Crane Family Papers

CRANE FAMILY PAPERS

1875-1980

Finding Aid Prepared by Tanya Chebotarev

Date Range: 1877-1986

Size of Collection: 13 linear feet (ca.12, 000 items in 26 boxes)

Date of Acquisition: Gift of Sylvia E. Crane, 2000

Terms of Access: Available for faculty, students, and researchers engaged in scholarly publication projects.

Restrictions on Use and Access: Permission to publish materials must be obtained in writing from Professor Richard Wortman, Chair of the Bakhmeteff Committee

Location in Stacks: In sequence, box 15 in the vault

Processing Information: Processed by Tanya Chebotarev and Katya Shraga

RLIN ID:

BIOGRAPHY

Charles Richard Crane was born in Chicago in 1858 and worked at the family firm of Crane Company, one of the largest manufacturers of plumbing and related supplies in the world. He was the company's vice-president from 1894 until 1912 when, on his father’s death, he became its president. Two years later Crane sold most of his holdings to his brother Richard Teller Crane, Jr. The sale allowed him to pursue interests that were closer to his heart: a passion for travel, especially to remote and exotic places, philanthropic activities, and public service– from donating money to individuals and organizations to the erection of the only steel truss highway bridge in Saudi Arabia.

Charles R. Crane made his first trans-Atlantic crossing at the age of 19 and didn’t stop traveling until he was in his late seventies. Asia cast her spell upon him as a young man and he lived in Bokhara and Samarkand, eating the native food and making friends with everyone. Later he developed a strong interest in Slavic people and their culture, in the Balkans and various regions of the Ottoman Empire. Other areas of the Near East and later of Asia were also on his regular itinerary.

In 1909 he was appointed United State Minister to China, but Secretary of State Philander C. Knox forced his resignation prior to Crane's departure to China, creating a diplomatic cause célèbre. This episode severed any links Crane might have had with the administration of President William Howard Taft. On the other hand, it solidified his participation in the progressivism of Robert Marion LaFollette, and later of Woodrow Wilson under whose presidency he eventually served as Minister to China.

After the February 1917 Revolution in Russia, Crane agreed to serve on a special mission to Russia, headed by Elihu Root. The members of the Root Mission voiced, upon their return, a feeling that the Kerensky regime would prevail. There was one exception – Charles Richard Crane, who knew Russia better than the others.

In September 1918 Crane served on another fact-finding mission for the President: a trip to Asia that would include Japan, Korea, Manchuria and China. During this mission he was an eyewitness to some of the side effects of the civil war raging in Russian Siberia. He spent some time, in an unofficial capacity, at the Peace Conference in Paris before being appointed on April 30, 1919, as one of the two American commissioners on mandates to Turkey (later to be known as the King-Crane Commission).

He is remembered not only as the father of oil (chiefly because of his part in the King-Crane Commission investigation and report), but also as a godfather of an independent Czechoslovak state and a great contributor to the public welfare in all parts of the world. Charles Richard Crane died in 1939.

SCOPE AND CONTENT

The Papers of Charles Richard Crane (1858-1939) and his son John Oliver Crane (1899-1982) came to the Bakhmeteff Archive in two installments. In 1953 Crane’s son John deposited photocopies of a portion of his father’s archive with the Russian Archive at Columbia University, and in 2000 John’s wife, Sylvia E. Crane, donated all the original Charles Richard Crane materials as well as her late husband papers to the Bakhmeteff Archive.

The career, philanthropic, political, and personal aspects of Charles Richard Crane's life were closely intertwined. Among the correspondence of significance in the papers are letters to and from James Francis Abbott, Kathryn Newell Adams, Jane Addams, Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby, Edvard Benes, Boris III, King of Bulgaria, Louis Dembitz Brandeis, Nicholas Murray Butler, Frances F. Cleveland, Grover Cleveland, Archibald Gary Coolidge, Calvin Coolidge, John Dewey, Charles William Elliot, Hamlin Garland, William Rainey Harper, Jean-Jules Jusserand, William Lyon Mackenzie King, Alexander Kuprin, Robert Marion LaFollette, Seth Low, William Gibbs McAdoo, Jan Masaryk, Tomas Masaryk, Pavel Miliukov, John Pierpont Morgan, Alphonse Maria Mucha, Fridtjof Nansen, George Haven Putnam, John Davison Rockefeller Jr., Theodore Roosevelt, Upton Beall Sinclair, William Howard Taft, Lillian D. Wald, Herbert George Wells, Edith B. Wilson, Woodrow Wilson and other.

