Everett D. Hawkins Papers, 1900-1972
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Administrative/Biographical History
Everett Day ("Red") Hawkins, son of Lewis Everett and Amelia Thompson (Day) Hawkins, was born in Orange, New Jersey on May 10, 1906. After graduating from high school in New Orleans in 1924, he entered Oberlin College. From 1927 to 1929, between his junior and senior years, he taught English as a "Shansi Representative" of Oberlin College in Taigu, Shansi Province, China. There, Hawkins developed his life-long interest in the culture and economic development of Asia. Hawkins received the B.A. degree in 1928 and completed his post-Shansi year at Oberlin in 1930. He pursued graduate work in Economics at Princeton University, earning the A.M. degree in 1933 and the Ph.D. degree in 1934.
Hawkins' teaching career spanned thirty-six years. In 1935, he joined the faculty of Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, where he was active in the Four-College Asian-African Studies Program. Following World War II, Hawkins helped to establish the Mt. Holyoke Institute on the United Nations. In 1961, Mt. Holyoke awarded Hawkins a Mary Lyon Professorship, its highest academic honor. He spent a semester during 1962-63 as a visiting professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and subsequently accepted a permanent appointment to the university's economics faculty. At Wisconsin, Hawkins served as Chairman of the East Asian Area Studies Committee (1964-68) and on numerous university committees, including the International Studies and Programs committee and the Inter-University Planning Committee on Southeast Asia. From August 1968 until January 1970, he was in the Philippines and Indonesia in conjunction with Wisconsin Programs. Hawkins held visiting professorships at the following institutions: the California Institute of Technology (1940-41); the University of Massachusetts (1954-55); and Gadjah Mada University in Indonesia (1958-59).
Hawkins' years in the academy were frequently interrupted by brief terms of government service. During his graduate school days at Princeton, he served as Consultant on dismissal compensation to the Federal Coordinator of Transportation (1933-35), and during World War II, he worked as a Price Controller in the Office of Price Administration (1942-44) . From 1944 to 1946, Hawkins was Director of Information for the U.S. Office of War Information in Chungking, China. With the outbreak of the Korean War in 1951, Hawkins went to Jakarta, Indonesia as the first Economic Adviser and Program Planning Officer for the Economic Cooperation Administration. While there, he helped to set up the first field research project in economics with graduate students at Gadjah Mada University. In 1953, he returned to Washington as chief of the Indonesian branch of the Asian division of the State Department. Three years later, under a grant from M.I.T., he went to Indonesia to study the batik industry. He spent the year 1963-64 as a consultant for the Ford Foundation, prior to taking up the post at Madison. After only six years on the Wisconsin faculty, Everett Hawkins died of a stroke in 1970. He was 64 years old.
Hawkins was the author of numerous publications, including Voluntary and Compulsory Plans for Dismissal Compensation (Princeton, 1940) and Entrepreneurship and Labor Skills in Indonesian Economic Development (New Haven: Yale University Southeast Asia Studies, 1961). His articles and reviews relating to international and development economics appeared in Monthly Labor Review, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, American Economic Review, Far Eastern Quarterly, Current History, and World Politics.
In 1937, Everett Hawkins married Ruth Baird, a faculty member of Mt. Holyoke College and graduate of Wellesley College. They were divorced in 1944. In 1951, he married artist Kathleen Muriel Greenwood (B.A. University of British Columbia 1933; A.M. Mt. Holyoke 1957). There were no children from either marriage.
Sources Consulted
Alumni Register (Oberlin: Oberlin College, 1960).
Carlson, Ellsworth, Oberlin in Asia: The First Hundred Years, 1882-1982 (Oberlin: Oberlin Shansi Memorial Association, 1982).
Student Files of Everett Hawkins and Harold Ingalls (28).
Author: Valerie S. Komor Forms of Material (links to similar genres) Administrative InformationFor more information please see http://www.oberlinlibstaff.com/archon/index.php?p=admin/collections/collections&id=5.
The papers of Everett Day Hawkins mainly document the two years Hawkins spent in Taigu, China, as a Shansi Representative of Oberlin College (1927-29). Later materials pertain to Hawkins' service in Chungking with the U.S. Office of War Information (1944-46). Virtually no record exists in these papers of Hawkins' teaching career at Mt. Holyoke College and the University of Wisconsin; his government service; or his scholarship in Southeast Asian development economics.
