Anthropologist, historian, and folklorist Paul A.W. Wallace (1894-1967) drew national recognition in the 1940s and 1950s for his pioneering work on eighteenth century Indian-white relations. A contemporary and colleague of Alfred Irving Hallowell, Wallace bridged the generations of Frank G. Speck and William N. Fenton and counted among his colleagues some of the 20th century's most renowned ethnologists and historians.

An English professor at Lebanon Valley College in Pennsylvania, where he eventually became chair and spent most of his career, Wallace's interests in folklore and ethnology developed into studies of the Pennsylvania Dutch and the Indians of Pennsylvania, New York State, and Canada. The Toronto-born Wallace shared Speck's dedication to and concern for the Indians, whom he considered friends as well as ethnographic subjects. Through his extensive ethnographic fieldwork among the Iroquois and Huron tribes at the Six Nations Reserve in Brantford, Ontario and in other communities in Canada and Western New York state, Wallace forged bonds of friendship with many Indians.

One of these friendships led to Wallace's adoption by the Mohawk nation. Shortly after the publication of White Roots of Peace (Philadelphia, 1946), Ray Fadden (Aren Akweks) wrote to Wallace on behalf of the Akwesasne Mohawk Counselor Organization and expressed his appreciation of the book, which he felt created "respect for the Indian, not only in the white readers but also among the Indian people." Over the next three years, Wallace and Fadden maintained a steady and increasingly friendly correspondence. When the Mohawks adopted Wallace into their nation on July 15, 1949, giving him the name Tor-ri-wa-wa-kon ("holding a message."), Fadden's wife Christine (Ska-won-ate) served as Wallace's sponsor. Wallace and Fadden's friendship lasted over twenty years until Wallace's death in 1967.

Through works such as Conrad Weiser, 1696-1760, Friend of Colonist and Mohawk (Philadelphia, 1945); The White Roots of Peace; The Muhlenbergs of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1950); Indian Paths of Pennsylvania (Harrisburg, 1952 and subsequent editions); Thirty Thousand Miles with John Heckewelder (Pittsburgh, 1958); and Indians in Pennsylvania (Harrisburg, 1961), Wallace achieved national recognition in his second career as an historian. He served as editor of Pennsylvania History and as consultant to the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) from 1951-1957, when the PHMC hired him as a staff historian, a position he held until 1965.

Paul Wallace's academic and professional career is represented by 6.5 linear feet of correspondence, field notes, diaries, and photographs. His personal life is documented in the various Wallace family histories and photograph albums included among the papers of Anthony F. C. Wallace. The material here supplements the Paul Wallace Papers housed at the Pennsylvania State Archives and numerous other repositories, listed below with related materials.

The relatively small size of the Paul A.W. Wallace papers belies their significance within the Wallace Family collection. Because Paul Wallace distributed his papers among several repositories, the APS holds only a portion of his existing papers, but these include some of his most significant correspondence, field notes, and photographs.

Perhaps most importantly, the papers consist largely of manuscripts and extensive and detailed scholarly and personal correspondence, with little routine administrative correspondence. Wallace appears to have weeded out correspondence from publishers, other businesses, and Lebanon Valley College, probably donating the latter to LVC. The APS also may have reduced the bulk of the papers during their initial processing, based on correspondence between David H. Wallace and Whitfield J. Bell, Jr., librarian of the APS when David Wallace donated his father's papers.

Wallace's extensive correspondence with scholars of the American Indian and several American Indians comprises the bulk of the papers. Correspondents include some of the most prominent names in the study of the American Indian such as Frank G. Speck, William Nelson Fenton, Arthur C. Parker, and Carl F. Voegelin, and American Indians such as Edward Ahenakew, Aren Akweks (Ray Fadden), and Jesse Cornplanter, descendant of Cornplanter, Seneca chief. A significant amount of the correspondence relates to Wallace's research on Conrad Weiser, ambassador to the Six Nations in the 1740s and 1750s and Moravian missionaries John Heckewelder and the Muhlenberg family.

