Biographical/historical information

Robert Lee Humber, Jr. was born on 30 May 1898, in Greenville, North Carolina. His parents were Robert Lee Humber, Sr. (1864 – 1953) and Lena Clyde Davis Humber (1870 – 1936). His father had been named in honor of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. His father inherited his father's blacksmith shop at age 14, and converted it into a machine and repair shop, eventually branching out into bicycle repair, gunsmithing, and locksmithing. His mother's father, John Dixon Davis, a veteran of the Confederate Army, had been sheriff of Carteret County; and later served as clerk of court, and collector of customs for the port of Beaufort, NC. The family lived next door to the shop. Robert Lee, Jr. had two brothers: John Davis Humber (1895-1991) who became a prominent doctor and cancer researcher, in San Francisco, California; Leslie Mumford Humber (1907-1925) who died during his freshman year at Wake Forest; and a sister: Lena Dye "Lee" Humber, who married Lindley D. Smith, and lived in San Francisco, California.

Robert Lee, Jr. attended the Greenville Graded Schools from 1905-1913, and then attended Winterville High School, where he took college preparation courses, including Greek and Latin, graduating in 1914. He then attended Wake Forest College, earning a BA, graduating cum laude in May1918, having also done most of the work for MA and LLB degrees during the summers. He later received those degrees in 1919 and 1921. Humber was admitted to the North Carolina bar in 1920. After earning his BA, Humber then attended Harvard University in pursuit of a doctorate in the Department of Government, History, and Economics. In July 1918, however, before beginning his studies, he enrolled in the Army Reserve Military Training Camp, and was sent to Camp Plattsburg, in New York where he completed his training and commissioning as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Field Artillery. The war ended before he saw action, so he resigned his commission and returned to Harvard to begin his graduate studies. During the Boston Police Strike in September of 1919, he served as a volunteer policeman and later was appointed a tutor in the Department of Government, History, and Economics.

In November 1919, Humber was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to attend New College, Oxford, to begin in January 1920. Humber immediately requested and received a deferment of the Rhodes Scholarship and changed his Harvard program to an MA program and continued his tutoring until the end of the year, lacking only completion of the language requirement in order to obtain his MA. He ultimately received his Harvard MA in 1926.

Humber spent the next three years enrolled at New College, Oxford, on his Rhodes Scholarship, 1921 – 1923, earning a B.Litt. in 1923. While attending Oxford, Humber travelled widely through the British Isles and Europe, meeting many influential political, literary, and intellectual leaders in the process. In 1921, he completed a grand tour, circumnavigating the globe, and visiting Egypt and the Middle East, India, and the Orient on his way. Humber then enrolled in an independent doctoral program at the University of Paris, which he had visited during the previous trips to France. While attending the University of Paris, Humber became affiliated with the American University Union, a non-profit organization established to provide information and social opportunities to young Americans expatriates living in the city. The American University Union had been established during World War I, with support from the Carnegie and Rockefeller foundations. He also became affiliated with the American Church in Paris, remaining a life-long supporter and contributor to the church.