Crane's youngest son John Oliver Crane shared many of his father's interests. He was a historian and diplomat and for many years served as research and press secretary to the founding President of Czechoslovakia, Tomas G. Masaryk. Between the middle of June and early August 1921 he accompanied his father on his trips through Siberia and then European Russia. In 1930 he was entrusted in the management of the Institute of Current World Affairs, which was founded in 1926 but not endowed until 1930, when Charles Richard Crane transferred $1 million from his Friendship Fund.

The John O. Crane Papers include extensive correspondence with his father, letters from his brother Richard and original letters from Jan Masaryk, Alice Masaryk, Alexandra Tolstoy, Princess Sophie Troubetzkoy, Vladimir Tsanoff, K.S. Twitchell, F. Lloyd Black, Marie Tsanoff Stephanove, Joseph E. Davies, Laurence Moore, Bertram Thomas, Arthur Thorsen, John Gunther, Norman Hapgood, William E. Dodd, Alexander Pilenko, Richard F. Cleveland, Charles B. Nolte and others.

Manuscript and typed versions of John Crane's diaries for 1920 and 1921, especially his "Siberia Diary - 1921" (with 60 mounted original photographs) represent an invaluable source for the study of Russia in that turbulent period of its history. Another journey to Iraq and the Persian Gulf in 1921 with his father is detailed in typed copies of letters that John O. Crane had written to Walter S. Rodgers.

There is a considerable amount of material dealing with Czechoslovakia (notes on interviews with Benes, clippings and notes on Tomas, Jan and Alice Masaryk, and on Edvard Benes visit to the United States in 1943). Present also is material on activities of the American-Soviet Council (1943-1945) and of the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship, Inc. (1946-1948).

The Papers are organized in four series:

I.  Charles Richard Crane Correspondence

II.  Charles Richard Crane Professional and Research Activities

III.  Photographs

IV.  John O. Crane Papers

The series are further divided into several subseries.

BOX LIST

SERIES I: CHARLES RICHARD CRANE CORRESPONDENCE

Subseries 1: Incoming correspondence

Folder 1 Smith, Cornelia W., 18 June 1877

Jewell, J. S., 30 November 1881

Bayard, T. F., to the Diplomatic and Consular Officers of the U.S., 7 July 1887

Smith, Esther, 4 July 1888

Ryerson, Martin, 1 September 1888

Crane, Mary, 9 September 1888

Ryerson, Martin, 15 September 1888

Smith, Esther, 24 December 1888

List of Antiquities (purchased by CRC), [1889]

Page, Mildred Nelson, 5 January 1889

McCrea, Will S., 12 March 1889

Page, Mildred Nelson, 17 April 1889

Cory, Charles, 21 April 1889

Cory, Charles, 27 April 1889

Cory, Charles, 27 May 1889

Folder 2 Smith, Harry P., 18/30 June 1889

Smith, Esther, 14 August 1889

Smith, Esther, 3 December 1889

McCrea, Will S., 23 December 1889

Page, Mildred Nelson, 8 January 1890

Smith, Esther, 22 January 1890

Collier, Frank H., 5 February 1890

Ryerson, Martin, 9 February 1890

Crane, R.F., Financial receipt, 19 March 1890

Fitch, Emily, 18 April 1890

Wells, Will, 23 April 1890

Ryerson, Martin, 19 May 1890

Folder 3 Baldwin, W.D., 19 June 1890

Page, Mildred Nelson, 12 July 1890

Worthington, Henry, 15 July 1890

Ryerson, Martin, 29 July 1890

Ryerson, Martin, 12 August 1890

Cory, Charles, 13 August 1890

Smith, W. E., 18 August 1890

Cory, Charles, 23 August 1890

Page, Mildred Nelson, 13 October 1890

Diehl, Charles S., 25 November 1890

Allen, Mrs. Mary <?>, 9 December 1890

Diehl, Charles S., 17 December 1890

Page, Mildred Nelson, 30 December 1890

Folder 4 Blaine, James G., to the Diplomatic and Consular Officers of the United States, 24 February 1891

