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Felix Morley presidential papers
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Held at: Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections [Contact Us]370 Lancaster Ave, Haverford, PA 19041
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
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Felix Morley was inaugurated Haverford's president in the Fall of 1940. The son of a Haverford mathematics professor, Morley had spent some of his childhood with his two brothers on the campus and he, as well as both brothers, returned to the College, with Felix graduating in 1915. Following Rhodes Scholarship work, he spent several years studying the League of Nations and directing the Geneva office of the League of Nations Association of the United States. He was appointed Editor of the Washington Post by its new owner, Eugene Meyer, in 1933, where Morley was awarded the 1936 Pulitzer Prize for distinguished editorial writing.
In his inauguration speech, Morley challenged the college community "to give evidence that the activity of the campus is itself "work of national importance." On his resignation the Haverford News editorialized "While in no sense impairing Haverford's established position as a great educational institution, he brought it more closely in tune with the times and laid solid foundations for a brilliant post-war period in liberal arts education." However, his ambitions for improving the College were clouded by the challenges brought on by World War II. Faced with a student body depleted from enlistments and conscription and the attendant danger of insufficient financing to keep the college operating, Morley decided that the only way Haverford would survive would be to attract funding through non-combatant government programs. There was strong opposition to his plans from those who insisted on faithfulness to the Quaker peace testimony and eschewed any association—however removed--with military activities. Morley's plans prevailed and, with the added influence he had in Washington, several training groups were brought to the campus and the College's budget flourished.
Confident that he had brought Haverford safely through the danger and citing severe strain, Morley resigned in 1945. Morley went on to become "a public intellectual," voicing his conservative philosophy through his own weekly newsletter Human Events and other journals and magazines, radio commentary for NBC, and published books including Freedom and Federalism (1959) and his autobiography For the Record (1979). He died in 1982.
This is a very small group of files, a portion of which are not from Morley's office, but from the files of Board member J. Henry Scattergood. Both Morley's and Scattergood's files consist primarily of correspondence and, although the quantity of material is not large, Morley was a prolific writer, and the content of his letters is exceptional. The files document Morley's efforts to bring government subsidized non-military programs to Haverford, including Pre-Meteorological Training, Pre-Medical Training, Army Specialized Training Program. Morley also established a Haverford Relief and Reconstruction program in cooperation with the American Friends Service Committee. The papers record Morley's efforts to mollify the criticisms that he was undermining the College's Quaker foundation by participating in war activities. There is some material on his appointment and resignation. There are files of his earlier speeches and articles and of letters responding to the invitation to his inauguration. An "autograph" file contains letters from prominent national and international figures to Morley while he was president and while he was editor of the Washington Post. A post-presidential miscellany includes correspondence on the painting of a portrait of Morley's father Frank for the Gummere-Morley room in the Library.
The Spirit and the Intellect: Haverford College, 1833-1983 (Haverford, PA, 1983) Publius: The Journal of Federalism 34:4 (Fall 2004) http://smeedonstate-ism.com/Reports/Felix%20Morley%20on%20Freedom%20and%20Federalism.pdf Felix Morley, For the Record (Southbend: Regnery/Gateway, 1979). Morley Family Papers (#807), Felix M. Morley Journals (photocopies), Boxes 16, 17.
Inauguration files "brought down from Dr. Lockwood's dept. on 5th Floor by Charles Welsh, April, 1965." Autograph letters were transferred to the library by Morley at different times from 1944 to 1945. See Morley Collection file for transfer letters. Previously Collection HC.MC-808. Provenance of the rest Morley files and the Scattergood files is unknown.
See Morley Family Papers (HC.MC-807). Photocopies of Felix M. Morley's diaries are in boxes 15-19, with restricted access. The originals were donated in 2006 and closed until 2015.
Arrangement roughly chronological according to dates of wartime programs. Processed by Linda Stanley. Additional description and reboxing completed by Cole Hannah (Class of 2024) in summer 2022.
