The papers include some of Lander’s correspondence, reports and other University committee records. The material related to Lander’s publications include correspondence with publishers and other researchers, drafts of the publication, and primary sources including photographs and photocopies of correspondence, diaries, wills, and land documents.

The original materials date from 1933–1988 with copies of material dating from 1581-1939. The bulk of the collection dates from 1955–1988.

The papers document Lander’s career in teaching, research and service as a professor of history at Clemson. Although there are gaps, Lander’s professional activities and research comprise the bulk of the papers. There are correspondence, memos, minutes and other materials relating to his participation in the American Association of University Professors, the South Carolina Committee for the Humanities, the South Carolina Historical Association, the South Carolina History Guidelines Committee, the South Carolina Tricentennial Commission, and the Southern Historical Association. The papers also document his service to the University as a member of the Faculty Senate, the Graduate Committee, an ad hoc committee selected to study a question of violation of academic freedom of another history professor. The papers also contain material related to Lander’s teaching duties, including serving on thesis committees for masters candidates, and some information regarding his two stints as a Fulbright lecturer in American history, one in India and another in Nigeria.

Lander’s vigorous support of academic freedom is documented from the Faculty Senate materials in the collection as well as the controversy surrounding the dismissal of another history professor. As a member of the Graduate Committee, he fought for higher academic standards, especially in the Education Department, as evidenced by the Graduate Committee papers. Lander’s interest in and support for justice for blacks is evident in his participation in the organization of a 1973 symposium examining the changes in the South since the 1954 desegregation decision.

Research material from several of Lander’s books and other writings are included and is arranged alphabetically by the title of the work. The material varies among the different titles but may include correspondence, diaries, wills, and photographs that are copies, not originals, unless noted in the container list. There is correspondence with publishers and with readers, requests for information or permission to publish, some research materials, clippings, and catalogs, book announcements, and/or reviews. The publisher correspondence for these books sheds light on many of the issues involved in the scholarly publishing process. The photographs are of a variety of images related to South Carolina history that Lander accumulated for his histories of that state. Most are copies from the collections of other repositories although there are some originals of places in South Carolina. There is one folder of miscellany from the Gary family 1861-1876 that Dean of Liberal Arts, Morris Cox, gave to Dr. Lander.

For Lander’s book The Calhoun Family and Thomas Green Clemson: The Decline of a Southern Patriarchy (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1983) there is his draft manuscript arranged by the fifteen chapters of the book, various research material including copies of letters, wills and obituaries relating to Clemson and several members of the Calhoun family and some book reviews. Research material for Lander’s book The Life and Times of Ella Lorton, a Pendleton, SC Confederate (Clemson: Clemson Printers, 1996), includes copies of letters, excerpts of diaries, wills, obituaries, and genealogies for the Lortons, Lee, Livingston and related families. Ella Lorton Lee, married Gideon Lee following the death of Lee’s first wife, Floride Clemson Lee, granddaughter of Thomas Green Clemson. There are approximately 200 copies of photographs related to South Carolina history and geography as well as approximately 30 original photographs collected for use in his book South Carolina: An Illustrated History of the Palmetto State (Northridge, CA: Windsor, 1988).