Hawkins' outgoing correspondence (1927-29) offers a spirited account of his experiences as an English teacher at the Oberlin Memorial Academy in Taigu, China. The letters (1927-29) from Hawkins to his family in New Orleans and to his brother, Roger (A.B. Oberlin 1931), at Oberlin College, discuss his impressions of the Chinese students, his teaching duties, school sports and parties, books recently read, Chinese language study, and fellow Shansi representatives at Taigu, including Wynn C. Fairfield (1886-1961; A.B. Oberlin 1907), Gladys Williams (1893-1981; A.B. Oberlin 1917), Raymond Moyer (b. 1899; A.B. Oberlin 1921), Adelaide Hemingway (1906-74; A.B. Oberlin 1928), and Harold Ingalls (1902-77; A.B. Oberlin 1926). In eight "information letters" (1928-29) to Oberlin Shansi Memorial Association trustee, W.F. Bohn (1878-1947; A.B. Oberlin 1900) and Executive Secretary, Lydia Lord Davis (1867-1952), Hawkins writes of administrative matters such as housing and salary for Shansi representatives, the resignation of Principal H. H. Kung (1880-1967) from Ming Hsien, and the inadvisability of recruiting more Oberlin women to serve as Shansi representatives. Included among Hawkins' incoming correspondence are nineteen letters (1929-31) from Adelaide Hemingway in Taigu relaying local news and describing her social life, teaching duties, and the political situation in China. Also present are two letters from H.H. Kung, several letters from Hawkins' Chinese students, and official communications to former Shansi "reps" from the Oberlin Shansi Memorial Association. Hawkins' photographs of China, scrapbooks, and collected memorabilia provide a rich visual counterpart to the correspondence from Shansi. Much of this memorabilia is written in Chinese.
Although there is no official documentation in this collection of Hawkins' tour in Chungking as Director of Information for the China Division of the U.S. Office of War Information (1944-46), the period is vividly recorded in Hawkins' correspondence to his mother and family in New York and Baltimore. Letters describe the destruction of Japanese ordnance by American bombs in the area of Hankow and the Japanese surrender to Chinese generals in September 1945. Also present are numerous photographs of war damage and atrocities and printed ephemera, including identity cards issued by the Republic of China and the U.S. government, Chinese and American business cards, and a vaccination certificate.
The balance of the collection includes a small amount of Hawkins' high school and college memorabilia; incomplete runs of newsletters collected by Hawkins summarizing political and economic issues in China; select drafts of and notes for speeches concerning China, Japan, and Korea; and a limited sample of Hawkins' writings, which includes a draft of the pamphlet, "The Soviet Role in Manchuria," [1946] and a book-length manuscript entitled "Oriental Honeymoon," which recounts his adventures in China in 1937.
SERIES DESCRIPTIONS
Series I. Correspondence, 1927-72, n.d. (0.4 l.f.)
Correspondence of Everett Hawkins, organized into incoming and outgoing correspondence. Subseries 1, Outgoing Correspondence, is chronologically arranged. Subseries 2, Incoming Correspondence, is alphabetically arranged by correspondent.
Series II. Diary, 1927-29, 1937 (1 vol.)
Diary in the five-year format, with entries for 1927-29 and 1937, the years of Hawkins' Shansi service and of a return trip to China.
Series III. Writings, 1937, 1946, 1948, n.d. (0.2 l.f.)
Unpublished ms. draft of a book-length essay, entitled "Oriental Honeymoon"; ms. draft of an unpublished pamphlet; and ms. notes for speeches. Arranged alphabetically by title and type of material.
Series IV. Newsletters Relating to China and the Far East, 1946-60 (0.8 l.f.)
English-language newsletters containing summaries of economic and political news from China. Arranged alphabetically by title.
Series V. Photographs, 1923-46, n.d. (0.2 l.f.)
Negatives and loose photographs, organized into two subseries. Subseries 1, Negatives, includes an album of negatives and loose negatives. In Subseries 2, Loose Photographs, images are arranged alphabetically by subject, with photographs of China separated from those of other subjects.
Series VI. Miscellany, 1900, 1919-46, n.d. (1.8 l.f.)
Organized into three subseries by topic and type of material, with the earliest items placed first.
Subseries 1. Student Memorabilia, 1900, 1919-35, n.d. (0.2 l.f.)
