[Archive]: The Henry P. Jordan Papers, circa 1890-1980 de JORDAN, Henry P. (Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Werner Heisenberg, Max Born, et al.)

Very Good. An extensive archive consisting of the personal, academic, and diplomatic papers of Henry P. Jordan: World War I soldier and P.O.W., student of Husserl and Heidegger at the University of Freiburg, and diplomat for the Weimar Republic. When Hitler came to power in 1933 Jordan resigned his post as German Vice Consul in New York City and became a naturalized American citizen and expatriate professor of philosophy and government in the United States.

He returned to Germany in 1949 to teach philosophy, and later served as West Germany's ambassador to Cuba at the time of the revolution (1955-59). A prolific lecturer, editor and author, Jordan was among the first public intellectuals to address the issue of European reconstruction, and he played a leading role in rise and dissemination of Phenomenology and Existentialist philosophy in Europe and America.

Included among the many notable items in the archive are Jordan's World War I and P.O.W. journals, photo albums, and sketchbooks; his Freiburg University course application book from 1920-21, signed multiple times by Husserl and Heidegger; and over 20 notebooks from Jordan's studies at Freiburg and the University of Berlin, six of which contain his manuscript notes from Husserl's and Heidegger's lectures. There are 17 autograph letters by physicist Max Born dating from 1930-35, and 6 letters (TLS) by Werner Heisenberg from 1950-64. Included among the philosophical papers is Jordan's life-long correspondence with Theodore Litt, a prominent professor of philosophy at the University of Bonn, and various files of correspondence with his friend and colleague Balduin Noll, an independent scholar, and other leading German philosophers.

The archive also contains Jordan's densely written journals and diaries, several of which he wrote in German and English; and various files of diplomatic papers, dating back to his mentorship under Gustav Stresemann in Berlin (1926-27), and including his subsequent posts for the Weimar Republic in Sweden, Columbia, and the United States. There are about six banker's boxes of files from when Jordan was ambassador to Cuba (1955-59). Also included in the archive is a small portfolio of letters and photographs from the 1930s relating to the family of Ursula Schleicher-Bonhoeffer, the sister of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

A comprehensive archive consisting of about 30 lineal feet of private papers and 10 lineal feet of Jordan's scholarly journals, clippings, etc., dating from the entirety of Jordan's extraordinary life at the forefront of the principal events and philosophical movements of the 20th century.

Additional details about Jordan's life and activities are provided in the Finding Aid to the collection (available upon request).