Finding Aid to the Records of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Office of the President, 1930-1959Sponsor:This finding aid has been encoded by the Center for History of Physics, American Institute of Physics as part of a collaborative project supported by a grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities, an independent federal agency. Collaboration members in 1999 consisted of: American Institute of Physics, California Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northwestern University, Rice University, University of Alaska, University of Illinois, and University of Texas. Publisher:American Institute of Physics. Center for History of Physics. Encoding Information:Machine-readable finding aid encoded in EAD v.1.0 by Clay Redding on May 3, 2000 from an existing finding aid using NoteTab Pro and C++ scripts created by James P. Tranowski (provided by Elizabeth Dow, Special Collections, University of Vermont). Any revisions made to this finding aid occurred as part of the editing and encoding process. Reviewed by [name, institution] on [date] . Finding aid written in English. Description of the CollectionLocation of collection:Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Institute Archives and Special Collections. Title and dates of collection:Records of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Office of the President, 1930-1959 Papers/Records created by:Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Office of the President. Size of collection:84 cubic feet in 244 manuscript boxes Short description of collection:The collection consists of records created while Karl Taylor Compton and James R. Killian, Jr. served as presidents of MIT, 1930-1959, and contains correspondence, reports, memoranda, and committee materials about the activities of the president and his staff, the definition and evolution of policies, and the administration of the Institute. Records document Compton's efforts to strengthen the science curriculum and research programs, beginning in the 1930s. Languages Represented:English Selected Search TermsThese papers have been indexed in the International Catalog of Sources for History of Physics and Allied Sciences (ICOS) using the following terms. Those seeking related materials should search under these terms. Administrative History of the Office of the PresidentWhen Karl Taylor Compton took office as the ninth President of MIT on 1 July 1930, he assumed duties somewhat different from those of his predecessor, Samuel Wesley Stratton. Compton accepted the presidency with the understanding that Stratton would assume the newly-created office of chairman of the Corporation and chairman of the Executive Committee of the Corporation. The president previously chaired Corporation meetings. Since the president is "subject to the direction of the Executive Committee,"1 the creation of a separate chairmanship had the potential to weaken the presidency. In fact, Stratton's position as chairman was largely honorary and Compton was named secretary of the Executive Committee on 6 January 1931. After Stratton's death on 18 October 1931, the chairmanship was left vacant and Compton presided over Corporation and Executive Committee meetings. When Compton retired from the presidency, he assumed the chairmanship in 1948. The president's staff was small. When Compton assumed his position in 1930, the office consisted of two staff members: Anne Lahey (Stanton), a secretary who came with Compton from Princeton University, and Claire Perham Edwardson, former secretary to President Stratton, who remained to assist the new president. The president made virtually all administrative decisions and had only a few administrative officers to assist him. These included the registrar, bursar, dean of undergraduate students, dean of graduate students, and director of admissons. Each of these office holders reported directly to the president. The faculty, over which the president presided, had virtual control over academic programs and policies. Compton's first goals were to increase the number of administrative officers, to encourage research, and to strengthen the scientific curriculum. During the early months of 1932, Compton brought a proposed new administrative organization before the Corporation and the Executive Committee for discussion. The plan (see below) proposed the creation of a vice presidency, three academic schools (Engineering, Science, Architecture) administered by deans, and two divisions (Humanities, Industrial Cooperation and Research). The positions of registrar, bursar, director of admissions, librarian, dean of undergraduate students, and dean of the graduate school were retained and the incumbents reported directly to the president and vice president. A new body, Administrative Council, was to coordinate the administration of the Institute. This body consisted of the president, the vice president, the deans, the bursar, and the chairman of the faculty. The plan was adopted by the Corporation in March 1932. Three administrative levels were implied in the plan: president, vice president, deans and administrative officers. However, all administrative officers reported directly to the president. Vice President Vannevar Bush served largely as an advisor to the president and as chief administrative officer in his absence. Bush had an office in the presidential suite where he could confer daily with Compton. They shared files and secretarial staff. The third administrative level was that of the deans. As Compton saw them: The deans of the professional schools are responsible under the President for the maintenance of strong