- Publisher
- Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections
- Finding Aid Author
- Linda Stanley
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Permission for all access must be obtained from the College Archivist
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Copyright restrictions may apply. Please contact the Archives with requests for copying and for authorization to publish, quote or reproduce the material.
Collection Inventory
3 foldersCorrespondence primarily with Board President Morris Leeds, with other correspondence copied to Leeds, on his appointment as President and college matters, especially the efforts to balance college support of the war without militarization.
Contains correspondence with Leeds and other Board members from July 9-11, 1940 on Felix Morley's appointment as President of Haverford College.
Includes letters from May 5 to December 18, 1942 between Morris Leeds and Felix Morley involving the budget for the 1942 academic year, discussions about hanging a crayon portrait of William Penn Evans, the funeral of Arthur Thomas, and conversations about attending the meetings of the Haverford Finance Committee and other Haverford faculty groups. Also includes discussions about Morley not wanting Haverford to be a part of the war program that other colleges and universities were a part of at the time.
Includes letters from January 2nd, 1943 to August 14th, 1945 from Morris Leeds and Felix Morley. This correspondence involves discussions about attempting to prevent the militarization of Haverford College while also supporting the war effort, The National Foundation for Education, donations to Haverford College and the Friends of the Library Association, The Haverford College Wartime Emergency Council, and the shift in curriculum to lessons that would prepare students for the Air Force or other services.
2 foldersCorrespondence with alumni and others on necessity of the College's war time training units.
Contains correspondence with alumni and other individuals on the necessity of Haverford College's war time training units.
Contains correspondence with alumni and other individuals on the necessity of Haverford College's war time training units.
1 foldersContains correspondence from December 16, 1942 to August 18, 1944 with Kenyon College president Gordon K. Chalmers, Haverford chemistry professor W.B. Meldrum, and other individuals on the topic of bringing Army Specialized Training Program Pre-medical and Physics units to Haverford College
1 foldersContains the report and recommendations on The More Effect Utilization of Small College Facilities in the National Interest that was prepared for the War Manpower Commission by Felix Morley. This folder also includes correspondence relating to this report.
1 foldersContains correspondence and memoranda from November 12, 1942 to March 24, 1944 on the Army Specialized Training Program units in German and Italian, also touching on the Engineering unit. This folder also includes a confidential report from September 1943 on 'new' faculty and 'regular' faculty effectiveness.
2 folders1943-1944: Correspondence on the ASTP in general, the Physics and Engineering units, and the effects of the sudden contraction of the program in March 1944.
Contains letters written by Felix Morley to faculty and friends and received by Morley from February 22 to December 4, 1943.
Contains letters written by Felix Morley to faculty and friends and received by Morley from February 22, 1944 to June 14, 1945.
5 foldersCorrespondence with Douglas V. Steere and others on establishing and administering a training program to perform relief and reconstruction in the post-war Northern and Central Europe.
Contains correspondence with Douglas V. Steere and other individuals from January 12 to June 11, 1943 on establishing and administering a training program to perform relief and reconstruction in post-war Northern and Central Europe.
Contains correspondence with Douglas V. Steere and other individuals from July 27, 1943 to July 17, 1944 on establishing and administering a training program to perform relief and reconstruction in post-war Northern and Central Europe.
Contains correspondence with Douglas V. Steere and other individuals from September 6, 1944 to December 3, 1945 on establishing and administering a training program to perform relief and reconstruction in post-war Northern and Central Europe.
Contains correspondence with Douglas V. Steere and other individuals from July 16, 1941 to October 20, 1944 involving fund raising, scholarships at Haverford College, and establishing and administering a training program to perform relief and reconstruction in post-war Northern and Central Europe.
Contains correspondence with Douglas V. Steere and other individuals from September to December 1944 on establishing and administering a training program to perform relief and reconstruction in post-war Northern and Central Europe.
1 foldersCorrespondence with Swarthmore president John W. Nason on establishing CPSTC units at Quaker Colleges and with the American Friends Service Committee on efforts to establish a training unit for relief and reconstruction work in China under AFSC auspices. Both programs were terminated by the government.
