Cartwright Family Papers, 1877-1982

Acquired through the Newberry Library Book Fair, 2002.

The Cartwright Family Papers are open for research in the Special Collections Reading Room; 1 box at a time (Priority III).

The Cartwright Family Papers are the physical property of the Newberry Library. Copyright may belong to the authors or their legal heirs or assigns. For permission to publish or reproduce any materials from this collection, contact the Roger and Julie Baskes Department of Special Collections.

Cartwright Family Papers, The Newberry Library, Chicago.

Emily Calkins, 2007.

This inventory was created with the generous support of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this inventory do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Three generations of a family that originated in Ohio and moved to Evanston, IL, whose members were primarily journalists, particularly insurance journalists.

The earliest documented progenitor represented in the collection is Seth Levering Cartwright, who served in the Union Army. His sons, Charles Merritt and James O., both worked in insurance journalism. Charles, an 1894 Princeton graduate, worked briefly for the Chicago Tribune and then as insurance editor for the Chicago Inter-Ocean before helping to establish the successful insurance journal, Western Underwriters Magazine (later National Underwriter), from which he retired in 1947. Charles, commonly known as C.M., was well known and respected in the insurance journalism industry. James was the circulation editor at National Underwriter until his retirement in 1949. Charles’ son Stanley Levering Cartwright (known as Levering), also a Princeton graduate (1926) was a reporter for the Chicago Tribune before becoming assistant managing editor of the National Underwriter. He married Ruth Russell, a feature editor and writer at the Chicago Daily News. At Charles’ death in 1951, Levering was the executive editor of the National Underwriter.

Clippings, photographs, and miscellaneous documents of the Cartwright family, 1862-1982.

Includes several scrapbooks of newspaper clippings authored by or collected by members of the Cartwright family, including a book of clippings on Princeton, insurance columns and opinion pieces by C.M. and Levering Cartwright, and a recurring column featuring short stories about contemporary women by Ruth Russell Cartwright; a travel scrapbook with a number of photographs of Levering and Ruth Russell Cartwright; three ledger books originally belonging to Horace P. Keys who had a hardware and lumber business in Waynesville, Ohio; a few photographs, pieces of correspondence, loose clippings, and miscellaneous documents.

Arranged alphabetically by the type of document.

• Names
  • Cartwright, C. M. , (Charles Merritt), 1869-1951
  • Cartwright, Ruth Russell
  • Cartwright, Seth Levering
  • Princeton University. -- Students
• Subject
  • Chicago
  • Family Papers
  • Insurance
  • Journalism
  • Manuscripts, American -- Illinois
  • Newspapers -- Sections, columns, etc.
  • Women