Revilo P. Oliver Papers

DRAFT FINDING AID FOR A FEW BOXES OF REVILO OLIVER'S PAPERS (as of October 2025)

Oliver Revilo’s papers at the U of I archives consist of 106.8 cubic feet and were appraised and transferred from his dilapidated house in 2017 (the house had been empty since 1995) and from the house of his assistant Keith Whited after Whited’s death in December 2023. Saved materials mostly consist of Oliver’s involvement in right radical organizations and causes in the US and abroad and include newspapers, newsletters, paraphernalia, audio recordings, photographs, correspondence, print, reports. Oliver’s papers also contain his and his wife’s family papers as well as a few of his scholarly records and publications.

Papers from the two houses were in a mess: intermingled and in no particular order, wet, moldy, and infested. During appraisal the archivist had to pull out items one at a time to see if they could be saved physically and were of historical significance.

The complete processing Revilo Oliver’s papers will require a large grant and a dedicated, highly experienced archivist historian who specializes in right radical, National Socialist, Ku Klux Klan, eugenics, Holocaust denial, White Aryan, and other historical movements or theories and can read a few of the European languages.

In the meantime, the U of I archives is only able to provide access to 5 boxes. These contain one incomplete, alphabetical run of Oliver correspondence files (1949-1991) that had survived and was found in Keith Whited’s house.