Humber completed most of his doctorate during 1926 – 1928, as an American Field Service Fellow, 1926-1928. Meanwhile, he tutored and led tours for American students and travelers. At the end of that time, he had completed all the requirements for a doctorate except for the publication of his dissertation on the political thought of John C. Calhoun. For unknown reasons, he refused to allow publication of the work despite offers from publishers to do so. As a result, he never received the Ph.D. His time in Paris, however, did not go unrewarded. It was during a visit to Paris in 1922, that he met his future wife, Lucie Berthier, who was then Executive Secretary of the American Union. Lucie was a native Parisian, multi-lingual, and a graduate of the University of Paris, who had taught in both English and French schools and after an extended engagement the couple married in October 1929, a week before the great American stock market crash that shook the world during the 1930s. Upon his return to Paris from their honeymoon, early in 1930, Humber resumed tutoring other American students and serving as a tourist guide to the Louvre to supplement his fellowship income. It was while escorting tourists through the city that Humber met Thomas Gilcrease, an Oklahoma oil industry millionaire, who was travelling in France and attempting to divorce his wife whom he believed to be unfaithful. The two struck up a close friendship which turned into a business relationship. Humber was able to obtain crucial testimony from hotel employees and from their children's nanny, proving Mrs. Gilcrease's infidelity, and arranged for the nanny to travel to Tulsa, OK to testify at the divorce trial, which resulted in Gilcrease winning a favorable decree. Gilcrease was impressed with Humber's business and legal advice and service and with Humber's knowledge of art and art history and employed Humber to help him acquire European art and collectibles. In 1931, Gilcrease also hired Humber to serve as attorney for the Gilcrease Oil Company. In this position, Humber's main role was to assist Gilcrease raise capital for expanding his holdings in the East Texas oil fields. Gilcrease then established a French subsidiary, the Societe Petroliere Gilcrease, naming Humber as manager of the firm. As manager, Humber successfully recruited many wealthy investors from throughout Europe to become co-owners in the oil investments. The investments proved highly lucrative to most if not all the investors. Humber was also able to become a co-owner himself by having the bulk of his commissions invested in the Gilcrease Oil Company. By the late 1930s, Humber was a wealthy man and had begun buying art on his own, including Rembrandt printing plates and Louis Orr prints.

Humber's expatriate existence came to a sudden halt in 1940, when Germany invaded France, and rapidly conquered the country. On 10 June, Humber evacuated Paris by car, just four days before the German armies entered Paris, and fled to be with his wife and three children who were vacationing at Hendaye Plage, on the coast near the Spanish border. He planned for them to reach Lisbon and take a ship for America. When he arrived, however, he learned from Lucie that their two-year-old daughter, Eileen [Aileen] Genevieve, had died after a sudden and short illness. It was not their only loss. In leaving France, Humbers also left behind almost all their household possessions, including most of Robert's business records from this period. Humber and his family arrived in the United States on 18 July 1940, shell-shocked, unemployed, and bereaved, but wealthy, and determined to achieve something meaningful to compensate for his losses and to repair the broken peace of the world. He declined an offer to become president of the Gilcrease Oil Company, when Thomas Gilcrease decided to retire to devote himself to Institute of American History and Art. Very quickly, his ideas crystallized.

Following his return from Europe, as the Soviets and Germans divided up the continent between them and their Axis partners did the same in Africa and Asia, Humber sought refuge at his Greenville, NC home. He found himself a leading member of local society there and in the vicinity of his second home on Davis Island. He was in perpetually in demand as a member of various community groups, and many local groups sought his advice and support on international issues. Humber also faced increasing appeals from political candidates for his support. As a Democrat, he threw his support mainly to Democratic candidates, and occasionally made financial contributions to their campaigns. However, his own political candidacies were less successful. For several years, he wisely supported others but did not seek office for himself. In his first political campaign, in 1946 Democratic Primary, he ran for Congress in North Carolina's First District but lost to the eventually successful candidate, Herbert C. Bonner.

Humber's political ideas and plans grew from his early commitment to Wilsonian internationalism, and to the rule of law, which dated from his college and law school days; to his military experience during World War I; and to his postwar experiences at Oxford and Paris. The refusal of the United States to join the League of Nations had been a great blow to him. The subsequent failure of the League and the western powers to restrain the dictatorships from violating the peace seemed to prove that only an organization empowered to enforce laws could prevent war. His criticisms were not based solely on theoretical or academic evidence. In 1933, Humber had served as the organizing director of a League of Nations body, the Institute of World Affairs at Mondsee, Austria, which organized international gatherings dedicated to world peace. He had seen the League's failure at first hand. What the League lacked, he believed, was the ability to enact and enforce legislation on its own. During the next few months, July – December 1941, Humber worked feverishly to create an organization and draft a plan of action to accomplish his goals. Afterwards, he called together a group of friends and advisors, to his summer home on Davis Island, North Carolina, to hear his proposals. At the gathering, on 27 December 1940, he told them of his proposal to create permanent world peace through international law and presented his manifesto: The Declaration of the Federation of the World. The declaration called upon State Legislatures to ask Congress and the President to join or create an international organization that would be empowered to pass legislation and enforce peace throughout the world. Most of those present signed the document.

