I. Biographical/Personal, 1929-2003, bulk 1934-1990

Summary: The "Certificates, Diplomas, and Prizes" file includes McCormick's Elementary School (1929) and High School (1933) diplomas, as well as various prizes and awards, such as his award of Phi Beta Kappa (March 23, 1938), the Rutgers University Certificate/Award Letter "R" for Debating Team (May 12, 1938), the Award of Merit from the New Jersey Historical Society (1960), and the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindbeck Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching at Rutgers (1964). The Voting Data, Oversized Material, and Census Data series (Series XVIII), contains McCormick's undergraduate (A.B., Rutgers, 1938) and graduate (A.M., Rutgers, 1940 and Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, 1948) diplomas (Box 96).

The "Clippings" and "Personal Data" files are titled according to McCormick's original filing, and contain biographical and related items that McCormick collected about himself. The "Rutgers College Class of 1938" file contains the 50th Reunion booklet/program for the Class in 1988, as well as speech notes from the event. Also included in the folder are McCormick's notes from the event overall, as well as the reunion booklet for the Class of 1938's 60th reunion.

The subseries "School Materials" includes material from McCormick's undergraduate and graduate course work at Rutgers and the University of Pennsylvania. The undergraduate material is arranged chronologically from McCormick's freshman to senior years, and contains his lecture notes from such classes as Contemporary Civilization (Professor Heald, 1934-1935), European History (Professor Burns, 1935-1936), Recent American History (Professor Kull, 1936-1937), and American Foreign Relations (Professor Ellis, 1937-1938). Included in his graduate material, are class notes from seminars taken with his mentor, Roy F. Nichols (1940-1942).

The "Travel" folders contain correspondence, itineraries, research, receipts, and invoices from his trip to Japan with his wife, Katheryne, in 1983. Photographs from this trip have been removed to the Photograph series (Series XVI).

The "Faculty Biographical Files" were originally from the Office of University Relations, and consist of clippings as well as general material relating to Richard P. McCormick's career at Rutgers. The "Faculty, General" files contain newsletter articles and Rutgers News Service bulletins written by or about McCormick, as well as memoranda and correspondence between McCormick and various Rutgers personnel. Materials of note in the Faculty, General files are those from 1948 that document McCormick's appointment as University Historian for Rutgers. Also of special note in the "Clippings'" files is material from 1968 that documents how McCormick "solved" the puzzle of how General Cornwallis and his troops were led up the Palisades at Closter, New Jersey, November 20, 1776.