- Scope and Content:
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The Francis A. Allen Papers are composed of professional and personal documents spanning 1940-2006, with the majority of the documents dating between 1950-2000. The bulk of the papers (roughly 50 percent) are correspondence, including professional, academic, and personal documents. The next biggest sub-set is a sampling of some of his published works as well as unpublished works. There are also documents from court cases he was involved in, speeches he delivered over the course of his career, and samples of student examinations he gave while teaching as a law school professor.
- Biographical / Historical:
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Francis Alfred Allen was born in Kansas City, Kansas, in 1919. After attending Cornell College in Iowa, he served in the United States Army Air Corps as a weatherman during World War II. After the war, he continued on to Northwestern University to finish his law degree in 1946. He married June Walsh in 1947, and had two children, Neil and Susan.
Allen started his teaching career at Northwestern University in 1948. He subsequently went on to teach at Harvard (1953-1956) the University of Chicago (1956-1962 and 1963-1966), and the University of Michigan (1962-1963 and 1966-1986). He became dean of the Law School at the University of Michigan from 1966 to 1971.
Allen also participated in court proceedings throughout his career. After returning from World War II, Allen served as clerk to Chief Justice Fred Vinson from 1946 to 1948. In the early 1950s, he also served as a lawyer for a short time in the Cook County criminal court in Illinois. From 1972 to 1979, he took part in Kaimowitz vs. Department of Mental Health for the State of Michigan, in which patients of a mental institution felt that they were forced against their will to participate in psychosurgical procedures because of their status in society.
Allen concentrated most of his professional efforts towards reforming criminal law in the United States, as well as analyzing the concept of rehabilitation and how it has evolved over time. He also wrote and published many works on family law and juvenile law.
Because of his role as a reformer in the field of criminal law, Allen was often called to public service. In 1961, Allen played a pivotal role in the creation of the Illinois Criminal Code. But his most important accomplishment was the chairmanship of the Attorney General's Commission on Poverty and the Administration of Federal Criminal Justice. The report of that committee directly led to the passing of the Criminal Justice Act of 1964 and the Bail Reform Act of 1966.
Allen was also the recipient of many awards during his lifetime. In 1975, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and became President of the Association of American Law Schools in 1976. Allen was a visiting expert for the Salzburg Seminar of American Studies, and a scholar in residence at the Rockefeller Foundation in Bellagio, Italy. He also was a visiting professor for Northwestern University, Boston College, and the University of Chicago.
After retiring from the University of Michigan in 1986, Allen moved to Gainesville, Florida, were he taught at the University of Florida until his retirement in 1994. He passed away on April 6, 2007. He was survived by his wife June and son Neil.
- Acquisition Information:
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Collection received in two accessions: first accession received through Francis Allen in 2000 (donor no. 8939 ), second accession received through June Allen in 2008.
- Processing information:
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In regards to the original order of the Francis A. Allen Papers, best care was taken on the part of the processor to respect that order in many cases. The Correspondence and Writings series are more or less in the original order that they were found in, although additional correspondence scattered throughout the rest of the collection was incorporated into the appropriate folders. The other materials in the collection were received in a somewhat disorganized state, and were organized according to subject if they did not fit within the Correspondence or Writings series.
Documents that were separated from the collection include duplicates of any kind, correspondence that did not directly pertain to Francis Allen (see below), some book reviews (a selected sample remains), University of Michigan publications (since they are already in another collection of the Bentley Library), student examinations from other universities (a selected sample remains), financial documents, junk mail, brochures, and published works that were not for a professional journal, organization, or newspaper (examples include those written for textbooks or encyclopedias).
At times, correspondence within the collection was written from individual to recipient, and Allen was carbon copied (or "cc'ed") in the message. In these cases, if Allen was not mentioned at all in the text of the letter, it was discarded. Although there are exceptions that remain in the collection, such as brochures that were sent to Allen for various seminars or documents that directly involved his interests. In these cases, an attachment letter was usually present along with the document, explaining why it would be of interest to him.
Within the initial accession, which was donated by Francis Allen himself, he would at times include notes that were paper clipped to a corresponding document. These notes usually describe the context of why the document was created, and often include Allen's opinion or a short anecdote relating to it. These notes have been retained
In preparing digital material for long-term preservation and access, the Bentley Historical Library adheres to professional best practices and standards to ensure that content will retain its authenticity and integrity. For more information on procedures for the ingest and processing of digital materials, please see Bentley Historical Library Digital Processing Note. Access to digital material may be provided either as a direct link to an individual file or as a downloadable package of files bundled in a zip file.
- Accruals:
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No further additions to the papers are expected.
- Rules or Conventions:
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Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)
