan.

SCOPE AND CONTENT

This collection, covering the years 1898-1918, consists mainly of correspondence from the period of Robert Fairbanks's youth. It is arranged chronologically.

Most of the letters are addressed to Fairbanks. In his family, his principal correspondents were his sister Adelaide and his brother Richard, who as a student at Yale gave Robert considerable advice on how to get along with the "fellows" at Andover. There are also some letters from Robert's parents.

Outside the family, the principal correspondents are two unidentified girls: "Lilian," who wrote voluminously while studying and traveling in France in 1904-1905, and "Connie," studying in 1905-1906 at a school in Grand Haven, Michigan. Both girls are full of advice for Robert.

Correspondence from 1907 to 1918 mainly concerns Robert's brother Richard M. Fairbanks, as he lives in Reno and then prepares a home for his first wife, Louise Hibben, on Illinois Street just behind his father's new home at 30th and Meridian Streets.

Robert seems to have had a literary bent, and fragments of his writings are gathered in Folder 18.

BOX AND FOLDER LIST

Box 1: CORRESPONDENCE AND MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS, 1898-1918, n.d.
 Robert Fairbanks

Folder Contents

1

1898

2

August - September 1902

3

October 1902

4

November - December 1902

5

January - March 1903

6

April - June 1903

7

July - December 1903

8

1904

9

1905

10

1906

11

1907

12

1908

13

n.d. from sister, Adelaide

14

n.d. from R. M. Fairbanks

15

n.d. from Lilian

16

n.d. from Bonnie Spink

17

n.d. from various

18

n.d. miscellaneous papers

Richard M. Fairbanks

19

1908 - 1911

20

1912 - 1914

21

1914 - 1918

22

n.d.

23

cancelled checks

24

Fairbanks clippings

 

CATALOGING INFORMATION

For additional information on this collection, including a list of subject headings that may lead you to related materials:

  1. Go to the Indiana Historical Society's online catalog
  2. Click on the "Local Catalog" icon.
  3. Search for the collection by its call number, using the letter or letters designation and four digits (e.g., M 0715, SC 2234).
  4. When you find the collection, go to the "Holdings" screen for a list of headings that can be searched for related materials.

END