Preservation of Neil Jamieson’s papers and books

From: Mark Sidel <mark.sidel@wisc.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, March 5, 2024 1:21 PM
To: VSG <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: [Vsg] The preservation of Neil Jamieson’s papers and books: A report and gratitude from the Jamieson preservation team

Dear colleagues,

I’m honored and delighted to report that six decades of Neil Jamieson’s research papers, correspondence, manuscript drafts, translations, photographs and other documents, and the most valuable of his books on Vietnam and Southeast Asia, have been preserved and donated to an archive and library for researchers to be able to use in the years ahead. 

A project of this scale takes many people to come out successfully, and I am deeply grateful to all of the following for their work on this project:

• Neil’s stepson, Jim Hunter, who donated these materials and supported the process of moving Neil’s papers and books into an archive and library; 

• my very close partners in this effort, now friends, Christian Lentz and Bradley Davis, who made extensive retrieval visits with me to the Jamieson family home in rural eastern Virginia in the summer heat and the winter cold; 

• Andrew Hinton of the Vietnam Center and Archive at Texas Tech, which enthusiastically agreed to take Neil’s papers and never wavered as the number of boxes of papers and other materials — going back to the 1950s — grew beyond my initial estimates as we found more and more materials;

• Judith Henchy and Marchette Dubois of the University of Washington Libraries, who are preserving the most valuable of Neil’s Vietnamese books for research use, some of which go back to the 1960s and 1970s; and 

• Terry Rambo, Mike DiGregorio, Hue-Tam Ho Tai, Erik Harms, Dan Duffy, Alan Bain, Stephen Leisz, Jerry Silverman, David Marr, Alvin Bui, Cristina Nualart, Ben Kerkvliet and others who have advised and provided strong encouragement on this archival project over a number of years.  

I think I can speak for Christian and Brad, and I know I can for me, when I say that when they are catalogued and available (which will take significant time), there are more than enough materials in the Jamieson papers – literally thousands and thousands of pages – for an enterprising graduate student or faculty member to write about Neil, either focusing on him and his times and his work, or in conjunction with writing about others. It is a remarkable collection of papers going back many decades.

Best wishes….

Mark Sidel

Mark Sidel

Doyle-Bascom Professor of Law and Public Affairs

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Visiting Professor of Law, Cardozo Law School

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