faculties in their respective departments, for the preparation and administration of budgets, and for the programs of instruction and research. The Dean of the Graduate School is responsible for administering the regulations in regard to admission and handling of graduate students, for the general policies regarding examinations and requirements for degrees and for the administration of fellowships. It is naturally desirable that all the Deans should cooperate in the development of improved educational policies.2 The 1932 administrative reorganization was a success. By 1937, Compton was able to describe the new status quo: In the last analysis, it is of course the Corporation which as a body and through its Executive Committee administers the affairs of the Institute. Under it with successively less responsibility and with more specialized activity, function the President, the Vice President, the Deans, the Heads of Departments, and special officers. Practically speaking, the administration of the curriculum is in the hands of the Faculty, although the Corporation authorizes new degrees, appoints professors, and could take a more active part in controlling the educational activities if it felt this to be wise and necessary.3 During the 1932 reorganization, the president also appointed the first assistant to the president, Carroll Louis Wilson. Wilson remembered his duties as: ...serving as General Administrative Assistant to the President and working with Dr. Compton on a number of outside activities including the Science Advisory Board, 1933-1935...the Engineers Council for Professional Development...Patent Policy Committee of the National Research Council, etc.4 In addition to these duties, Wilson gathered information for Compton and Bush in preparation for numerous speeches, MIT memoranda, and policy decisions. Wilson was the first of many administrative assistants and executive assistants to the president. As the responsibilities of the office increased, so did the number of assistants and their responsibilities. In 1939 James Rhyne Killian joined the presidential staff as executive assistant to the president, bringing Jane McMasters with him from the Technology Review to serve as his secretary. During the 1940s Thomas Creamer, Malcolm Kispert, and Robert Kimball joined the staff. Kispert was responsible for compiling statistics for the annual reports of the president and served as secretary to the Executive Committee among other responsibilities. Kimball's duties included overseeing the daily operation of the president's office. In 1940 Killian worked on devising overhead rates for government contracts. He also analyzed staff flow and salary issues with the help of Creamer who remarked in 1943: It is interesting in reviewing this period to see how many activities which are now carried on in other offices at the Institute were first started under Mr. Killian's direction in the President's Office and as they grew were passed on for other administrative officers to carry on.5 When Vannevar Bush left the vice presidency in 1938, Killian assumed many vice presidential duties, responsibilities acknowledged with his appointment as executive vice president in 1943. Through Compton's recommendation, many of his assistants secured positions of influence in government, industry, and academe after leaving the president's office. Associations formed there often lasted a lifetime, for Compton corresponded frequently with his former assistants, sat on government and professional association committees and boards with many of them, and called upon their support for MIT after their active connection with the Institute was severed. Many of these individuals began their education or careers at MIT, left for other positions, and returned as faculty or members of the Corporation. This network of contacts served MIT especially well when the Second World War began. At that time many of Compton's former MIT associates were in Washington or serving as officers of national scientific organizations. Through them, Compton was well informed about science and engineering in the United States. Mobilization for war began at MIT more than a year before the declaration. Military training was mandated for all fit male students. Army, Navy, and National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) war research contracts totalled nearly $4 million during academic year 1940-1941.6 Many MIT officers and faculty spent part of their time advising the U.S. government on military matters. The president's office was one of the first offices affected by these changes--it felt a manpower shortage long before the draft was instituted. Vannevar Bush left the vice presidency to join the Carnegie Institution; Carroll Wilson joined him there a year later. Allen Horton left to work for Standard Oil of California. When war was declared, the responsibilities and commitments of the Institute grew at a staggering rate, compounding its manpower shortage. Successful war research programs created a demand for MIT advisors. Advisors formerly associated with the Institute encouraged the use of MIT as a research center. President Compton joined numerous war boards and committees which took him away from the Institute frequently. As a result, many of the responsibilities and burdens of the presidency fell to James Killian even before he was officially appointed executive vice president. Compton described Killian's responsibilities best in a letter to Killian's draft board dated 8 June 1942: Since the active program of national preparedness began about two years ago, I have been devoting at least three-fourths of my time to government business in connection with the work of the Office of Scientific Research and Development. This has thrown on Mr. Killian a much greater share of the executive responsibilities of this institution...