Smith, Thomas, 24 February 1891

McCrea, Will, 5 March 1891

Smith, Thomas, 5/17 March 1891

Page, Mildred Nelson, 8 March 1891

Smith, Thomas, 12/24 March 1891

Smith, Thomas, 15/27 March 1891

Smith, Thomas, 21 March 1891

McCrea, Will, 27 March 1891

Wurts, George W., Secretary of the Legation of the U.S. in Russia, 8 April 1891

Folder 5 Ryerson, Martin, 10 April 1891

Forman, George, 12 April 1891

McCrea, Will, 5 May 1891 with related newspaper clipping

Smith, Thomas, 16 May 1891

Hutchinson, Emma S., 17 June 1891

McCrea, Will, 26 June 1891

Penkassoff, Nissim, 9/21 July 1891

Phelps, G. B., 12 July 1891

Cory, Charles B., Poem, "How Mullens Won to the Game", 1891

Page, Mildred Nelson, 22 July 1891

Cory, Charles, 27 July 1891

Folder 6 Walsh, 28 July 1891

Schulz, W., 4 August 1891

Coleman, Annie N., 8 August 1891

Smith, Thomas, 12 August 1891

Bancroft, H. H., 1 September 1891

Worthington, C. C., 5 October 1891

Smith, Thomas, 5 October 1891

Leroy-Beaulieu, A., 27 October 1891

Bancroft, Matilda G., 9 December 1891

Bancroft, H. H., 15 December 1891

Folder 7 Smith, Thomas, 21 January 1892

Cory, Charles, 6 February 1892

Cory, Charles, 25 June 1892

Ives, Bessie Hunt (Mrs. Charles A.), 11 July 1892 with related newspaper clipping

Strong, Henry Gordon, 17 July 1892

Ryerson, Martin, 3 August 1892

Cory, Charles, 8 August 1892

Smith, W. E., 19 August 1892

Forman, George, 12 September 1892

Ives, Bessie Hunt, (Mrs. Charles A.), 19 September 1892

Folder 8 Gabaev-Gigo, Georgii, 5 October 1892

Smith, Thomas, 10/22 October 1892

Coolidge, Archibald Cary, 22 October 1892

Page, Mildred Nelson, 27 October 1892

Leroy-Beaulieu, A., 27 October 1892

Smith, Thomas, 4/16 November 1892

Smith, Thomas, 29 November 1892

Smith, Thomas, 30 November 1892

Smith, Thomas, 6/18 December 1892

Coolidge, Archibald Cary, 24 December 1892

Lineff, Eugenie, 31 December 1892

Folder 9 Lineff, Eugenie, 5 January 1893, includes text o newspaper clippings, The New York Times, 13 and 22 Dec. 1892, re: Mme. Lineff's choir

