Veblen Family Collection | Carleton College Archives

The Veblen Collections at Carleton College are comprised of four distinct groupings of material:  the Thorstein B. Veblen Collection (77), the Veblen Family Collection (78), the Veblen Farmstead Collection (79), and the Records of the International Thorstein Veblen Association (80).  Together, these collections provide a great deal of information about an interesting Norwegian-American family, about the best-known member of that family, a figure of major importance in American intellectual history, about the preservation and eventual restoration of the family's farm home near Nerstrand, Minnesota, and about recent Veblenian scholarship.

The first three of these collections each contain some items which have long been a part of the archival record of Carleton College:  records pertaining to the attendance of Veblens at Carleton, their status as alumni, involvement of the school in discussions regarding the Veblen farmstead, and so forth.  Part of the collections consists of secondary source materials which have been gathered together here for reference purposes and the convenience of researchers.  The rest of the papers, photographs, and other material comprising the Veblen collections has been generously donated to Carleton by a variety of persons.  Nearly all of these donations have been made since 1990, when Thorstein Veblen's step-daughter, Mrs. Becky Veblen Meyers, made the first of several conveyances of Veblen-related material to Carleton.  Other persons instrumental in identifying, preserving, gathering, or donating unique items now located in the Veblen collections at Carleton include:  Esther Baran, Russell H. and Sylvia E. Bartley, Ruth Veblen Dunbar, Daniel P. Gregory, Esther V. Gunnerson, William C. Melton, Jeffrey P. Moriarty, Ruthmary Penick, Wilbert J. and Ellen Radtke, Bernadette Rainsford, Jessica Shaver, Charles R. Sims,  Colette and William Van Fleet, Bonnie Veblen, Paul F. Veblen, and the Washington Island Archives Committee.

Information on the provenance of particular items in these collections, if not immediately evident from this finding aid or inspection of the item itself, may be determined by inquiring of the Archivist.