[A]mong Mr. Killian's administrative duties at MIT, a considerable amount of his attention is even now being devoted to the war in connection with the administration of war contracts for research, or for the training of personnel...[Mr. Killian is] thoroughly acquainted with our administrative problems, with the personnel, with the details of our budget, and with our problems of public relations and contracts with government and business concerns.7 After the war, the student body grew and research contracts continued to come to MIT. Thus, the administration expanded rather than shrinking to its pre-war size. In 1949, the new senior administrative post of provost was created. Said the president, The Provost is an academic officer who shares with the President and the Deans the administrative direction of the Institute's program. His primary concern is the administration and coordination of educational and research activities which do not fall within the jurisdiction of any single school.8 The provost was also made ex officio vice-chair of Academic Council. In the fall of 1948 Compton was called to Washington to serve as chairman of the Research and Development Board, an agency established to oversee military scientific research efforts in the postwar period. He resigned as president of the Institute. Killian was named president-designate by the Corporation in September, the date to be specified later. Early in October the Corporation voted to make the transfer effective 15 October, with Compton becoming chairman of the Corporation. As Killian's presidency began, he was quick to express his own administrative style. He increased the responsibilities and authority of the senior administrative officers and chose to follow their work closely rather than having the work performed directly through the office of the president. This decision was dictated partially by the different responsibilities of the MIT presidency during the post-war period. The president of MIT was now a national figure, expected to serve as a spokesman for the scientific and engineering community, to serve on the committees and boards that represented that community, and to hold himself available for government service. The president also was expected to participate in MIT fund raising campaigns and to encourage actively cooperative efforts between industry and MIT. The decentralization of administration activated by response to the growth of the Institute during the post-war period accelerated during the 1950s. In 1951, two positions were expanded: vice president and provost, and vice president and treasurer. Three years later a vice president for industrial and governmental relations was appointed to assume responsibilities for sponsored research initially assigned to the vice president and provost. In 1956, the Corporation appointed Julius A. Stratton as chancellor. The chancellor ...administers the Institute's academic program...with all academic officers coming under his jurisdiction. [He] serves as deputy to the President...serves as the general executive officer for all Institute affairs and, in the absence of the President, is authorized to have all the powers and perform all the duties and functions of the President. [He] also serves as a member of Executive Committee.9 There were a number of other administrative appointments made during the period. In 1950, the president established the new post of secretary of the Institute, "an officer who will assist the Secretary of the Corporation and have responsibility for our fund raising, public relations and the development of our Alumni Educational Council."10 Many of these responsibilities had been undertaken previously by Robert M. Kimball as administrative assistant to the president. In 1952 Malcolm Kispert was promoted from administrative assistant to the president to executive assistant to the president. E. Francis Bowditch was named special advisor to the president in 1956 "to carry through to realization the proposals of the Committee"11 on Student Housing. In the fall of that same year, James G. Kelso became executive assistant to the president and secretary of the Executive Committee. In 1953, the president noted that ...academic deans have assumed more complete responsibility for their schools and have used this increased autonomy effectively to promote the special characteristics and objectives of the departmental groupings they administer.12 Such decentralization increased the influence and responsibilities of coordinating groups, such as Administrative Council, the Budget and Personnel Committee, Faculty Council and coordinating bodies formed by Institute Schools. Killian summarized the philosophy and goals of decentralization in 1957: Over the past five years, the Institute has studied the need for a reallocation, regrouping and redefinition of executive responsibilities in several important areas. Among our specific objectives has been the achievement of a centralized responsibility for personnel policies and all non-academic employees. A second goal has been to clarify and simplify the administration of sponsored research. A third and overall objective has been to provide the best administrative support for the Institute's educational and research activities.13 In November 1957 President Killian was named Special Assistant for Science and Technology to President Eisenhower. From that date to 31 December 1958, Julius A. Stratton, MIT's chancellor, took on the additional role of acting president of the Institute. On 1 January 1959 Stratton became the eleventh president of MIT.
