Robin Higham Papers

Collection

Identifier: H056-01

Staff Only

Scope and Content

The Robin Higham Papers contain documents, manuscripts, photographs, memorabilia and other items collected by Higham, a noted historian and author, primarily during the period of his tenure at Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas. During this period, Higham was not only an educator, but was active as an editor and publisher. The Robin Higham Papers are housed in six manuscript boxes and seven non-standard boxes of varying sizes totaling 13.4 linear feet.

Noteworthy items in this collection include an extensive number of photographs of Golden Age aircraft and manuscripts by Robin Higham and R. E. G. Davies, both noted aviation historians and authors.

The collection is in good condition, and original order is presumed to have been preserved. It consists of three series.

The first series is the Aviation Series, which is further organized into five subseries: 1. correspondence and Personal Papers, 2. Aerospace, 3. Airlines, 4. Documents, and 5. Publications.

Subseries 1. contains personal papers and correspondence from the period of Higham's tenure at Kansas State University and as a publisher/editor.

Subseries 2. contains documents pertaining to the jet era and space age.

Subseries 3. contains documents produced by various airlines and pilots' organizations.

Subseries 4. contains aircraft manufacturers' documents, maps, museum information, research notes, and manuscripts.

Subseries 5. contains airline publications, articles and clippings, booklets and brochures, manufacturers' publications, organization newsletters, and periodicals.

The second series is the Images Series, which is further organized into four subseries: 1. Drawings, 2. Negatives, 3. Photographs, and 4. Slides.

Subseries 1. contains drawings from the United Airlines Collector's Series and other miscellaneous drawings.

Subseries 2. contains negatives depicting aircraft and the Buffalo Field (New York) Airport.

Subseries 3. contains photographs of aircraft, military installations, museums and aircraft collections, personalities, and other photographs.

Subseries 4. contains slides taken at O'Hare International Airport, Chicago, Illinois.

The third series is the Memorabilia Series, which is further organized into three subseries: 1. Neckties, 2. Artifacts, and 3. Documents.

Subseries 1. contains a collection of neckties, all with aviation-related themes and depictions.

Subseries 2. contains personal items collected by Higham and an award/plaque presented to him.

Subseries 3. contains printed materials from airlines, aviation events, maps, a calendar, and newspapers and articles.

Dates

Creation: 1915 - 2000
Creation: Majority of material found within 1970 - 1995

Creator

Higham, Robin, Mr., 1925-2015 (Robin David Steward) (Donor, Person)

Langauge of Materials

Collection is in English, French, and an unidentified Asian language.

Access Restrictions

This material is open for research.

Literary Rights Statement

Permission to publish material from this collection in any form, current or future, must be obtained from the Special Collections and Archives Division, Eugene McDermott Library, The University of Texas at Dallas.

Biographical Sketch

Robin David Steward Higham was born in London, Great Britain on 20 June 1925, the only son of Margaret Anne Stewart and David Higham, an American mother and British father. He visited the United States with his mother to see her relatives in Texas and Oklahoma in 1929, and again in 1935. Higham’s mother, born in Baxter Springs, Kansas, and a graduate of the University of Kansas, read extensively and loved to travel. His father, an Oxford graduate, was a successful literary agent in London. Margaret and David met in Constantinople and married in England in 1923. Higham lived in England until the age of fifteen. From 1943 through 1947, Higham served as a Flight Sergeant Pilot for the Canadian Royal Air Force. On August 5, 1950, he married Ms. Barbara Jane Davies, with whom he had one son and three daughters. In 1954, Higham became a naturalized United States citizen.

Robin Higham received his A.B. cum laude at Harvard in 1950, his M.A. at the Claremont Graduate School in 1953, and his Ph.D. at Harvard in 1957.

An educator, Higham was an instructor at the University of Massachusetts from 1954-1957, an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina from 1957-1963, and a Professor of History at Kansas State University beginning in 1963. His career at Kansas State University spanned from 1963-1999.

In a 1998 interview, Higham described himself as a “generalist partly because I have taught twenty-nine different history courses in a wide variety of fields and because what I have written and edited cuts across a good many fields besides aviation, including the impact of technology and warfare on history. „He continued, “I am lucky to have been at Kansas State University, where I could be a historical generalist while teaching undergraduate and graduate students. As a historical generalist who looks at big problems to see how they have been handled, the entire past of humanity interests me.”

