Conrad Totman Papers, 1800-2005 (bulk 1948-2005)

On a wintry 5th of January, 1934, Conrad Davis Totman was born in an upstairs bedroom of the house on the family farm in Conway, Massachusetts. His father, Raymond Smith Totman, decided that it was too dangerous to drive his wife ten miles on unpaved, unplowed, and unreliable roads to the nearest hospital in Greenfield. Thus, the family doctor made the trek to the farm on that cold and snowy day, and helped Mildred Kingsbury Totman deliver her second son. Conrad was preceded by his brother, Leland, in 1931, and followed by two sisters, Barbara in 1936, and Gail in 1937. The third generation of Totmans to work the farm known as "Broomshire" was complete.

As the children progressed in age, so too did their responsibilities and chores around the farm. At various points in his childhood, Conrad was responsible for duties such as the care of chickens, herding the dairy cows and calves out to pasture, cleaning udders prior to milking, and assisting the older workers with their own duties. Later, when Conrad became one of those older workers, he joined in other duties such as mowing, drying and baling hay, cultivating and drying tobacco, tapping maple trees for sap, harvesting, processing and ensiling field corn for cattle feed, tending to honeybee "supers," felling trees for firewood and lumber, and minding the vegetable garden.

Academically, Conrad excelled. After finishing grammar school locally in Conway, he started High School at Arms Academy in nearby Shelburne Falls. In 1952, Totman graduated from Arms second in his class. He enrolled in the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in the fall as an Ornamental Horticulture major. Totman's interest in gardening made horticulture a logical choice, but study at the university was not as exciting as he thought. He was enrolled in the Army's Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) at UMass, and the regular Army seemed like a good place to sort out his future. So, after a year in Amherst, Totman shipped out to fulfill his enlistment for a three year stint. The decision to enlist in the Army would prove to be the choice that changed his life.

After training to become a sanitary technician at camps in Virginia and Texas, Totman shipped out to Korea. The war had officially ended about ten months before, and South Korea was in the process of reconstruction. Totman was assigned to the 78th Preventive Medicine Control Detachment (PMCD). The unit was responsible for maintaining sanitary conditions both in the Army's camps and in the re-building villages in the countryside. Totman was a part of snap inspections of Army facilities such as mess halls and latrines. Another part of his job was to get samples from standing water to test for mosquito larvae. If enough larvae were present, then a sprayer would be hauled in to kill the potential disease-spreading mosquitoes, in addition to putting any nearby humans at risk as well, unbeknownst to anyone at the time.

During his stay in South Korea, Totman was an avid photographer, snapping pictures of everyday life, both in and out of the military camp. He was able to take pictures in cities like Seoul and Pyongyang on leave. On rest and recuperation (R&R) trips, he was able to see nearby Japan, a country with which he immediately fell in love. He took numerous photos and longed to return while stationed back in Korea. The break-up of the 78th PMCD lead to his reassignment to the 207th PMCD. Here, in a bonafide permanent hospital (as opposed to a temporary tent,) his job was to identify mosquito larvae and to organize the information about them. Then, in February of 1955, Totman was given another reassignment to the 10th Preventive Medicine Survey Detachment--in Japan! Finally, he would be able to spend a good amount of time here. But destiny also awaited him at the 10th PMSD, for the secretary to the commanding officer was a woman named Michiko Ikegami. They met for the first time on February 28, 1955, and have scarcely been apart since.

For almost a year and a half, Conrad and Michiko grew closer and spent increasing amounts of time together. In June 1956, however, Totman's enlistment ran out, and he was shipped back home. Soon after, Michiko quit her job and sailed on a cargo ship to San Diego. A plane carried her to Chicago, and thence to Hartford, where Aunt Ruth waited to drive her up to Amherst. There she enrolled at UMass, as a sociology major, and Conrad re-enrolled as a history major, with plans to concentrate on Japan. They were married at the Totman family farm in Conway on January 28, 1958. Totman graduated in June - second in his class (again) - and was accepted into Harvard as a graduate student in history. Michiko finished her degree in June of 1959 at the campus of UMass Boston.

By 1960, Totman finished his master's degree in East Asian Studies and in 1961 completed course requirements for a Ph.D. in East Asian History. Michiko, meanwhile, worked as a cataloguer in Harvard's East Asian Library. However, Conrad still needed to make an extended trip to Japan in order to do research for his dissertation on politics during the Tokugawa period, so the couple made all the preparations, and finally were able to return to Japan. After a brief visit with the Ikegami family, they moved into their own house. Totman studied and wrote his thesis, while Michiko worked, again doing cataloguing-related work at a library, all the while speaking only in Japanese to aid Conrad. Their time was punctuated by sightseeing trips all around Japan, and visits from people such as Aunt Ruth, or Conrad's sister Gail. Two years later, in November of 1963, Totman's complete his research, and it was time to return to America. They ended up taking the long way back, going via places like Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, India, Egypt, Greece, and western Europe, finally arriving back in Conway in time for Christmas.