Reorganization Chart Click here to see the organizational chart of the MIT Office of the President. Notes for this section:1. "By-Laws of the Corporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology." Cambridge: MIT, 1934.(Back to Text)2. Report of the President, 1931-1932. Cambridge: MIT, 1932, p. 13.(Back to Text)3. Report of the President, 1936-1937. Cambridge: MIT, 1937, p. 22.(Back to Text)4. "Memorandum re. the experience of Carroll L. Wilson," 1950. In Carroll Louis Wilson Papers, MIT, Institute Archives and Special Collections.(Back to Text)5. Thomas F. Creamer memorandum, October 22, 1943, p. 6. In Records of the MIT Office of the President, 1930-1959, filed under Creamer.(Back to Text)6. Report of the President, 1940-1941. Cambridge: MIT, p. 10.(Back to Text)7. In Records of the MIT Office of the President, 1930-1959, under Killian.(Back to Text)8. Report of the President, 1948-1949. Cambridge: MIT, 1949, p. 21.(Back to Text)9. Report of the President, 1956. Cambridge: MIT, 1956, p. 17.(Back to Text)10. Report of the President, 1950-1951. Cambridge: MIT, 1951, p. 25.(Back to Text)11. Op. cit., p. 19.(Back to Text)12. Report of the President, 1956. Cambridge: MIT, 1956, p. 25.(Back to Text)13. Report of the President, 1957. Cambridge: MIT, 1957, p. 35.(Back to Text) Scope and Contents of CollectionThe collection consists of 84 cubic feet of correspondence, memoranda, minutes of meetings, reports, research data, and notes. Research Strengths The collection includes material that documents MIT administrative history, scientific research (during World War II), postwar research, science policy, and the life of Karl Taylor Compton, MIT's ninth president. MIT Administrative History The use of this collection is essential to an understanding of the administrative history of the Institute from 1930 to 1958. The files include items that reflect critical administrative decisions and administrative routines as well as administrative reorganizations. The 1932 reorganization is described in folders on Administrative Council and in the correspondence with the newly-appointed vice president, deans, and members of the Executive Committee. The 1956 reorganization is described in two folders filed under Organization of the MIT Administration. The evolution of new policies is reflected in memoranda exchanged by top administrators, filed under Academic Council, Administrative Council, Faculty Committees, Faculty Council, Overhead-Government research, Patent Policy, Salary Review Committee, Space, Staff Administrative Committee, Student-Faculty Curriculum Committee, and elsewhere. A major shift in the educational direction of the Institute was made during the immediate post-war period. A great deal of attention was given to defining the professional responsibilities and rewards of faculty. Several surveys were conducted, including one on space to determine future needs, one on faculty salaries, and one on education, carried out by a faculty committee. Information on these surveys can be found in the collection under Faculty Salary Survey, Committee on Education Survey, Space: Post-World War II readjustment, Malcolm Kispert (author of the salary survey), and Warren K. Lewis (chairman of the Committee on Educational Survey). The Report of the Committee on Educational Survey issued in 1949, known popularly as the Lewis Report, was the most important ingredient in a general reform of curriculum which followed the war. There are six folders on the survey. Another ingredient was a new program called the Combined Plan of Study, occasionally referred to as the three-two plan. The Combined Plan allowed undergraduate students from several liberal arts colleges to attend MIT for two years and receive a combined B.A. and S.B. degree. There are seven folders of material on this plan. Curriculum revision of particular schools, departments, and programs is described under the names of deans, department chairmen, and program coordinators. Material describing the creation of new departments, programs, administrative offices, laboratories, and centers can be found under names of administrators, sponsors, and/or donors. Material on the School of Management can be found in correspondence between the president and Alfred P. Sloan, benefactor of the school, as well as in folders titled Sloan School. MIT's involvement in curriculum reform outside the Institute is reflected in the Physical Science Study Committee folders. Administrative routines are reflected in the files on Administrative Council, the MIT faculty, space allocation, commencement, tuition, alumni activities, and Honorary Secretaries. There are files on the swimming pool and on individual buildings such as Senior House, Kresge Auditorium/Chapel, and the Navy and Army Building that document their planning and use. Gifts, Bequests, Fund Raising The collection also documents MIT's fund raising activities. The files contain information about bequests, class gifts, foundations, grants, the President's Special Fund, the Westinghouse Professorship, and various other sources of support such as the Bemis Foundation, the Carnegie Foundation, the Chemical Foundation, the Richard Chichester duPont Memorial, the Godfrey Lowell Cabot Solar Energy Research Fund, the Rockefeller Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan and the Sloan Foundation, Henry A. Wise Wood, and others. Funding for the Laboratory for Nuclear Engineering was obtained by writing to oil companies, and these letters are filed under Nuclear