1 foldersCorrespondence on arrangements for accommodations for training Border Patrol units.
1 foldersLetters from government agencies on Morley's appointments to various wartime advisory positions.
2 foldersIncludes: Inauguration; Mikveh Israel 200th Anniversary; Hamilton College Honorary Degree; University of Pennsylvania Honorary Degree; Cutler Lectures on Constitutional Government; Report of War Manpower Commission "the More Effective Utilization of Small College Facilities in the National Interest."
Contains letters written an received by Felix Morley from October 19, 1940 to February 15, 1941 to faculty and friends. This folder also contains honorary degrees from Hamilton College and the University of Pennsylvania.
Contains letters written and received by Felix Morley from March 19, 1941 to March 24, 1945 to faculty and friends. This folder also contains Cutler lectures on Constitutional Government and a report on the "More Effective Utilization of Small College Facilities in the National Interest."
7 foldersLetters responding to invitation for Morley inauguration, with some clippings and material on arrangements.
Contains letters written and received by Felix Morley from October 19 to November 2, 1940 to faculty and friends announcing his inauguration at Haverford College.
Contains lists of addresses and names of those invited to the inauguration of President Morley at Haverford College.
Contains letters written and received by Felix Morley in response to his invitations to his inauguration as President of Haverford College.
Contains letters written and received by Felix Morley in response to his invitations to his inauguration at Haverford College.
Contains letters written and received by Felix Morley in response to his invitations to his inauguration at Haverford College.
Contains letters written to Felix Morley congratulating him on his inauguration at Haverford College.
Contains the inaugural address by President Felix Morley of Haverford College from October 19, 1940.
C. Webster Abbott (additions), Cyrus Adler, Walter G. Andrews, Thurman Arnold, Warren R. Austin, Frank Aydelotte, Iwao F. Ayusawa. Roger Baldwin, Bernard M. Baruch, Sir Percy Bates, Elliott V. Bell, Francis Biddle, Edwin Borchard, W. Bostrow, Thomas F. Branson, D.W. Brogan, Herbert Brownell, Jr., Edward Bruce, Edward R. Burke, Harold H. Burton, Harold Butler, Nicholas Murray Butler. James M. Cain, Clarence Cannon, Arthur Capper, W. Gibson Carey, Jr., O.C. Carmichael, William R. Castle, René de Chambrun, Edouard Chapuisat, Raymond Clapper, Brooke Claxton, Ralph W. Close, Griffith Bailey Coale (additions), Howard Comfort (additions), James B. Conant, John J. Corson. Joe N. Dalton, Elmer Davis, Norman H. Davis, Edmund E. Day, John Dickinson, Dennis Conan Doyle, Thomas E. Drake (see Gann), John Foster Dulles. Charles E. Eliot, Thomas W. Elkinton (additions), Mehmet Münir Ertegün. James A. Farley, Edward A. Filene, Louis Finkelstein, Raymond D. Fosdick, Constantin Fotich, Dixon Ryan Fox, James E. Freeman. Dally Curtis (Mrs. Edward Everett) Gann, Walter F. George, Virginia C. Gildersleeve, Henry F. Grady, Joseph C. Green, Theodore Francis Green, John Chandler "Chan" Gurney. C.J. Hambro, Edward Hawkes (additions), G. Henry-Haye, Herbert Hoover, Stanley K. Hornbeck, Shih Hu, Manley O. Hudson, Cordell Hull, Robert M. Hutchins. Radu Irimescu. Hugh S. Johnson, Lindley Johnson, Jr. (additions), Louis Johnson, N.T. Johnson. K.K. Kawakami, Joe Kennedy, Frank Kent, William H. King. Alf