In June 1964, Totman received his PhD and secured a teaching position at the University of California at Santa Barbara. They rented half of a duplex for a short while, but the addition of Kathleen Junko Totman into the family proved reason to find a more permanent abode. They found a place in time to receive Christopher Ken Totman into the family, and prepared to spend a good amount of time in California. Soon after, though, Totman was asked to take a position in the History Department at Northwestern University, which he accepted. In the summer of 1966, the family moved to Evanston, Illinois, where they would stay until the children completed their public schooling, with Conrad continuing his teaching and writing and Michiko working in the Evanston public school system's Japanese-English bilingual program.

After eighteen years teaching at Northwestern University, Conrad accepted a position at Yale University, which began in the fall of 1984. Although Totman had made many friends and acquaintances during his stay in Illinois, the move to Yale made sense as his children were out of public school, and New Haven, Connecticut was conveniently close to his family and boyhood home in Conway, Massachusetts.

During his career, Toman worked on a wide variety of topics in early modern and modern Japan, ranging from the collpase of the Tokugawa Shogunate to forestry and the lumber industry in Japan, a topic reflecting his early years at an agricultural college. He taught courses of equal diversity, and upon retirement in 1997, was granted emeritus status. Conrad and Michiko Totman continue to live near New Haven.

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Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Conrad Totman Papers chronicle not only the life of Conrad Totman, but also the lives of those who influenced him. The bulk of the collection documents Totman's education and profession as a scholar and teacher of Japanese history. Documents such as report cards, essays and notes show his progression as a student, and documents such as tests, lecture notes and evaluations show his progression as a college professor. Dispersed throughout is a treasure trove of information on Japan in general, and particularly on his specialties: early modern Japan and forestry and environmental management. Professional correspondence and other documents reveal a network of other highly educated Japan and Asian specialists, engaging in discourse aimed to support, challenge, and improve each other's scholarly output. An enormous, highly influential, and cherished, part of Totman's life is his family, and the Totman clan is well represented in this collection. Reams of genealogical material document the rich heritage of the Totman family, including the transcribed love letters and diaries of his paternal grandmother and alphabetized biographies of Totman ancestors, among many others. Illuminating the stories told in other parts of the collection, such as those in the large cache of highly descriptive personal letters to family members, are the many photographs spanning Totman's entire life and beyond.

This collection, on the one hand, documents Conrad Totman's life, liberties, and pursuits of happiness. On the other, it is a monument to his unceasing desire to inform others at the highest level possible. The final physical organization of this collection was made with every attempt to preserve the initial organization arranged by Totman himself. Save for a few shifts, the majority of the collection is still organized into subjects that Totman devised. He even included, in many instances, handwritten notes, further explaining connections and/or historical context for that particular grouping. Personal characteristics are also apparent in the collection. Never one to waste, Totman's reprints and loose transcriptions of documents such as professional correspondence are usually printed on used paper. The loose transcriptions of messy or lost documents are indicated by the word "converted" written in the upper right-hand corner. Thus, conflicting information on the reverse of a document can always be nullified by examining the context of the surrounding group of documents. Also, while a large portion of this collection is about Japan, very little is in Japanese without any translation or explanation in English.

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Organization of the Collection

This collection is organized into four series:

• Series 1. Education, 1948-1999
• Series 2. Professional Activities, 1963-2003
• Series 3. Writings, 1953-2005
• Series 4. Totman Family, 1800-2002
• Series 5. Photographs, 1937-1995

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Series 1: Education 1948-1999

This series documents a majority of Totman's formal educational experiences. From his first year at high shool to later scholarly research, Totman was constantly accumulating information. The materials relating to his high school, Arms Academy, show not only a general curriculum, familiar to almost any contemporary American high school student, but also the roots of Totman's future professional writing career. Examples of early writings include reports for classes such as English I through IV, U.S. History, and French; and notes for classes such as Biology, Chemistry and Plane Geometry. While his pursuit of a baccalaureate degree at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst started with a concentration in Horticulture, it ended with a degree in history. The primary catalyst for this switch was a United States Armed Forces Institute (USAFI) course entitled "Survey of the Far East," taken by Totman while in the U.S. Army from 1953-1956. Two essays written during the 1956-1957 school year back at UMass show further development in writing style, as well as a firm commitment to the study of history as a profession. His writing further improved at Harvard University, as evidenced by two seminar papers, as well as the culmination of his pre-professional education: his Ph.D. thesis. Totman's research for his Ph.D. thesis brought him to Shinkoganei, Japan. Materials from his first (Shinkoganei) and subsequent (Tanashi-shi, Kichijoji, and Mitaka-shi) scholarly research trips to Japan showcase the trials and tribulations of a professional scholar. Also included are documents relating to his decades-long research into Forestry.