Science. A total of two linear feet of material concerns fund raising and gifts. Depression, 1930s The Records of the Office of the President (AC 4) reflect the major issues of a period. During the 1930s a great deal of information was collected on the depression and the MIT response to the financial crisis. Student anti-war activities as well as the activity of campus fascist and socialist organizations during the 1930s are well documented. Also, there are folders relevant to this subject under Compulsory Military Training. The files contain numerous items concerning the opposition of educators, and of Compton himself, to the Teacher's Oath required by the United States and Massachusetts legislatures. Correspondence includes a number of letters from and/or to European educators, scientists, and others pressured to leave Europe, who came to the United States in 1938 and 1939. Many of these refugees were offered, or sought, faculty appointments at MIT. War-Related Research The war years are well represented in the files. [John Ely Burchard's Q.E.D.: M.I.T. in World War II (New York: John Wiley, 1948) provides background on the period.] During the war, MIT received $117 million in defense contracts from the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD). This office was directed by Vannevar Bush, former vice president of the Institute. Other MIT defense sponsors included the U.S. Army, the Navy, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, and numerous smaller governmental agencies. MIT placed a very high priority on its defense work, and thus voluminous records documenting defense research, training, and administration are found in the collection. Some information on the radar research laboratory (Radiation Laboratory) is found under National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) and under the name of its director, Lee A. Dubridge. Relevant papers are filed under a number of different headings. Information on overall administration of defense contracts is generally found under Nathaniel Sage, principal investigators of large projects, and in National Defense, Industrial Relations, Division of Industrial Cooperation, and Overhead. Information on particular projects is generally filed under the name of the principal investigator or project director. Official records of the Radiation Laboratory are held by the National Archives and Records Administration (Northeast Region), Waltham, Massachusetts. Defense research at the Institute also is documented under Army-Navy Programs (23 folders) and the Radar School (11 folders). There are numerous files on work conducted by MIT for the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences, the Army Specialized Training Program, and on important war research in meteorology. There are 32 folders on Army, Navy, and Air Force ROTC programs. Since the Institute had to expand rapidly to accommodate its defense contracts, files on buildings, space, and surplus property also provide information on defense work. Information reflecting the politics and alliances of the period generally is arranged by correspondent. Correspondence with the following men documents defense research at MIT and the overall defense research strategy of the government: H. H. Arnold, Harold Bowen, Edward Bowles, John Burchard, Vannevar Bush, Arthur Compton, Wilson Compton, James Conant, Bradley Dewey, C. Stark Draper, Lee A. DuBridge, Julius Furer, Leslie Groves, George Harrison, Ernst Hauser, Jerome Hunsaker, John Loofbourow, Alfred Loomis, Nicholas Milas, Edward Moreland, Delbert Rhind, Franklin Roosevelt, Nathaniel Sage, Harry Truman, Alden Waitt, and Alan Waterman. Material filed under the Army Specialized Training Program, the American Council on Education, and the Division of Industrial Cooperation adds to the documentation of war research. The files include voluminous records detailing the administration of war research at MIT. The files swell with letters of transmission for contracts, financial reports on individual contracts, staff and material requisitions, lists of classified documents, and other routine administrative records. An excellent list of foreign visitors can be compiled from such routine records. Scientific Research The expansion of research projects and facilities at MIT began long before the war with the appointment of Karl Taylor Compton as president. He felt "the necessity of greater emphasis upon fundamental sciences"14 at MIT, and believed that he was chosen president so that he could assist the Institute in the development of a strong research program.15 One of the earliest and best documented research efforts during the Compton administration was the development of the high voltage electrostatic generator by Robert J. Van de Graaff. Twenty-seven folders under the inventor's name describe this work. These are augmented by folders which describe the first public display of the generator at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair. The correspondence of John C. Slater documents the negotiations that eventually lured Slater to MIT as part of the Institute's plan for strengthening the sciences, particularly the physics department. Slater was instrumental in securing men who were distinguished in the field of theoretical and experimental physics in the 1930s, and he planned the postwar Department of Physics as well. He made the undergraduate course of study in physics at MIT in the 1930s more rigorous and reorganized graduate courses to give students more freedom for research. Three folders of Slater's correspondence in AC 4 contain photocopies of original documents from the Slater Collection