Robin Higham was also a prolific writer and editor, having authored and edited 123 works in 282 publications in six languages, all of which focus on aviation, military, and geo-political subjects. From the late 1960’s through the 1980’s, he was the editor and co-publisher of several journals including Journal of the West, Military Affairs, and Aerospace Historian.In 1977, Higham became the founder and president of Sunflower University Press, which published military history books until its closing in 2005.

Recognized as a leading aviation and military historian, Higham held memberships in several aviation and military history organizations. Honors include Social Science Research Council National Security Policy Research Fellow, 1960-1961; Victor Gondos Award, 1983; Samuel Eliot Morison Award, 1986; American Military Institute; and Kansas Governor’s Aviation Honor Award, 2000.

Robin David Steward Higham passed away on August 27, 2015, at the age of ninety at the Via Christi Hospital, Manhattan, Kansas.

Sources

Source: Adelson, Roger, "Interview With Robin Higham," "The Historian," March 22, 1988. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-20649390.html (accessed September 28, 2010).
Source: Anonymous, "Higham, Robin (David Stewart)." In "International Who's Who of Authors and Writers 2004," 247-248. Europa Publications Limited, 2003. http://books.google.com/books?id=phhhHT64kIMC&pg=PA226&dq=international+who%27s+who++of+authors+and+writers+2004&hl=en&ei=C1X1TImxO4T7lwewrLSgBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=international%20who%27s%20who%20%20of%20authors%20and%20writers%202004&f=false (accessed November 29, 2010).
Source: Anonymous, "Higham, Robin D.S." http://www.worldcat.org/wcidentities/lccn-n50-33728 (accessed November 29, 2010).
Source: Anonymous, "Robin Higham." http://pipl.com/search/?FirstName=robin&LastName=higham&City=&State=&Country=US&CategoryID=2&Interface=1 (accessed November 29, 2010).
Source: Anonymous, "Robin Higham Papers." http://www.lib.k-state.edu/depts/spec/flyers/military-history.html (accessed November 29, 2010).
Source: Anonymous, "Dr. Robin D. S. Higham," "Yorgensen, Meloan, Londreen," http://www.ymlfuneralhome.com/obituary/5492 (accessed October 19, 2020).

Extent

13.4 Linear Feet (Six manuscript boxes, three non-standard boxes (18.0x14.0x2.0), one non-standard box (22.0x15.0x2.0), one non-standard box (15.0x12.0x3.0), one non-standard box (19.5x25.5x2.5), and one roll storage box (30.0x5.0x5.0).)

Additional Description

Abstract

Robin David Steward Higham, a Harvard graduate, was a pilot during World War II and an instructor at the University of Massachusetts from 1954-1957, an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina from 1957-1963, and a Professor of History at Kansas State University beginning in 1963. His career at Kansas State University spanned from 1963-1999. He wrote numerous books and articles focusing on aviation, military, and geo-political subjects.

Series Description

The Robin Higham Papers are arranged in three series:

Series I. Aviation 1.6 linear ft. (four manuscript boxes), 1915-1995.

Arranged in five subseries: 1. Correspondence and Personal Papers, 2. Aerospace, 3. Airlines, 4. Documents, and 5. Publications.

Subseries 1. Correspondence and Personal Papers 0.02 linear ft. (two folders in box 1), 1961-1991.

Arranged alphabetically by topic.

Subseries 2. Aerospace 0.1 linear ft. (six folders in box 1), 1963-1975.

Arranged alphabetically by topic.

Subseries 3. Airlines 0.5 linear ft. (seventeen folders in box 1 and ten folders in box 2), 1917-1997.

Arranged alphabetically by topic.

Subseries 4. Documents 0.3 linear ft. (eight folders in box 2 and five folders in box 3), 1915-1993.

Arranged alphabetically by topic.

Subseries 5. Publications 0.7 linear ft. (seventeen folders in box 3 and box 4), 1938-1995.

Arranged alphabetically by topic.

Series II. Images 0.8 linear ft. (two manuscript boxes), 1924-2000.

Arranged in four subseries: 1. Drawings, 2. Negatives, 3. Photographs, and 4. Slides.