Smith, Thomas, 9/21 January 1893

Coolidge, Archibald Cary, 12 January 1893

Schulz, W., 25 January 1893

Smith, Thomas, 7/19 February 1893

Lessar, P., 9 February 1893

Ragozin, L., 15 February 1893

Cary, Edward, 1 March 1893

Semenov-Tian-Shanski, Count Pierre, 5/17 March 1893

Coolidge, Archibald Cary, 8 March 1893

Folder 10 Smith, Thomas, Letter of introduction for Count James Rostovtsev, 1893

Smith, Thomas, 15 March 1893

Cary, Edward, 15 March 1893

Cary, Edward, 1 April 1893

Worthington, C.C., 3 April 1893

Semenov-Tian-Shanski, Count Pierre, 2/14 April 1893

Cory, Charles, 3 May 1893

Lineff, Eugenie, 25 May 1893

Hutchinson, Emma S., 1 June 1893

Coolidge, Archibald Cary, 5 June 1893

Coolidge, Archibald Cary, 18 June 1893

Folder 11 Lineff, A., 16 June 1893

Lineff, A., 19 June 1893

Sharples, Jas. F., on behalf of Grand Duke Alexander, 1 July 1893

Kidder, Anne-Mary M., 1 July 1893

Semenov-Tian-Shanski, Count Pierre, 16/28 July 1893

Catlin, W.W., 12 August 1893

Coleman, Frances to Cornelia Crane, 17 August 1893

Lineff, A., 11 September 1893

Coolidge, Archibald Cary, 4 October 1893

Folder 12 Smith, Harry P., 9/21 October 1893

Hutchinson, Charles L., 16 October 1893

Strong, Henry Gordon, 20 October 1893

Page, Mildred Nelson, 23 October 1893

Kidder, Anne-Mary M., 6 November 1893

Lineff, A., 9 November 1893

Cory, Charles B., 12 November 1893

Cory, Charles B., no date

Putnam, Herbert, G.N., 13 January 1894

Cory, Charles B., 18 January 1894

Cory, Charles B., 21 January 1894

Folder 13 Rostovtsev, Count James, letter or introduction for Gregory Gurevitch, 14 February 1894

Grunwaldt, C., 21 March 1894

Rostovtsev, Count James, 21 March 1894

Rostovtsev, Count James, 21 March/2 April 1894

Coolidge, Archibald Cary, 27 March 1894

Smith, Will E., 30 April 1894

Ryerson, Martin, 4 May 1894

[Murphy], John, 17 May 1894

McCrea, Will, 24 May 1894

Smith, Harry P., 22 May/3 June 1894

Folder 14 Cottlow, Selina O., 28 June 1894

Bregovski, Felicia, 6 September 1894

Smith, Thomas, 27 September 1894

Wadhoomal, Thakur and Hindu, Sarah Kalan, October-November 1894

Smith, Esther (Mrs. William), 15/27 November 1894

Rostovtsev, Count Nicholas, 20 November 1894

Cary, Edward, 2 December 1894

Argoutinsky-Dolgorukov, Vladimir, 3 December 1894

Putnam, Herbert, G.H., 19 December 1894

Smith, Thomas, 26 November 1894

Ives, Bessie Hunt (Mrs. Charles A.), 28 December 1894

Crane, Richard, no date, 2 letters

Folder 14a CRC Letters of introduction

Novikoff, Andrei, 9 May 1894 (Yaroslavl’)

Barshchevsky, 9 May 1894 (Yaroslavl’)

Orekhoff, Pavel, 9 May 1894 (Astrakhan’)

Mamontoff, Savva, no date (Moscow)

Russkoe Geograficheskoe Obshchestvo, 6 March 1891 (5 letters)

W.R. Morfill, esq. (no date)

Unidentified, 9 February, 1894 (2 letters)

Emery, E., 18 May 1894.

Folder 15 Ives, Bessie Hunt (Mrs. Charles A.), 20 January 1895

Crane, R.T., 26 January 1895

Rostovtsev, Countess T., 7/19 February 1895

Argoutinsky-Dolgorukov, Prince Nicholas, 8/20 February 1895

Smith, Thomas, 13 February 1895

Rostovtsev, James, 28 February 1895

Cottlow, Selina O., 9 March 1895

Kidder, Anne-Mary M., 13 March 1895

Van Emburgh, Helen 14 March 1895

Ragozin, Zinaide A., 23 March 1895, includes leaflet on her lecture in NYC

Folder 16 Rostovtsev, Count Nicholas, 24 May 1895

Rostovtsev, Count Nicholas, 8 July 1895

Kidder, Anne-Mary M., 12 July 1895

Putnam, Herbert, G.H., 30 July 1895

Adams, Florence James, 13 August 1895

Grunwaldt, C., 4 November 1895

Murray, Anna, [1896]

Rostovtsev, Count Nicholas, 27 January 1896

Ryerson, Martin, 12 February 1896

Ryerson, Martin, 1 March 1896

Folder 17 Ives, Bessie Hunt (Mrs. Charles A.), 14 February 1896

Coolidge, Archibald Cary, 7 April 1896, includes text of news clipping re: appointment of Professor Wiener to teach Russian at Harvard

Kidder, Anne-Mary M., 27 April 1896, with pasted newspaper clipping

Argoutinsky-Dolgorukov, Vladimir, 16 June 1896