at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Other research programs documented in the collection include projects on housing (Bemis Foundation), solar energy, biological engineering, cellulose chemistry, meteorology, public health, aeronautics, physics, nuclear engineering, fog flying, and radar. The collection includes several folders on Round Hill, an estate left to the Institute by E. H. R. Green as a home for research in aeronautics and microwave technology. The Whirlwind computer project is documented by several files. The collection includes correspondence with Francis Bitter discussing his early research in magnetic fields and with Robley Evans discussing his proposed research activities. Two linear feet of materials concern developments at MIT and elsewhere in nuclear engineering and atomic research. This includes folders on Crossroads, the code name for the Bikini nuclear weapons tests of 1946. Compton was an observer at these tests. Ten folders of material concern guided missile research, and there are folders on the Gas Turbine Laboratory, the Hydrodynamics Laboratory, the Acoustics Laboratory, and the Metals Processing and Machine Tools Laboratory. Postwar Period The collection reflects clearly the tensions of the postwar period. Soviet science, technology, and nuclear capability increasingly became a concern of both the scientific and political communities. Three MIT professors were examined in the course of the investigations of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, the Special Commission to Study and Investigate Communism and Subversive Activities and Related Matters in the Commonwealth and other investigative bodies. MIT's response to the investigations is reflected in a small amount of material, some of which is restricted. Educational, Professional, and Scientific Societies World War II, the development of nuclear arms, and the political tensions of the postwar world focused a great deal of attention upon the scientific community. Educational, scientific, and professional societies became better known to the general public. Although public recognition of MIT's role in the societies increased during the 1950s, MIT was active in them the previous twenty years. Throughout the period, both Presidents Compton and Killian were active in the Association of American Universities and the Land Grant College Association. Killian was chairman of the Tax Committee of the AAU during the early 1950s; the committee is well represented in the collection. Both men were interested in Engineering Experiment Stations, established by the Land Grant College Association under the Green Bill. The collection includes about one linear foot of AAU materials and eight folders of Land Grant College Association material. Ten folders represent the work of the American Institute of Physics, reflecting Compton's commitment to the AIP, especially during the 1930s. President's Science Advisory Committee In 1935 Compton was appointed a member of the Scientific Advisory Board by President Roosevelt. One folder in the collection represents his work on the Board. Killian was involved in planning the President's Science Advisory Committee (PSAC). He became chairman of the PSAC in 1957 and the first Scientific Advisor to the President. The collection includes one linear foot of PSAC material. PSAC was only one of a number of boards, organizations and committees on which Killian served following the Second World War. The collection includes material on the following organizations: Brookhaven National Laboratory (20 folders), Nutrition Foundation (13 folders), Air University (6 folders), Research Corporation (18 folders), Army Scientific Advisory Panel (11 folders), the Educational Policies Commission (3 folders), the White House Conference on Education (15 folders), the American Council of Education (23 folders), the American Society for Engineering Education (9 folders), the Committee of New England of the National Planning Association (1 folder), the New England Council (7 folders), and the Lowell Institute Broadcasting Council (7 folders). K. T. Compton and J. R. Killian Personal Papers Compton wrote some of his personal correspondence at his office, so the collection contains some family correspondence. The collection also includes Compton's speeches and drafts of his writings, as well as letters of congratulation, tributes, short biographies, and correspondence about the Compton portrait. Very little personal material concerning Killian can be found in this collection. Researchers are directed to the James Rhyne Killian Papers (MC 423) and the Karl Taylor Compton Papers (MC 416) in the Institute Archives. Although most of the material in this collection is dated between 1930 and 1958, the collection does include earlier and later material. This early material was drawn from the Records of the Office of the President, 1897-1930 (AC 13) by the President's staff when pertinent to an issue under consideration at a later date, and was then refiled in the new presidential file (AC 4). Notes for this section:14. "Inauguration of Dr. Compton," Technology Review 32 (July 1930), p. 438.(Back to Text)15. Annual Report of the President, 1934-1935. Cambridge: MIT, 1935, p. 29.