Dean C. Worcester Papers 1834-1915

 
Portrait of young Dean WorcesterDean Conant Worcester (1866-1924) was born on the first of October, in Thetford Vermont. He was the youngest of nine children and in his youth took a particular interest in the local countryside surrounding his home in Vermont, collecting bird’s nests, eggs and even birds themselves. In 1884 Worcester entered the University of Michigan’s Department of Literature, Science and the Art, majoring in zoology, graduating with an A.B. in 1889. In 1886 Worcester’s second year at the University of Michigan, Joseph B. Steere, a professor in the zoology department announced an expedition to the Philippines for the purposes of continuing his scientific work. Serving as a student assistant on Steere’s expedition Worcester made his first trip to the Philippines, at the age of 21. It was through this first expedition that Worcester’s gained valuable experience in the Philippines. While Worcester’s later introduction to President McKinley by another professor, Burrill Angell, lead to Worcester’s appointment to the Philippine commission.
 
In 1914 Worcester donated his extensive collection of Philippine books and manuscripts to his alma mater, the University of Michigan. Since Worcester’s initial donation the Philippines collection has grown to include over seventeen hundred printed and manuscript items as well as photographs documenting many aspects of Philippine history, with particular emphasis on the period between 1899 and 1913, when Worcester served as a member of the United States Philippine Commission and as secretary of the interior for the Insular Government of the Philippine Islands.
 
 
 
 
Click on image to see an enlarged version
Opium Letter Opium Letter
 Papers relative to the smuggling of opium into the Philippine Islands
 
Contents
5 boxes consisting of manuscripts and typewritten correspondence, articles, reports, primarily documenting Worcester’s activities as a member of the U.S. Philippines Commission and Secretary of the Interior of the Philippines, 1899-1913.

 

The 5 archival boxes are organized into 21 volumes of paper documents, which have been arranged as follows.

 

  • [v. 1] Agriculture, commerce, finance, history, languages, law, ethnology.
  • [v. 2] Slavery and peonage. Correspondence, newspaper comments, special committee reports.
  • [v. 3] Medicine, science, political and social economy, exhibition of Igorots, education.
  • [v. 4] American occupation, independence.
  • [v. 5-6] Filipinization and its results.
  • [v. 7] Voting in the Philippines.
  • [v. 8, pt. 1] Insurrection. [pt. 2] Treaty of Biacnabató.
  • [v. 9] Jones bill.
  • [v. 10] Jones bill and comment.
  • [v. 11] Philippine commission, Legislature, and government bureaus.
  • [v. 12] Memorandum of special appropriation acts, 1908-1915.
  • [v. 13] Memorandum...relative to a proposed fusion of the Bureau of forestry with the Bureau of lands.
  • [v. 14] Public health documents.
  • [v. 15] Public works, special government provinces.
  • [v. 16] Personal letters.
  • [v. 17] Miscellaneous documents. August 1898, to April, 1899.
  • [v. 18] Personal letters and clippings.
  • [v. 19] Translations from Filipino press.
  • [v. 20] General hospital, Manila railroad co.
  • [v. 21, pt. 1-2] Personal records of officials.

 

Related collections and useful links:
 

Page created by Sarah Wingo
UM School of Information MSI candidate

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Last modified: 09/30/2020