What primary sources exist for Albert Pike's correspondence from the 1870s?
Executive summary
The documentary trail for Albert Pike’s 1870s correspondence is scattered across university special collections, state archives and historical societies that hold dated letters and finding aids; several institutions hold letters from 1870–1874 in their catalogues or finding aids [1] [2] [3] [4]. A separate, widely circulated “1871 letter to Mazzini” exists mainly on fringe and secondary websites and lacks confirmation in major manuscript repositories, and the claim that the British Library once held it has been denied in published rebuttals [5] [6] [7].
1. Institutional holdings with verified 1870s items
Several recognized repositories preserve Pike correspondence that includes items from the 1870s: Washington and Lee University holds a September 9, 1870, letter from Robert E. Lee addressed to Albert Pike—part of the Robert E. Lee Family Papers and digitized in their archive [2] [3]; the University of Arkansas Special Collections describes a short letter written by Pike in 1874 while he was in Washington, D.C., and catalogs it as MC 1736 [1]; and the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies’ “Albert Pike Letters and Documents” collection spans 1861–1889 and explicitly lists Pike correspondence, which would encompass the 1870s [4].
2. State and regional archives that preserve Pike letters
Regional archives in Pike’s long home state also provide primary material or photocopies: the Arkansas State Archives holds photocopies of an 1880 Pike letter (which post‑dates the 1870s but is part of the contiguous documentary record) and includes finding aids linking to Pike material in state collections [8] [9], while the State Historical Society of Missouri’s manuscript collections include letters from Pike that are cataloged in their online finding aids [10]. These holdings indicate searchable, physical or microfilmed primary materials tied to Pike’s later‑19th‑century correspondence.
3. University special collections and finding aids to search
Several universities maintain catalog records or finding aids that point researchers to Pike letters: Brigham Young University’s L. Tom Perry Special Collections lists an Albert Pike letter in MSS 1072 and appears in ArchiveGrid entries, signaling an item researchers can request [11] [12]. Archive finding aids across repositories (BYU, Butler Center, University of Arkansas, Washington and Lee) provide manuscript identifiers and collection numbers that are the standard route to access original letters or authorized copies [11] [4] [1] [2].
4. The controversial “Pike to Mazzini, 1871” document — provenance and problems
One oft‑quoted document purportedly dated August 15, 1871—an alleged Pike letter to Giuseppe Mazzini describing a plan for three world wars—circulates widely on non‑archival websites and in conspiracy literature; a scanned PDF and multiple transcriptions are available on various sites [5] [6]. Established manuscript custodians and dedicated debunkers note the absence of a credible archival record for such a letter: investigators have reported that the British Library does not catalogue such a manuscript, and defenders of Pike’s scholarship stress that the claim of a British Museum/British Library holding is unsubstantiated [7]. That combination of internet propagation plus lack of institutional provenance makes the 1871 “Mazzini” letter unreliable as a primary archival source without further verification [7].
5. How to proceed when seeking 1870s Pike correspondence
Researchers seeking primary Pike correspondence from the 1870s should start with the cataloged manuscript collections cited above—Washington and Lee’s Lee Family Papers (for related correspondence, 1870), the University of Arkansas MC 1736 entry , BYU MSS 1072, and the Butler Center’s MSS 10‑26 finding aid—which provide accession numbers and contact points for requesting scans or on‑site access [2] [1] [11] [4]. For any sensational or widely shared Pike document (notably the alleged 1871 Pike‑Mazzini letter), archival confirmation is required: the existing online copies lack corroboration in principal repositories and have been specifically challenged in provenance [5] [6] [7]. Where finding aids note photocopies or transcriptions rather than originals, those distinctions should guide claims about authenticity [8] [4].