Vernon Louis Parrington papers, 1871-2002

Vernon Louis Parrington was born on August 3, 1871 in Aurora, Illinois before his family moved to Kansas. After beginning his higher education at the University of Emporia, he transferred to Harvard where he finished his degree in 1893 in English. Afterward, he returned to Kansas, to the University of Emporia where he advocated for more English courses. In 1897 he moved to the University of Oklahoma to be an instructor of English and modern languages. Parrington then spent two years between 1902 and 1904 travelling and spending time in libraries around England and France. Upon his return to Oklahoma, Parrington is credited with establishing the English department and also lectured in French. He also became the first paid football coach at the University of Oklahoma. After a newly elected group of legislators entered the university, however, he was fired in faculty purges intended to eliminate “immoral influences” in the university. Due to his leftist and populist standings and cigarette smoking, Parrington was caught in the purge. In 1908, Parrington and David C. Hall, both fired from the University of Oklahoma, were hired at the University of Washington. David Ross Boyd, the president of the University of Oklahoma who was also fired in the university restructuring, recommended Parrington to then UW president Thomas Kane. President Kane travelled to Emporia, Kansas to hire him on the spot. On his arrival in Seattle, with which he was familiar after a 1901 trip to the city when he married his wife Julia, Parrington became a Professor of English. At the university, Parrington slowly built up a strong reputation as students were noted to have lined up to register for his classes.

Parrington is most well-known for his three part biographical study of American politicians from the colonial period until 1920 called Main Currents in American Thought. Most likely begun while living in Oklahoma but completed in Seattle, Parrington published the first two volumes in 1927. These two volumes alone were awarded the Pulitzer Prize in History, marking the first time a Pulitzer was won by a Pacific Northwest resident or by an English professor. The third volume of his book was published by his colleagues after his death. Parrington died of a heart attack in 1929 while on a trip to England paid for with his prize earnings.

Parrington is credited with paving the way for the beginning of American Studies, a new field of study combining political and historical interests. Copies of the three volumes of Main Currents were also three of 200 volumes given to President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941 by the American Booksellers’ Association.

Outside his study and classroom, Parrington was a sports fan, outdoorsman, and designer. He played semi-professional baseball in Kansas before moving to Harvard and continued to appreciate the sport although he grew too busy to attend games. Parrington is also recorded as admiring nature and being a dedicated gardener, sometimes taking his break between classes in Seattle to walk home and fix his garden before his next duty. Parrington was both interested and skilled in architectural design. While at the University of Oklahoma, he designed and built his own house, taught the first architectural courses at the university, and developed a 50 year architectural and landscape design plan for the Board of Regents. For this work and planning, a central point of the University of Oklahoma is named “Parrington Oval”.