Humber then set out to build an organization to support the plan and campaigned furiously across the country, especially during the period 1941-1948. He found strong support in his own Baptist church, and in numerous other Protestant churches, throughout the country. The faculty of East Carolina Teachers College voted to endorse Humber's principles, on 31 January 1941, as did the alumni association. Academic communities throughout the country also endorsed the idea. Within the year, the North Carolina General Assembly became the first state legislature to approve the plan. Over the next few years, 16 state legislatures adopted what came to be known as "Humber Resolutions" and many more seriously considered and debated the proposal without adopting it.

By 1945, Humber had become a recognized leader in the international effort to prevent war and create organizations to help establish and maintain international peace. He had attended the Dumbarton Oaks Conference, held in Washington, DC in 1944, to help plan for the postwar international organization that became the United Nations. Later, in 1945, he represented the Southern Council on International Relations at the San Francisco Conference that drafted the United Nations charter. However, when the United Nations took shape it seemed to sap the energy from Humber's World Federation movement. To reinvigorate his cause, Humber co-founded the United World Federalist organization, in 1947, to advance the World Federation cause. During the late 1940s and 1950s, Humber's campaign for World Federation grew ever more slowly and by the mid-1950s, stopped making any progress. The advent of the Iron Curtain, the Cold War and the Nuclear Age seemed to contradict the ideas of the world peace through international law. With the rise of anti-Communism suspicion of and opposition to Humber's campaign increased and several states retracted their resolutions supporting it. Humber himself began to concentrate his efforts on strengthening the United Nations, rather than on creating a stronger and better organization. He remained active in its affairs to the end of his life. He was vice president of the UWF from 1947 – 1950, a member of the National Executive Council, 1947 – 1949, and president of the North Carolina Branch, from 1961 until his death.

Also, during the mid-1940s, Humber began to put more energy into his art interests. He had already started collecting art while still in France. He now became a member of the North Carolina State Art Society's board of trustees from 1943 until his death, and its chairman from 1949 - 1961. He used this position to lead a campaign to raise $2 million to create a North Carolina Museum of Art. In 1947, he became a member of the North Carolina State Art Commission, appointed to study the possibility of obtaining public funds for a state funded art museum. He chaired the Commission from 1951 – 1961. Ultimately, in 1951, Humber's efforts proved successful and the General Assembly appropriated $1 million dollars for a state art museum provided a private donor could be found to match this amount. Humber, who had long worked actively to secure private donations, had already convinced the Samuel H. Kress Foundation to match whatever the General Assembly would commit. Thus, the NCMA became the first state-funded art museum in the United States in 1952.

Humber immediately became the leading figure in the North Carolina art and culture world. He became president of the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association in 1950. He served as trustee of the North Carolina Symphony Society, 1955 – 1970, and a member of its Executive Committee after 1967. Meanwhile, he was working to establish the North Carolina Museum of Art. During 1951 – 1956, he was intimately involved in recruiting staff, developing a site for the museum and for renovations of a building as a museum, also for the acquisition of museum collections, the development of museum policies, procedures, and programs, and in public relations activities. He was elected chairman of the board of trustees of the NCMA in 1961, serving until his death, in 1970, and as a member of the North Carolina Museum of Art Foundation, from 1963 until his death. During this whole period, he was very active in maintaining legislative support for the museum and its activities.

Humber's success in establishing the NCMA, led to increased public recognition and a renewal of his political ambitions. In 1956, he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, and, in 1958, he ran a successful campaign for the State Senate from Pitt County, NC. He was reelected, in 1960 and 1962, but was defeated in the Democratic primary election in 1964. In the State Senate, Humber was deeply involved in efforts to reform the State Constitution to make the electoral system more equitable; to improve the judicial and legal system; and he also became deeply involved in efforts to direct state funds to education and teacher training, especially higher education, technical institutes and community colleges and to education and funding for the arts and cultural institutions, especially the NCMA. Humber was also involved in promoting the establishment of community and regional development proposals and organizations, including the Edenton and Chowan County Historical Commission, the Pitt County Development Commission, the Coast Plain Planning and Development Commission, and the Tar River Basin Development Commission. He was especially involved in commissions to celebrate the anniversaries of the Civil War and North Carolina State University, the Tryon Palace Commission, and the State Capitol Planning and Heritage Square Commission, 1962 – 1970, among others. He was a member of the North Carolina Conservatory of Music Committee, 1962 – 1964, and of the Governor's Study Committee on Vocational Education, 1967-1970.