M. Landon, David Lawrence, Paul Leverkuehn, David J. Lewis, John L. Lewis, Charles A. Lindbergh, Earnest K. Lindley, Marquess of Lothian. Archibald MacLeish, John Putnam Marble, Edward Martin, Paul V. McNutt, H.L. Mencken, E. LeRoy Mercer, Pierrepont Moffatt, Raymond Moley, Henry Morgenthau, Christopher Morley, Frank V. Morley, Roland D. Morris. D. Naoumoff, Albert Jay Nock, Philip Noel-Baker, Gerald P. Nye. Robert Lincoln O'Brien, J.F.T. O'Connor, R.B. Ogilby, Otto of Austria. Frank Pace, Jr., Westbrook Pegler, John Pelenyi, George Wharton Pepper, Francis Perkins, W. Frank Persons, J. Howard Pew, William Lyon Phelps, H.W. Prentis, Jr., Hjalmar J. Procopé. Edgar Monsanto Quincy. George L. Radcliffe, S.K. Ratcliffs, Robert R. Reynolds, Lindsay Rogers, Daniel C. Roper, Louis Rougier, L.S. Rowe. William Franklin Sands, Francis B. Sayre, Ralph J. Schoettle (additions), Patrick F. Scanlan (additions), James A. Shanley, M.S. Sherman, Henry Knox Sherrill, F.J. Sissio, Harlan F. Stone, John F. Stone, Leland Stowe, Wolfgang Stressemann, John Studebaker, Mark Sullivan, Raymond Gram Swing, Sao-Ke Alfred Sze. Robert A. Taft, Elbert D. Thomas, Norman Thomas, R.E. Thomason, George Holden Tinkham. Arthur T. Vanderbilt, Oswald Garrison Villard, John M. Vorys. Robert F. Wagner, W. Nelson L. West (additions), Burton K. Wheeler, Thomas Raeburn White, William Allen White, George W. Wickersham, George A. Wilson, Edith Balling (Mrs. Woodrow) Wilson, Caleb Winslow (additions), Quincy Wright, Robert W. Wood, Mary E. Woolley.
Physical Description9 foldersLetters from prominent national and international figures to Morley and kept by him as an autograph collection. The letters were written during Morley's editorship of the Washington Post (many congratulating him on the Pulitzer Prize award in 1836 and expressing condolences on his father's death) and during his Haverford presidency (many replying to invitations to speak at the College). Writers include Bernard M. Baruch, John Foster Dulles, Herbert Hoover, Cordell Hull, Alfred Landon, Charles A. Lindbergh, Archibald MacLeish, H. L. Mencken, Frances Perkins, Harlan Fiske Stone, Norman Thomas. (For complete list see Scope and Content Note)
Contains correspondence from February 12, 1935 to October 30, 1940 with Cyrus Adler, Walter G. Andrews, Thurman Arnold, Warren R. Austin, Frank Aydelotte, Iwao F. Ayuzawa. Roger Baldwin, Bernard M. Baruch, Sir Percy Bates, Elliott V. Bell, Francis Biddle, Edwin Borchard, W. Bostrow, Thomas F. Branson, D.W. Brogan, Herbert Brownell, Jr., Edward Bruce, Edward R. Burke, Harold H. Burton, Harold Butler, Nicholas Murray Butler
Contains correspondence from 1932 to 1944 with James M. Cain, Clarence Cannon, Arthur Capper, W. Gibson Carey, Jr., O.C. Carmichael, William R. Castle, René de Chambrun, Edouard Chapuisat, Raymond Clapper, Brooke Claxton, Ralph W. Close, Griffith Baily Coale, Howard Comfort, James B. Conant, John J. Corson. Joe N. Dalton, Elmer Davis, Norman H. Davis, Edmund E. Day, John Dickinson, Dennis Conan Doyle, Thomas E. Drake, John Foster Dulles. Charles E. Eliot, Thomas W. Elkinton, Mehmet Münir Ertegün.
Contains correspondence from December 20, 1933 to August 29, 1944 with James A. Farley, Edward A. Filene, Louis Finkelstein, Raymond D. Fosdick, Constantin Fotich, Dixon Ryan Fox, James E. Freeman. Dally Curtis (Mrs. Edward Everett) Gann, Walter F. George, Virginia C. Gildersleeve, Henry F. Grady, Joseph C. Green, Theodore Francis Green, John Chandler "Chan" Gurney.