(Back to Text) Access to CollectionIn accordance with MIT policy, there are restrictions on access to portions of this collection. Researchers may request permission to use restricted materials. Consult the Institute Archives for further information. Boxes 243-244 are restricted for 75 years. Restrictions on Use of CollectionRequests for permission to publish material from the collection should be directed to the Institute Archivist. Provenance and Acquisition InformationThe records of the MIT Office of the President, 1930-1959, were transferred to the Institute Archives in 1978 by James Rhyne Killian. When Karl Taylor Compton and his secretary, Anne Lahey, arrived at the president's office in July 1930, they found at least two sets of records. One was a presidential file containing papers from 1897 to 1930. During 1930 some of Compton's presidential papers seem to have been added to this file. The 1897-1930 presidential file is now in the Institute Archives (MIT. Office of the President. Records, 1897-1930, henceforth referred to as AC 13). A second file in the president's office contained information on faculty and administrative staff and was maintained by Claire Edwardson. This file later became the nucleus of the Office of Academic Staff Records. Anne Lahey chose to establish new files for the Compton administration. Elizabeth Pigott succeeded Lahey in 1952. The new presidential files were maintained through the presidencies of Karl Taylor Compton and James Rhyne Killian from 1930 to 1959. They contained some records from AC 13 (pre-1930) which included information of on-going interest to Dr. Compton. When Julius Stratton was named acting president of MIT in November 1957, it was decided that Stratton's routine presidential correspondence would be filed into the Compton-Killian files. Items relating to substantive issues for which Stratton had continuing responsibilities as president were filed into Stratton's own presidential files. Thus, although most of the material in AC 4 is dated before November 1957, there is a substantial amount of routine correspondence for 1958 that was generated by Stratton. When Stratton became president on 1 January 1959, the Compton-Killian files were closed. The Records of the MIT Office of the President, 1930-1958, were transferred to the Institute Archives by James Killian in 1978. They were processed in 1981 by Deborah Cozort (Day), who retained the original order of the records in two series. Series one consisted of correspondence files organized alphabetically in divisions of one or more years. Series two contained an alphabetical subject file. Processing InformationThis collection was processed by Deborah A. Cozort in June 1981. It was reprocessed from 1989-1992. Over the years it became clear that the collection was difficult to use because of the chronological divisions of series one and because information on the same subjects could be found in both series. The staff decided to reorganize the collection into one alphabetical series without chronological divisions. Beginning in 1989, this work was carried out by Elizabeth Andrews, Lois Beattie, Paul Heffernan, Anna Koch, Kathleen Marquis, Jeffrey Mifflin, Mark Vargas, and Donna Webber. The folder list in the finding aid was rewritten to include the names of all primary correspondents in each folder so that no separate index was necessary. Reprocessing was completed in January 1992. Supporting Collections DescriptionThe Records of the Office of the President, 1930-1959 (AC 4), are complemented by the Records of the Office of the President, 1897-1930 (AC 13). Since these two files were together physically in the president's office during the 1930s, researchers interested in topics during that decade should consult both files. Researchers using AC 4 may also wish to consult the James Rhyne Killian Papers (MC 423), the Margaret Compton Papers (MC 351), the Karl Taylor Compton Papers (MC 416), the published works of these individuals, and Institute publications in the Archives collection of MIT publications. Additional records documenting the work of the Office of the President include the minutes of the Corporation (AC 278) and Executive Committee (AC 272), Records of the Office of the Vice President, 1932-1938 (AC 333), the Carroll Louis Wilson Papers (MC 29) which include some early material on his years as assistant to the president, and the Records of the Office of the Vice President for Industrial and Government Relations, 1958-1965 (AC 35). Records of the first deans of schools provide details of the administrative reorganization of 1932. Records of the faculty (AC 1) provide documentation of policy decisions and curriculum revisions encouraged by the administration. In addition to materials available at the Institute Archives, a number of collections in other repositories may be of interest to the researcher. The records of the U.S. Special Committee to Study the Rubber Situation, 1943, are available at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library (NUCMC MS 65-77). Karl Taylor Compton was a member of this committee. The Records of the Office of Scientific Research and Development and those of the National Defense Research Committee are housed at the National Archives. Records of the Radiation Laboratory (since they are government records) are held at the National Archives and Records Administration (Northeast Region) in Waltham, Massachusetts. Records of the U.S. Office of the Special Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, 1957-1961 (NUCMC 71-1705) are available for use at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library. (James Rhyne Killian was the first Special Assistant.) The Eisenhower Library also houses the Records of the U.S. President's Commission on National Goals, 1959-1961 (NUCMC MS 76-1885), of which Killian was a member. The papers of many of Compton's and Killian's associates and colleagues during the war years are housed in the Library of Congress and in the National Archives. Container List
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