Robert Maynard Hutchins Papers, 1917-1919
| Oberlin College Archives
Administrative/Biographical History
Robert Maynard Hutchins (1899-1977) was born in Brooklyn in New York City on January 17, 1899. Hutchins’s father, William James Hutchins, was a Presbyterian minister who raised his family according to strict household rules. Hutchins later claimed that the ascetic lifestyle maintained by his family instilled in him a profound work ethic.
When Hutchins was eight years old, his father accepted the post of professor of theology at Oberlin College, and Hutchins subsequently attended Oberlin Academy and Oberlin College (1915-1917). He left Oberlin College after his sophomore year and, seeking a compromise between his pacifistic beliefs and a desire to serve his country during World War I, enlisted in the United States Army Ambulance Service (USAAS). From 1917 to 1919 he served in Section 587, a section comprised entirely of Oberlin residents, of the USAAS, during which time he was stationed in Allentown, Pennsylvania and later in northern Italy.
After the war, Hutchins returned to the United States and entered Yale University as a junior. Upon graduating in 1921, he taught college preparation at Lake Placid School. In his second year of teaching, he was offered a secretarial position at Yale, which he eagerly accepted. He soon entered Yale Law School and graduated in 1925. From that point, his rise was meteoric. He was immediately offered an instructor’s position for one course, and his efforts were rewarded with the responsibility of teaching an additional course. In 1927, just two years after graduating from law school, Hutchins was named acting dean of the Yale Law School.
Hutchins stayed on as dean of Yale Law School until 1929, when he became president of the University of Chicago. He enacted widespread reforms at the university, believing that higher education was intended to be broad so as to train the intellect and that specialization had no place in universities. In 1951, Hutchins left the University of Chicago, but remained active in education, founding the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in 1959 and serving as chairman for the board of editors of the Encyclopædia Britannica until 1974.
Hutchins married Maude Phelps McVeigh in 1921, and the couple had three daughters: Mary, Joanna, and Clarissa. Hutchins remarried in 1949 to Vesta Sutton Orlick. He died on May 14, 1977 at the age of 78.
Sources Consulted
Editors of the Encyclopædia Britannica. “Robert Maynard Hutchins: American Educator,” Encyclopædia Britannica. Accessed June 5, 2018. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Maynard-Hutchins.
“Robert M. Hutchins, Long a Leader in Educational Change, Dies at 78,” The New York Times, May 15, 1977. Accessed June 5, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/1977/05/16/archives/robert-m-hutchins-long-a-leader-in-educational-change-dies-at-78.html.
“Robert Maynard Hutchins, 1929-1951,” Office of the President of the University of Chicago. Accessed June 5, 2018. https://president.uchicago.edu/directory/robert-maynard-hutchins.
Author: Rebecca Sparagowski Subjects (links to similar collections) Forms of Material (links to similar genres) Administrative InformationRecords pertaining to Hutchins’s time as a student at Oberlin College can be found in the Oberlin College Alumni Records, 1833-present, RG 28, Series 2. For additional materials regarding the biography of Hutchins, see the George W. Dell Papers, RG 30/308. For more information about Hutchins’s time in the USAAS, see the Logan Omer Osborn Papers, RG 30/191, particularly Series 1. For more about the contributions of Oberlin and Oberlin College to the World War I effort, see the Military Service in World War I Digital Collection (http://cdm15963.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/ww1). Records pertaining to Hutchins’s presidency at the University of Chicago are held by the University of Chicago archive (online collection record: http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/2615443).
Oberlin College Archives holdings related to World War I:
Logan Omer Osborn Papers, 30/191. Osborn served in Section 587 of the United States Army Ambulance Service during World War I. Included in his papers are personal writings from his time in the war.
Frederick B. Artz Papers, 1854-1983, RG 30/175. Artz served in the American Expeditionary Forces in the Ambulance Unit in Contrexéville, France. Included in his papers are his personal journals from the war years (1917-1920).
Nichols Family Papers, RG 30/372. Herman Nichols served in the Army between 1917 and 1918. These papers include his wartime correspondence with his fiancé, Ruth Alexander.
The Robert Maynard Hutchins Papers date from 1917 to 1919 and relate to his service in the United States Army Ambulance Service (USAAS) in the Italian Alps during World War I. The papers comprise correspondence, a certificate, a photograph album, and loose items found in the photograph album. The materials are divided into two series: Series 1 contains correspondence, Series 2 contains documents in Italian, and Series 3 contains the photograph album of Logan O. Osborn, which documents his time spent serving in Section 587 of the USAAS with Hutchings between 1917 and 1919.
Series 1. Correspondence, 1917-18 (0.21 l.f.)
Series 1 contains letters written by Hutchins to his family during his time in the USAAS. Most of the material is handwritten, although some of it is typewritten. In these letters, Hutchins describes daily life on the war front, kept his family apprised of the war effort in the Italian Alps, and reassured them of his well being.
Series 2. Documents in Italian, ca. 1917-18 (1 folder)
Series 2 contains documents issued to USAAS personnel by the Italian government during World War I. Included here are a certificate issued to Hutchins by the Royal Italian Army and two vouchers for lira. Both the certificate and the vouchers are in Italian. The certificate grants Hutchins the right to wear a service medal for non-combatants in the Italian war effort, which serves as an acknowledgment of his permission to serve in the Italian forces. A translation of the certificate is included. The vouchers were issued by the Italian Bank (through the Loan Fund of Veneto) to troops serving in the war effort in lieu of lira. These vouchers were found tucked between pages in the photograph album in Series 3, and therefore probably belonged to Logan Osborn.
Series 3. Photograph Album, 1917-19 (0.96 l.f.)
Series 3 contains Logan O. Osborn’s photograph album from his time in Italy during the war. The photograph album contains photographs of scenery, daily life in military camps, and the war front while Section 587 was stationed in various places. The places included in the album are: Camp Crane in Allentown, Pennsylvania, where Section 587 underwent training; a USAAS camp in Betzwood, Pennsylvania, near Valley Forge; sites, such as Gibraltar and the coast of Morocco, seen from the Giuseppe Verdi (spelled Giuseppi Verdi in the album), a passenger ship which transferred American troops to Europe; Campo Santo in Genoa; Mantua; the war front at Mount Grappa; Castelcucco; the Piave River; Quero; Pederobba; San Vito; Asolo; Borgoricco; Tremignon; Venice; Pompeii; Rome; and scenes aboard the Duca degli Abruzzi (spelled Ducadi Abruzzi in the album) on the return trip to the United States. Most of the photographs are of the war front in the Veneto region of Italy, although there are many photographs of personnel, including Hutchins.
INVENTORY
Series 1. Correspondence
Box 1
Correspondence, 1917
Correspondence, January – March 1918
Correspondence, April – June 1918
Correspondence, July – August 1918
Correspondence, October – November 1918
Correspondence, ca. 1918
Series 2. Documents in Italian
Box 1 (cont.)
Documents in Italian, ca. 1917-1918
Certificate from the Royal Italian Army
Vouchers for lira
Series 3. Photograph Album
Box 2
Photograph album of Logan Omer Osborn, 1917-1919