Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation (reposting, long)

["Ben M. Primer" <PRIMER@PUCC.BITNET>]

I apologize for reposting this, but I have received no response whatsoever.
If I hear nothing by Thanksgiving, I will advise the organization that
they are out of luck.


I have been asked by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship
Foundation to post the following inquiry.  Please respond to me
directly, rather than over the listserv.

The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation is looking for
a home for the files of the Woodrow Wilson Fellows, 1945-1971.

To attract outstanding young men and women to the college
teaching profession, more than 18,000 students were awarded
Woodrow Wilson Fellowships for the first year of graduate study,
and in some cases, a dissertation year, between 1945 and 1971.
During 1958 and through 1967, the period of major support from
The Ford Foundation, 1,000 students were chosen annually from
among approximately 12,000 nominees in a competition that was a
national yardstick for academic excellence.  Candidates were
asked only to give serious consideration to college teaching
careers.  Regional selection committees weighed the quality of
the candidates' undergraduate preparation, competence in foreign
languages, and writing ability.  Those identified as most
promising were interviewed to judge their teaching potential,
their enthusiasm for their subjects, and their ability to convey
it to others.  They were thus triply selected: by nomination from
teachers who considered them possible future colleagues; by
academic records, recommendation, and personal essay; and by
interview.  More than 75% of the Fellows eventually received
their doctorates, primarily in the humanities and social
sciences.  They now serve on the faculties of virtually every
college and university in the United States and Canada.

The files of these Fellows, which include their application
papers, complete annual questionnaires up to 1967, and
correspondence, are an invaluable resource for study of the
formation and aspirations of a whole generation of college
teachers.  Included in the application files are 2,000 word
essays on the intellectual interests of the candidates and the
influences that led them to consider college teaching as careers.
The subsequent questionnaires dealt with their successes and
failures in graduate school, the obstacles they needed to
overcome, and finally the reaching of their goals as members of a
college faculty.  Statistical records have also been kept on the
undergraduate colleges that produced the most Fellows and the
graduate school at which they were most successful.

With increasing attention being paid by college to a scholar's
ability to teach as well as to publish, the same attention needs
to be turned to teaching potential at the time of graduate school
admission for those who consider academic careers as their
eventual goal.  The files of the Woodrow Wilson Fellows can
provide valuable clues to what makes a good college teacher.
They also represent the convictions, interests and histories of
many of the brightest young people at a difficult time in the
nation's history, covering the eras of the Korean War, the
Vietnam War, the civil rights movement and the beginnings of the
feminist movement.  The Fellows took part in all these
activities.  They were formed by them at the same time that they
helped to shape them.  Many of the Fellows, coming to maturity at
a time of political and social turmoil, are now on both sides of
the battles over political correctness, multiculturalism,
teaching reform and new scholarship that heeds the voices of
those who have often been neglected in the past.  Only a small
amount of research has been done on the Fellows, from self-
studies by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation to
see what they had wrought, to sociological analyses of the
situation of women academics and social activism among the
professoriate.

The files of the Fellows are in storage on the Princeton
University campus, some in metal file cases and some in
deteriorating cardboard boxes.  The Woodrow Wilson National
Fellowship Foundation would like to donate them to a school of
education or research library committed to keeping them intact as
an important records of American society and education in the
20th century.  The Foundation seeks only assurance that the files
will be preserved and a willingness to cover the cost of moving
them.  The files are available for inspection to interested
institutions.  Current addresses for approximately 14,000 of the
Fellows are available for follow-up research.


I also attach the observations of one archivist who has reviewed
the collection (I have not since it is not in our collecting
area):

I found an estimated 399 cubic feet of records, approximately 75%
in metal file cabinets, and 25% in cardboard boxes.  Although
they are in an environment without temperature and humidity
control, and have some contamination by dust and spiders, it
appears that the files are in very good condition.  The
photographs accompanying many of the applications, for example,
are not discolored or faced as they would be if there were
significant moisture problems.

The contents of the files generally are routine, and include the
fellow's application form and essay, exchanges of correspondence,
responses to questionnaires, and in some cases, notes on the
candidates interview.  The totality of the files provides an
impressive insight into the creation of the cohort of academics
that provided the backbone for the vast expansion of American
higher education in the post-World War II era.  I believe that
the files will be important for researchers interested in both
individual and collective biography.

I believe that the files will be most useful to historians if
they are opened with the single proviso that it is the
researcher's responsibility to obtain permission to quote from
documents written by the fellows and any other persons not
connected with the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation.
I would urge the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation to
grant researchers the full freedom to cite and quote documents in
the files that are written by its staff.

Regarding researcher access to the files, there is some grounds
to assert that the fellows were aware that information they
supplied for the files could be used for scholarly purposes.  The
questionnaire sent out to fellows in May 1960 stated: "The
information in this questionnaire will be used both in the 1960
edition of the Directory of Woodrow Wilson Fellows and for
research."  The April 2, 1962 questionnaire stated: ". . .there
are times when we need data, as we are called upon to report
about our activities to foundations, college authorities and
others.  One of these occasions is at hand, and I seek your
cooperation."  The clause in the 1977 survey was more
restrictive, but did make the publication of information
explicit: "Personal information about individual Fellows will not
be shared with other organizations; only general conclusions will
be published."  I think that it would be worthwhile for you to
begin consideration of access questions because I believe that
there is likely to be a direct relationship between the degree to
which the files are open to researchers and the willingness of a
repository to accept the files.