After his unsuccessful campaign for reelection to the State Senate in 1964, Humber devoted himself to his educational, social, and cultural activities. As a devout Baptist, he had long been active in local, state, and regional Baptist organizations. He was member of the Board of Deacons of Memorial Baptist Church, in Greenville, NC, serving as chairman, trustee, and Sunday School Teacher. He was elected vice president of the North Carolina Baptist State Convention in 1947. He subsequently became active in Baptist higher education as a trustee of Meredith College, 1947-1950; as trustee of Wake Forest College, 1951 – 1954, 1958 – 1960; and as president of the Board and Chairman of the Executive Committee, 1960. He continued his interests in these organizations for the remainder of his life. He also continued his interests in local art organizations as a member of the East Carolina Art Society, 1956 – 1964, becoming a Life member of its Advisory Council in 1964. Humber especially focused his attention on promoting education in Pitt County. From 1964 until his death, he was active on the Board of Directors of the Pitt County Technical Institute, serving as vice president, 1967 – 1968, and as president, 1968 – 1970. During this period, he oversaw the construction of a new and expanded campus and its transformation into Pitt Community College. He was active as a member of the East Carolina Art Society.

Humber was also active in many clubs and social organizations, including Phi Beta Kappa, Omicron Delta Kappa, and Sigma Phi Epsilon. He was a Rotarian and a member of Watauga, in Raleigh, NC and of the Harvard Club of New York, and of the Executives Club of Pitt County.

Humber remained active to the end of his life. He died unexpectedly, in Greenville, NC, on 10 November 1970, while viewing the film "War and Peace". He is buried in Cherry Hill Cemetery, in Greenville. Later that year, Pitt Community College named its newest building the Robert Lee Humber Building, to honor their former president.

Humber's widow, Lucie Berthier Humber, survived him by nearly 12 years. After her marriage to Robert Lee Humber, in 1929, Lucie had earned a doctorate from the University of Paris in 1940, while raising three children. Unfortunately, her dissertation was never published due to the destruction of the printing plant by a German air raid. Upon her arrival in the United States, Lucie quickly rose to prominence in her own right. She served as president of the Greenville Woman's Club, 1945 – 1947, and as president of the American Association of University Women of North Carolina, 1947 – 1951. She was vice president of the North Carolina Legislative Council, 1952 – 1954. Meanwhile, like her husband, she served on several state boards and commissions. She was active in Greenville's UN Week celebrations. Additionally, Lucie was an accomplished artist, winning the 1960 North Carolina Federation of Women's Clubs James Wesley White Cup, for her landscape paintings. Following Mrs. Humber's death, on 28 June 1982, the Humbers' heirs gave the family's Greenville home to the people of Greenville and Pitt County as a "living tribute" to the Humbers and their lifetime of public service.

In 1996, the Wellington B. Gray Gallery at East Carolina University, produced a major exhibit to honor Robert Lee Humber's life and accomplishments. To accompany and document the exhibit, the gallery produced a book entitled Robert Lee Humber: A Collector Creates, which included a series of articles on Humber's life and accomplishment, the art he collected and the art institutions he established and supported.

Sources: Robert Lee Humber: A Collector Creates, edited by Wellington B. Gray Gallery (Greenville, NC; College of Arts and Sciences and School of Art, East Carolina University © 1996) 143 pages. ISBN 0-9636759-2-3. Call No. N5220.H86 H86 1996 The Humber Family, by John L. Humber, in: Chronicles of Pitt County, p. 767 Robert Lee Humber, by John L. Humber, in: Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, William S. Powell, ed. 6 vols. (University of North Carolina Press, © 1979-1996) https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/humber-robert-lee Robert Lee Humber Resume [1970] #1316.131.u.4 Robert Lee Humber Resume [1967] #1316.082.l.3a Robert Lee Humber Resume [1962] #1316.131.u.3 Robert Lee Humber Resume [1961] #1316.195.zn Robert Lee Humber Resume [1948] #1316.131.u.2 Robert Lee Humber Resume [1944] #1316.131.u.1