Series 2: Professional Activities 1963-2003

The bulk of this series constitutes Totman's teaching career. Documents relating to his major teaching posts at the University of California at Santa Barbara, Northwestern University, and Yale University cover a wealth of information, most notably with individual class lecture notes and test materials on topics about Japan, ranging from the general to the specific. These are mostly organized by class number. Where the class number is inconsistent, the course title is used. Totman's guest teaching posts at the University of Chicago, the Kyoto Center for Japanese Studies and Stanford University are organized in the same manner and offer further insight into his teaching methods and topics. In addition to teaching, Totman served his profession in an administrative role. The Association for Asian Studies (AAS), in addition to other professional groups, was assisted by Totman in an administrative capacity. These materials, which include minutes of meetings, correspondence with other members, and collective proposals, show the scope and diversity of the scholars of Asian Studies, as well as indications as to which scholars specialize in what specific area. Guest lectures were another important part of Totman's career. These materials, organized by subject, may or may not include physically substantive information, but they will, at the very least, indicate who is (or was) conducting research on these topics.

Series 3: Writings 1953-2005

A prolific writer born into a family of prolific writers, Totman seemingly never put down the pen. This series is comprised of a majority of Totman's written works, and is divided into published and unpublished sections. The bulk of the published works are the documents relating to Totman's major books. This section relates virtually to every stage of publishing a book, from working drafts, to evaluations by his peers, to correspondence with publishers, and even to royalty and sales statements. Other published works include reviews of other scholars' books, encyclopedia entries, journal articles, book chapters, and newspaper articles. The highlight of the unpublished section is the collection of letters, original and transcribed, the bulk of which were penned by Totman during his military service in Korea and Japan. The letters from Korea show a unique glimpse of reconstruction efforts, as Totman reached the peninsula less than a year after an armistice ended the Korean War. The letters from Japan are restricted until 2015, however, recollections of that time period can be found in the unpublished section as well, in a work entitled Kathy's Story - For Laurel, which summarizes the childhoods and lives of both Conrad and Michiko Totman and their family. Another work, dubbed Farm Life in Conway Mass. in the 1940's, explores aspects of Totman's childhood in further detail. Other unpublished works include essays, abandoned projects, and unused fragments of his Ph.D. thesis. Early scholarly writings, such as term papers and reports, can be found in Series 1: Education.

Series 4: Totman Family 1800-2002

The majority of this series' contents are genealogical materials. These materials were researched and collected over the course of many decades by Conrad Totman's cousin, Alice Totman Hawks. In 1936, Alice started a family newsletter, which would be eventually known as Tot-Kin. In each installment, Alice presented her family research, along with substantial and diverse contributions from other members of the family from all over the United States. Tot-Kin featured letters, written to Alice for publication, which let the entire clan know what was going on in their neck of the woods. These letters, while they initially served as current news, are now a historical record, documenting such events as the Great Hurricane of 1938 or Lt. Clayton Totman's experiences with the U.S. Marines in Shanghai in 1937, during the Japanese invasion of China. Always having family history on her mind, Alice prompted family members to submit their own recollections of their childhoods, which many members did, including J. Monroe Totman, who in his own words describes many aspects of his life in Massachusetts and South Dakota, which began in 1850 in the former and would last until 1945 in the latter. In addition to personal anecdotes, Totman clan members were encouraged to submit historic letters, or transcriptions thereof, which might be in their possession, in order to share via Tot-Kin. Some of these letters include Rev. Harvey Totman's Diaries from 1833 to 1868, and Eli Totman's Letters home from 1862 to 1863. Harvey was a traveling priest in New York State, and Eli was in the 25th Wisconsin Regiment and was witness to parts of the Dakota War (a.k.a. Sioux Uprising) of 1862 in Minnesota. The Tot-Kin was discontinued in 1942, but was resurrected by Betty Jo (Totman) Jensen in 1971. These later issues, which have similar content to the earlier ones, are also included. The remainder of the genealogical materials constitute Alice Totman Hawks' notes, drafts, subject and alphabetical files. In addition, Conrad Totman's transcription of the letters and diaries of his paternal grandparents, his wife Michiko's letters to Totman family members, and Joshua Totman's Economics notebook from circa 1800, are also significant parts of this series.

Series 5: Photographs 1937-1995

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