Significant correspondence includes that between Wallace and Frank G. Speck (1936-1947, 2 folders), Parker, Arthur C. (1936-1954, 2 folders) William Nelson Fenton (1943-1965, 8 folders), Ray Fadden (1947-1967, 18 folders) and Charles Berwind Montgomery (1935-1942, 28 folders).

The Speck and Fenton correspondence provides insight into the professional yet friendly relationships between Wallace and his colleagues. While relatively brief, this correspondence includes detailed discussions of Speck's and Wallace's ethnological work. The more extensive correspondence with Fenton began during Wallace's work on Conrad Weiser in 1943, when Wallace wrote to William Nelson Fenton at the suggestion of Frank Speck and C. Marius Barbeau. Upon hearing that Wallace planned to write a history of the Six Nations, Fenton advised him to read some of his own works and perhaps focus on one aspect of Six Nations history. Spanning Wallace's professional historical career, the Fenton correspondence includes detailed questions and equally detailed answers on Iroquois history and commentary on Wallace's work.

Wallace's most dependable correspondent was Charles Berwind Montgomery, the leading authority on Schuylkill Valley history at the time. A nephew of Thomas Lynch Montgomery, the former State Librarian of Pennsylvania and curator of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Montgomery served as curator of the Historical Society of Berks County and eventually followed his uncle's path, serving as curator of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. In charmingly informal yet elegant prose, Montgomery and Wallace discussed Pennsylvania history and exchanged stories of their daily lives.

Second only in volume, but perhaps most interesting is the Ray Fadden (Aren Akweks) correspondence. Fadden wrote detailed letters describing people, places, and events on and near the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation, Hogansburg, New York, frequently enclosed photographs and drawings, and expressed opinions on issues of concern to Indians, all of which create an invaluable record of Indian reservation life in the mid 20th century. After Wallace's Mohawk adoption in 1949, the two men frequently addressed each other in letters by their Indian names or as "brother."

The collection also contains extensive notes and photocopies relating to John Heckewelder and Conrad Weiser, several interviews with American Indians, and manuscripts of several Wallace articles. As part of his research on Weiser, Wallace compiled a series of five-year diaries spanning Weiser's life (1715-1760) in which he reconstructed Weiser's life. Diaries for 1715-1739 contain relatively fewer entries, while those from 1740-1759 contain more numerous and detailed entries.

Provenance

Gift of Anthony F.C. Wallace, 1988, 1999-2000 and Presented by David H. Wallace, 1967.

Preferred citation

Cite as: Paul A. W. Wallace Papers, American Philosophical Society.

Processing information

Catalogued by Valerie Anne Lutz, 2003.

Related material

See also Victoria University Archives, Wallace Family Fonds (call number CA ON00357 2187).

• Akwesasne Counselor Organization
• Mohawk nation at Akwesasne
• Six Nations Indian Museum

• Carte de visite photographs
• Gelatin silver prints
• Negatives
• Newspaper clippings
• Photomechanical prints
• Sketches.

• Akweks, Aren, 1910-2008
• Cornplanter, Jesse J.
• Fenton, William N. (William Nelson), 1908-2005
• Montgomery, Charles B (Charles
• Speck, Frank G. (Frank Gouldsmith), 1881-1950
• Wallace, Paul A. W.

• American Philosophical Society
• Delaware Indians -- New York (State) -- History
• Delaware Indians -- Pennsylvania -- History
• Ethnology
• Germans -- Pennsylvania
• Goodenough, Ward Hunt
• Haudenosaunee
• Heckewelder, John Gottlieb Ernestus (1743-1823)
• Indians of North America -- Missions
• Indians of North America -- New York (State) -- History
• Indians of North America -- Pennsylvania
• Indians of North America -- Quebec (Province)
• Iroquois Indians -- Civilization and social life
• Iroquois Indians -- Folklore
• Iroquois Indians -- Rites and ceremonies
• Mohawk Indians -- Folklore
• Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne
• Moravians -- Missions
• Oneida Indians -- Social life and customs
• Onondaga Indians -- Social life and customs
• Pennsylvania -- History
• Weiser, Conrad (1676-1760)