Scope and arrangement

The Robert Lee Humber, Jr. Papers consists of materials documenting the life of Greenville, North Carolina's most notable figure during much of the 20th century. The collection was compiled by Humber during his lifetime and arranged by a series of secretarial assistants, according to the relationship of the files to Humber and their subject matter. The collection contains materials dating from 1830 – 2010, but mainly from the period, 1940 – 1970, following Humber's return to the United States and the Fall of France to German forces. Humber's great-grandson, Brian Swanson, inventoried the bulk of the collection prior to donation and the present arrangement is based on his work. The collection contains relatively little relating to Humber's early life, education, and business activities during the period 1921-1940, during which he was a graduate student in the United Kingdom and France and made a large fortune as European manager and legal representative for the Gilcrease Oil Company, Tulsa, OK. The collection contains 257 archival containers and 30 oversized folders holding 745 oversized items. By volume, the collection contains 134.952 cubic feet of archival, manuscript, photographic, printed, audio recordings, three-dimensional [museum objects] and oversized materials. The collection is arranged in 16 series, each containing from 1 to 72 subseries. The series document Humber's wide range of personal, political, social, and business interests; professional and legal, intellectual, educational, religious, artistic, and cultural, and philanthropic activities; his membership in various organizations in North Carolina, the United States and internationally. The series are arranged by subject matter, in rough but not strict chronological order and material format. The subseries are also arranged by subject matter, but not in any uniform order, alphabetical, chronological, or other. Similarly, the files within subseries follow no strict, uniform, principle of arrangement. It may be that Humber's secretaries could create their own filing systems.

The collection contains 257 archival containers and 30 oversized folders holding 745 oversized items. By volume, the collection contains 134.952 cubic feet of archival, manuscript, photographic, printed materials, and oversized materials. The collection is arranged in 16 series, each containing from 1 to 72 subseries. The series document Humber's wide range of personal, political, social, and business interests; professional and legal, intellectual, educational, religious, artistic, and cultural, and philanthropic activities; his membership in various organizations in North Carolina, the United States and internationally.

Administrative information

Custodial History

August 22, 2017, 100 cubic feet; This collection documents the life of Robert Lee Humber, Jr., (May 30, 1898-Nov. 10, 1970) who was well-known nationally and in many countries for his Movement for World Federation begun in 1940 as a way to promote lasting world peace. In North Carolina, he was also well-known for persuading the General Assembly and the Kress Foundation of New York to invest heavily in founding the North Carolina Museum which opened in 1956. Other interests of Dr. Humber were state politics (serving as a Democrat state senator from Pitt County), education (leading the effort to create Pitt Technical Institute), and the Southern Baptist denomination. These extensive files donated from the estate of his son John L. Humber cover all of his life's work. Gift of John L. Humber estate.

May 2, 2022, (unprocessed addition 1), 80 cubic feet; This addition to the Robert Lee Humber, Jr., Papers contains the personal papers of Humber including correspondence with family members and friends, manuscripts, documents related to his college education, daily journals, travel souvenirs, books, pamphlets and articles related to his interests, and material related to Thomas Gilcrease and Company. Also included are materials related to family members including correspondence, books and shop ledgers belonging to his father Robert Lee Humber, Sr., and mother Lena C. Davis Humber; and correspondence and other documents related to his wife Lucie Berthier Humber and her family; his siblings John Davis Humber, Leslie Mumford Humber, and Lena Dey Humber Smith; and to his sons Marcel Berthier Humber and John Leslie Humber. The donors are grandchildren of Robert Lee Humber, Jr. Gift of Rachel Ninette Humber, John Michael Humber, and Lucie Humber Swanson.

Source of acquisition

Gift of the John L. Humber estate, 08 June 2017.

Gift of Rachel Ninette Humber, John Michael Humber, and Lucie Humber Swanson.

Processing information

Collection processed by Jonathan Dembo in 2019-2020.

Copyright notice

Literary rights to specific documents are retained by the authors or their descendants in accordance with U.S. copyright law.

Metadata Rights Declaration

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