Subseries 1. Drawings 0.03 linear ft. (two folders in box 5), 1973-1997.

Arranged by topic.

Subseries 2. Negatives 0.03 linear ft. (two folders in box 5), Undated.

Arranged in original order.

Subseries 3. Photographs 0.73 linear ft. (seventeen folders in box 5 and thirty-three folders in box 6), 1924-2000.

Arranged alphabetically by topic.

Subseries 4. Slides 0.01 linear ft. (one folder in box 6), 1980's.

Arranged in original order.

Series III. Memorabilia 11.0 linear ft. (six non-standard boxes and one roll storage box), 1917-1989.

Arranged in three subseries: 1. Neckties, 2. Artifacts, 3. Documents.

Subseries 1. Neckties 1.8 linear ft. (one non-standard box), Undated.

Arranged in original order.

Subseries 2. Artifacts 3.6 linear ft. (three non-standard boxes), 1917-1997.

Arranged by size.

Subseries 3. Documents 5.6. linear ft. (two non-standard boxes and one roll storage box), 1941-1989.

Arranged in original order.

Provenance Statement

The Robin Higham Papers were donated to the History of Aviation Collection, Special Collections and Archives Division, Eugene McDermott Library, The University of Texas at Dallas, by Robin Higham in multiple accessions from July 2001 through April 2008.

Additional Sources

Additional repositories of Robin Higham materials are located at Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, and Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.

The Kansas State University repository consists of records of several journals for which Higham once served as editor, correspondence with other notable historians, and records and manuscripts from Sunflower Press, for which he served as president. The papers also document his activities in many national and international professional organizations and conferences in the field of military history.

The Duke University repository consists of ten scrapbooks, the contents of which include images and press clippings, largely featuring German, British, and U.S. aircraft from WWII. One scrapbook contains images of ships. All contents are presumed to have been cut out of newspapers and periodicals. Dr. Higham donated the scrapbooks to the Duke Manuscripts Department in 1963.

Books and Magazines

Books and magazines were pulled and catalogued to be included into the HAC monograph and magazine stacks.

Image ID

It is the researcher's responsibility to secure permission from copyright holders of materials to which this institution does not own copyright.

Images in this collection are identified by a unique number that provides information about the format, record group, collection, series, box, folder, and image numbers. Please use this number when ordering reproductions of images from this collection.

Record Group Code

1 = CAT/Air American Archives

2 = Doolittle Archives

3 = Lighter than Air Archives

4 = George H. Williams, Jr., World War I Aviation Library

5 = History of Aviation Archives

6 = University Archives

7 = HAC Stacks

8 = WPRL Stacks

9 = Cecil H. and Ida M. Green Collection

10 = Belsterling Collection

11 = Closed Stacks

12 = Unidentified

13 = Chance Vought Archives

14 = Twirly Birds Archives

Image Format Code

P = Photograph/Postcard

S = Slide

N = Negative

T = Positive Transparency

B = Black and White

C = Color

Example: 5RH-1-1-PC1

5 = History of Aviation Archives (HAC)

RH = Robin Higham Papers

= Series Number

1 = Box Number

1 = Folder Number

P = Photograph/Postcard

C = Color

1 = Image Number

Images archived in plastic image holders may also have a location code in the format: 1/TL. In this example, the number is the sheet number and the letters indicate the top left position on the sheet. Position indicators are T = top, L = left, R = right, M = middle, and B = bottom. Position indicators may be combined to describe the position on the sheet, as shown in this example.

Note to the Researcher

The Robin Higham Papers as described herein were prepared by Gay Orczy-Barstow. It is presumed that the materials remained in original order. The materials in this collection are in good condition.

Photographs in Series II. Images have been interleaved in folders with acid-free paper or placed in archival polypropylene sleeves, depending on their size. Very large, single folders containing photographs were subsequently divided into several smaller folders to expedite searches for specific photographs and for better storage. For example, one large folder containing Boeing aircraft photographs was divided into nine smaller folders containing photographs of Boeing aircraft-by-aircraft type/mission. It should also be noted that the negatives in Series II. Images are those from which photographs found in the same series were produced.

All memorabilia and oversize items are stored in archival non-standard boxes or roll storage boxes.