S. Sidney Ulmer correspondence
Abstract
Descriptive Summary
- Title
- S. Sidney Ulmer correspondence
- Date
- 1970, 1992, undated (inclusive)
- Creator
- Ulmer, S. Sidney
- Extent
- 0.23 Cubic Feet
- Subjects
- Judges -- Attitudes
- Judges -- United States -- Correspondence
- Political scientists -- United States -- Correspondence
- Ulmer, S. Sidney
- Blake, Susan Ulmer
- Rehnquist, William H. (William Hubbs), 1924-2005
- Preferred Citation
- 2023ua017: [identification of item], S. Sidney Ulmer correspondence, 1970, 1992, undated, University of Kentucky Special Collections Research Center.
- Repository
- University of Kentucky
Collection Overview
- Biography / History
- S. Sidney Ulmer was a professor of political science at the University of Kentucky from 1963 until his retirement in 1988.* In 2003, Ulmer received a "Lifetime Achievement Award" from the Law & Courts Section of the American Political Science Association.
- Ulmer was born in North, South Carolina, on April 15, 1923, to Shirley S. and Anna Reed Ulmer. During World War Two, he served in the U.S. Army Air Force as a tail gunner in the South Pacific theater, earning numerous medals and citations between 1943 and 1945. In 1946, Ulmer married Margaret Lipscomb of Greenville, South Carolina.** The two attended Furman University for their undergraduate degrees, with Sidney Ulmer graduating in 1952. He then attended Duke University for his master's degree (1954) and Ph.D. (1956) in political science.
- Ulmer then taught at Michigan State University for seven years before joining the University of Kentucky as chair of the Political Science Department in 1963. During his six years in office, he doubled the department's size, bringing nine faculty members on board in one year alone. In 1969, Ulmer stepped down as chair and returned to his research on judicial decision-making at the Supreme Court. Over the next twenty years, he served as president of the Southern Political Science Association, program chair for the Midwest Political Association, and as an editorial board member for several professional journals. Ulmer retired from UK in 1988 at age 65, but he continued to attend departmental annual awards banquets for the next two decades. In 2012, Ulmer's wife Margaret passed away. Six years later, Ulmer died on January 19, 2018, at his home in Lexington, Kentucky. He and Margaret Ulmer had five children: Margaret Moye, Mary Ulmer-Jones, William Emmett Ulmer, Susan Blake, and John Lipscomb Ulmer.
- *Biographical information based on an obituary by Bradley Canon, UK Professor Emeritus of Political Science, https://polisci.as.uky.edu/memorium-prof-sidney-ulmer (accessed 2023 July 12).
- **Biographical information for Margaret Ulmer is based on the following obituary, https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/greenvilleonline/name/margaret-ulmer-obituary?id=20946296 (accessed September 5, 2023).
- Scope and Content
- The S. Sidney Ulmer correspondence (dated 1970, 1992, undated; 0.23 cubic feet; 1 box) primarily comprises 16 letters (18 pages) documenting communications in 1970 between University of Kentucky Political Science Professor Sidney Ulmer and Supreme Court Justice Hugo L. Black. Also included are four letters (five pages) to and from Ulmer and Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist in 1992, as well as a bound diploma cover from Furman University, Ulmer's alma mater, in which all the letters were originally stored by the donor.
- Ulmer corresponded with Black in 1970 to request permission to quote from and/or to provide insight on notes and letters of Black's found in the Library of Congress collections of Justice Harold H. Burton and Chief Justice Earl Warren; he made the requests for purposes of writing an article and giving two presentations on the Court's decision-making processes in racial segregation cases. Ulmer corresponded with Rehnquist to request first-hand information about the Court's decision-making processes in certiorari applications for the purpose of writing a book review of Deciding to Decide by H.W. Perry. Ulmer's letters reveal his belief in the importance of understanding the inner workings of the Court's decision processes and the utility of the justices' unpublished letters and notes in that endeavor. Black's letters document his opinion that unpublished sources are not reliable, do not reflect the workings of the entire Court, and give a false impression of the Court. The letters also demonstrate Black's willingness to debate and disagree with others whom he respected. Rehnquist's letters document his willingness to provide background information on how the Court's decisions are made. Two of Ulmer's letters are copies of holdings in the Library of Congress.
Restrictions on Access and Use
- Conditions Governing Access
- Collection is open to researchers by appointment.
- Use Restrictions
- The physical rights to the materials in this collection are held by the University of Kentucky Libraries Special Collections Research Center.
UK Libraries Special Collections Research Center is open Monday to Friday, 9:00am to 4:00pm. Appointments are encouraged but not required. Schedule an appointment here.
Researchers must have an SCRC Researcher Account to request materials. View account set-up and use instructions here.
Questions? Contact SCRC via our Contact Form.
Table of Contents
You may come across language in UK Libraries Special Collections Research Center collections and online resources that you find harmful or offensive. SCRC collects materials from different cultures and time periods to preserve and make available the historical record. These materials document the time period when they were created and the view of their creator. As a result, some may demonstrate racist and offensive views that do not reflect the values of UK Libraries.
If you find description with problematic language that you think SCRC should review, please contact us at SCRC@uky.edu.
UK Libraries Special Collections Research Center is open Monday to Friday, 9:00am to 4:00pm. Appointments are encouraged but not required. Schedule an appointment here.
Researchers must have an SCRC Researcher Account to request materials. View account set-up and use instructions here.
Questions? Contact SCRC via our Contact Form.
Requests
No items have been requested.
You may come across language in UK Libraries Special Collections Research Center collections and online resources that you find harmful or offensive. SCRC collects materials from different cultures and time periods to preserve and make available the historical record. These materials document the time period when they were created and the view of their creator. As a result, some may demonstrate racist and offensive views that do not reflect the values of UK Libraries.
If you find description with problematic language that you think SCRC should review, please contact us at SCRC@uky.edu.