Contains the order of service (1900) used at Hawkins' baptism; high-school grade cards, transcripts, and membership cards; Oberlin College prom programs, dance cards, and B.A. diploma; Oberlin and Princeton commencement programs; Princeton fellowship award letters; and an address book containing names of school friends. Materials are chronologically arranged.
Subseries 2. China Memorabilia, 1927-46, n.d. (1.4 I.f.)
Items created and collected during Hawkins' stays in China and during his 1929 journey to the United States via Europe.lncludes watercolor sketches and collages by Hawkins, a book of souvenir photographs of China, official identity cards issued to Hawkins by the Republic of China and the China Ministry of Communications, Chinese business cards, greeting cards, and invitations, tourist maps, and ocean liner passenger lists and brochures. Two scrapbooks for the Shansi period contain photographs, intricate paper cut-outs, art postcards, train tickets, steamer tags, and restaurant receipts. Arranged alphabetically by topic and type of material.
Subseries 3. Artifacts, n.d. (0.4 I.f.)
Container of dried seal paste with wood and marble seals, various honorary pins and medals with inscriptions in Chinese, and patches from official uniforms. Arranged alphabetically by type of material.
INVENTORY
Series I. Correspondence, 1927-72, n.d.
Subseries 1. Outgoing Correspondence, 1927-29, 1937, 1944-46, n.d.
Box 1
Correspondence, 1927-29, 1937,
1944-46, n.d. (14f)
Subseries 2. Incoming Correspondence, 1927-72, n.d.
Box 1 (cont.)
Hemingway, Adelaide, 1929-31 17 letters
Kung, H. H., 1929 2 letters
Various correspondents, 1927-72 11 letters
Series II. Diary, 1927-29, 1937
Box 2
Diary, 1927-29, 1937 1 vol.
Series III. Writings, 1937, 1946, 1948, n.d.
Box 2 (cont.)
"Oriental Honeymoon," unpublished ms., 1937
"The Soviet Role in Manchuria," ms. draft, [1946]
Speeches and notes, 1946, 1948, n.d.
Series IV. Newsletters Relating to China and the Far East, 1946-60
Box 3
China Information Bulletin (New York), 1948
China News Service (New York), 1946-51 (13f)
Box 4
Information Bulletin (New York), 1946-48
The Far Eastern Bulletin (Hong Kong), 1948-49 (4f)
China Newsletter (Madison, WI), 1949-50 (21)
Various newsletters (single issues), 1947-60 (21)
Series V. Photographs, 1923-46, n.d.
Subseries 1. Negatives, 1927-29
Box 5
Album, [1927-20] 1 vol.
Negatives (loose), 1927-29
Subseries 2. Loose Photographs, 1923-46, n.d. 385 items
Box 5 (cont.)
China photographs, 1927-29, 1944-46 (2f)
Taigu, Shansi Province, 1927-29
Office of War Information, Chungking, 1944-46
Other photographs, 1923-ca. 1935, 1946, n.d.
High school, 1923, n.d.
Holyoke, Massachusetts, 1946, n.d.
Oberlin friends, ca. 1928
Princeton, [1930-35]
Unidentified, n.d.
Series VI. Miscellany, 1900, 1919-46, n.d.
Subseries 1. Student Memorabilia, 1900, 1919-35, n.d.
Box 6
Precollege memorabilia, 1900, 1919-24
Oberlin College memorabilia, 1925-30, n.d.
Princeton University scholarship letters, 1931-35
Subseries 2. China Memorabilia, 1927-46, n.d.
Box 7
Art work, n.d.
China of Today (Shanghai: Kelley & Walsh, 1932)
Chinese-language publications, n.d.
Ephemera, 1927-46, n.d. (4f)
Shansi service, 1927-29, n.d.
1937 Trip to China, 1937, n.d.
Office of War Information service, 1944-46, n.d. (2f)
Box 8
Scrapbooks, 1927-29 2 vols.
[Shansi Years], 1927-29 1 vol.
[Trans-Siberian Railroad Journey], 1929 1 vol.
Loose items from scrapbooks, 1927-29
Subseries 3. Artifacts, n.d.
Box 9
Chinese seal paste with wood and marble seals, n.d.
Honorary medals, n.d. (3 items)
Patches, n.d. (6 items)
Pins, n.d. (3 items)