Contains correspondence from July 23, 1931 to June 1, 1944 with C.J. Hambro, Edward Hawkes (additions), G. Henry-Haye, Herbert Hoover, Stanley K. Hornbeck, Shih Hu, Manley O. Hudson, Cordell Hull, Robert M. Hutchins, Radu Irimescu, Hugh S. Johnson, Lindley Johnson, Jr. (additions), Louis Johnson, N.T. Johnson. K.K. Kawakami, Joe Kennedy, Frank Kent, William H. King.
Contains correspondence from July 31, 1931 to December 20, 1944 with Alf M. Landon, David Lawrence, Paul Leverkuehn, David J. Lewis, John L. Lewis, Charles A. Lindbergh, Ernest K. Lindley, and Lothian.
Contains correspondence from June 17, 1931 to October 3, 1974 with Mariah, Paul V. McNutt, Jonathan Marlile, Edward Martin, E. Leroy Mercer, Pierrepont Moffat, Raymond Moley, Henry Morgenthau, Dewight Miller, Frank V. Morley, and Roland S. Morris.
Contains correspondence with Naoumoff, Albert Nock, Philip Noel-Baker, Gerald P. Nye, Robert Lincoln O'Brien, J.P.T O'Connor, Ogilby, Ottis, Frank Pace, Westbrook Pegler, John Polanyi, George Wharton Pepper, Frances Perkins, W. Frank Parsons, J. Howard Pew, Joseph Newton Pew Jr., William Lyon Phelps, H.W. Prentis Jr., and Hjalmar J. Procope.
Contains correspondence with Edgar Queeny, George L. Radcliffe, J.K. Radcliffe, Robert R. Reynolds, Lindsay Rogers, Daniel C. Roper, Louis Rougier, L.S. Rowe, W.F. Sands, M.S. Sherman, Henry K. Sherrill, F.J. Sisson, Harlan F. Stone, Leland Stowe, Wolfgang Stresemann, John S., Mark Sullivan, Raymond Gram Swing, and Sao-Ke Alfred Sze.
Contains correspondence with Robert A. Taft, Elbert D. Thomas, Norman Thomas, R.E. Thomason, George Holden Tinkham, Arthur T. Vanderbilt, Oswald Garrison Villard, John M. Vorys, Robert F. Wagner, Burton K. Wheeler, Thomas Raeburn White, W.A. White, George W. Wickerham, George A. Wilson, Mrs. Woodrow Wilson, Quincy Wright, Robert E. Wood, Mary E. Woolley, and Alfred Zimmern.
2 foldersPost-Presidential Miscellany: Correspondence, 1948-1950, with Griffith Baily Coale, W. Nelson L. West, and Christopher Morley on portrait of Frank Morley for Gummere-Morley Room in Library, and other post-presidential miscellany.
Correspondence with Griffith Baily Coale, W. Nelson L. West, and Christopher Morley on portrait of Frank Morley for Gummere-Morley Room in Library.
Contains letters and a photograph from June 20, 1945 taken on the S.S. 'Haverford Victory.'
13 foldersCorrespondence and other documents relating to Scattergood as a member of Haverford's advisory committee of the Board on war activities ("Committee for Consultation with President Morley in regard to Haverford and War Activities") and as Board of Managers Treasurer. The war activities material includes discussions of Morley's efforts to sustain the college through government non-combatant programs without introducing militarism. Later correspondence concerns Morley's resignation. The files also include Morley's Wall Street Journal articles, 1941-1942 (reprinted from Philadelphia Inquirer) and some financial information on government contract finances.
Contains correspondence between J. Henry Scattergood and Felix Morley, and Cutler lectures named 'Secure the Blessings of Liberty.'
Morley's Wall Street Journal articles, 1941-1942 (reprinted from Philadelphia Inquirer)
This folder contains correspondence and documents revolving around the contract for the pre-meteorological training unit of the Army Air Forces.
This folder contains correspondence and documents revolving around the contract for the pre-meteorological training unit of the Army Air Forces.