Materials Concerning President Alexander Meiklejohn, 1923-1948

Requests for permission to publish material from the Papers should be directed to the Archives and Special Collections. It is the responsibility of the researcher to identify and satisfy the holders of all copyrights.

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Historical Note

Alexander Meiklejohn was an educator, innovator, philosopher, and advocate for liberal social reform and first-amendment freedoms; he served as president of Amherst College, 1912-1923. Born in England in 1872, he was brought to the United States in 1880 at the age of eight, educated in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and graduated from Brown University in 1893. He took his M.A. at Brown and in 1897, received his doctorate in philosophy from Cornell University. He taught philosophy and metaphysics at Brown and was dean from 1901 to 1912. He became president of Amherst College in 1912 and served until 1924. His resignation from the presidency came about because of increasingly contentious relations with the faculty and because of the Trustees' concerns about the continuing poor management of his personal finances. After Amherst, Meiklejohn went to the University of Wisconsin to teach philosophy and while there, established an experimental college. In 1938, he joined the School of Social Studies in San Francisco, where he was involved in the area of adult education. Meiklejohn was welcomed back to Amherst College on several occasions. He was selected by President John F. Kennedy to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which was presented by Lyndon B. Johnson shortly after Kennedy's death. Alexander Meiklejohn died in 1964 at the age of 92.

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Scope and Contents of the Collection

Materials generated by the Board of Trustees of Amherst College relative to the presidency (1912-1924) and resignation of Alexander Meiklejohn.

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Organization of the Collection

This collection is organized into three series:

• Printed Reports of Trustee Committees
• Files of Individual Members of the Board
• Records Regarding Access to Trustee Materials Concerning Meiklejohn

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Series 1: Printed Reports of Trustee Committees

Series 1, PRINTED REPORTS OF TRUSTEE COMMITTEES, consists of reports issued by three different College committees charged with investigating various aspects of the Meiklejohn presidency:

"Rugg" Committee: Special Committee of the Board of Trustees of Amherst College to Confer with the President. Appointed May 28, 1921. Members were Arthur P. Rugg, Chairman; Arthur L. Gillett; Dwight W. Morrow; George A. Plimpton. The purpose of the committee was to confer with President Meiklejohn with reference to the financial relations between the College and President Meiklejohn personally.

"Rounds" Committee: Special Committee, appointed June 3, 1922, Pursuant to a Vote of the Executive Committee of the Trustees. Members were Arthur C. Rounds, Chairman; Stanley King; Edward T. Esty. This committee was appointed to report to the Executive Committee of the Board as to the existing powers of the Board, the President and the faculty with respect to appointments, promotions and dismissals of members of the faculty, educational policy and curricular requirements of the College, and administration of the College in general. The committee was also to report on current and past practice in these matters and make recommendations regarding procedure to be adopted for the future.

"Plimpton" Committee: Special Committee of the Board of Trustees of Amherst College, appointed May 26, 1923. Members were George A. Plimpton, Chairman; Edward T. Esty; Arthur L. Gillett; Stanley King; Dwight W. Morrow. Committee was appointed, after the Rugg and Rounds reports had been presented to the Board, to secure a definite expression of opinion from the faculty as to the advisability of President Meiklejohn continuing as chief administrator of the College.

Series 2: Files of Individual Members of the Board

Series 2, FILES OF INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS OF THE BOARD, consists of both contemporary and subsequent papers related to the aforementioned committees, all held by individual Trustees. These include minutes and notes on work of the Plimpton Committee kept by F. S. Allis (AC 1893), Secretary, and much later retrospective material (1947-1948) generated by Stanley King.

Series 3: Records Regarding Access to Trustee Materials Concerning Meiklejohn

Series 3, RECORDS REGARDING ACCESS TO TRUSTEE MATERIALS CONCERNING MEIKLEJOHN, consists of envelopes originally used to seal the Trustee materials when their access was restricted. The envelopes served as a record of who had examined the contents.