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University of Chicago Library

Guide to the Leonard D. White Papers 1913-2002

© 2008 University of Chicago Library

Descriptive Summary

Title:

White, Leonard D. Papers

Dates:

1913-2002

Size:

10 linear feet (20 boxes)

Repository:

Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center
University of Chicago Library
1100 East 57th Street
Chicago, Illinois 60637 U.S.A.

Abstract:

Leonard D. White, Department of Political Science, Ernest DeWitt Burton Distinguished Service Professor of Public Administration, University of Chicago, 1920-1958. The Leonard D. White papers include correspondence, reports, minutes, publications, reprints, and notes relating to White’s time at the University of Chicago as well as to his service on local and national government committees, such as the Chicago Civil Service Commission, the United States Civil Service Commission, and the President’s Committee on Civil Service Improvement.

Information on Use

Access

The collection is open for research.

Citation

When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: White, Leonard D. Papers, [Box #, Folder #], Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library

Biographical Note

Leonard Dupee White, Ernest DeWitt Burton Distinguished Service Professor of Public Administration at the University of Chicago, was born in Massachusetts in 1891. He received his B.S. and M.A. degrees from Dartmouth in 1915 and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1921. He taught at Clark College, Dartmouth, and the University of Chicago, where he remained until his death in 1958. Within the field of government, White was primarily interested in public administration. He was one of the first to teach this subject in a university classroom and even in the early 1920s was becoming a leader among the political scientists who shared this interest. His Introduction to the Study of Public Administration, first published in 1926 and revised in 1939, 1948, and 1955, was the first, and for many years the preeminent, textbook in the field.

Professor White served on various governmental committees, both at the local and national levels. From 1931 to 1933 he was a member of the Chicago Civil Service Commission. From 1934-1937 he served on the United States Civil Service Commission and the Central Statistics Board. As a commissioner, White was primarily responsible for developing a system of junior civil service examinations, for college graduates only, intended to draw better educated persons into governmental careers. To help government employees provide better service and advance professionally, he worked with American University to develop a program of in-service training for them. In 1939 President Roosevelt appointed him to the Committee on Civil Service Improvement, under the chairmanship of the Supreme Court Justice Stanley Reed, on which he served until 1941. Additionally, White worked with both of the Hoover Commissions on the Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government, the first in 1948-1949 and the second in 1953-1955. In both cases he helped to prepare the report on personnel management, which advocated the creation of a career executive program. It was initiated by executive order in 1957 to help identify, retrain, and advance government employees who should be moved into positions of greater responsibility.

Within the University of Chicago, Professor White also served as a member of the Trustee-Senate Committee on Academic Reorganization (1943-1945), on which he served as Chairman of the Senate Committee; a member of the University Council and Spokesman of the Committee of the Council (1945-1946); and a member of the Senate Advisory Committee to the Board of Trustees in the selection of a new chancellor (1950-1951).

Scope Note

This collection documents Leonard D. White's work at the University of Chicago, as well as to his service on local and national government committees, such as the Chicago Civil Service Commission, the United States Civil Service Commission, and the President’s Committee on Civil Service Improvement.

Series I: Biographical Files, is organized alphabetically and contains materials relating to the life and career of Leonard D. White. This series contains correspondence, newspaper clippings, journal articles, memorials, educational memorabilia, papers from the Department of Political Science, as well as materials related to his honors and awards.

Series II: Chicago Civil Service Commission, contains materials collected during White’s time serving on the Chicago Civil Service Commission from 1931-1934. Files in this series are arranged alphabetically, and include correspondence, journal articles, and speech drafts.

Series III: United States Civil Service Commission, contains materials from White’s time serving on this commission from 1934-1937. Included in this series are correspondence, reports, papers, invitations and newspaper clippings. Files in this series are organized alphabetically.

Series IV: President’s Committee on Civil Service Improvement, deals primarily with White’s service on the committee. This series begins with drafts of reports, minority recommendations, and press releases from 1939-1941; following are documents from 1939-1941 dealing with legal positions, administrators, economists and engineers. Following in boxes 9-12 are documents identified by numbers given by the Committee during its deliberations; a guide to these document numbers can be found in Box 9, Folder 5. Following are reports and correspondence from 1934-1943; memoranda from the Hoover Commission, from 1952-1954; reports of the proceedings and hearings of the Committee from 1939; and minutes of the executive sessions of the Committee from 1940-1941.

Series V: University Senate, contains correspondence, reports, minutes, and memoranda relating to the University of Chicago's Trustee-Senate Committee on Academic Reorganization (1943-1945), the University Council and Committee of the Council (1945-1946), and the Senate Advisory Committee to the Board of Trustees in the selection of a new chancellor (1950-1951). This series is organized in two alphabetical sections. The first contains the files pertaining to the Trustee Senate Committee, including material on academic reorganization and chancellor candidates. The second alphabetical section contains White’s general files from the University Senate, including reports, drafts, memos, and correspondence.

Series VI: Drafts, Reports and Publications, is organized alphabetically and contains a selection of publications White contributed to. Some reports from White’s time serving on various governmental committees can be found in this series, such as the “Report of President’s Committee on Civil Service Improvement” which is located in Box 17 Folder 4. A collection of White’s reprints, from 1921-1941, as well as drafts of some of his works can also be found here.

Related Resources

The following related resources are located in the Department of Special Collections:

http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/spcl/select.html

Chicago Citizens Police Committee. Records

Chicago Civil Service League. Records

Louis Brownlow. Diaries

Subject Headings

INVENTORY

Series I: Biographical File

Box 1   Folder 1

Addams, Jane, correspondence, 1927

Box 1   Folder 2

American Society for Public Administration, presidency, congratulations, correspondence, 1947

Box 1   Folder 3

Bancroft Prize, congratulations, acknowledgments, newspaper clippings, 1955

Box 1   Folder 4

Biographical and personnel records, 1948-1952

Box 1   Folder 5

Christian Science Monitor article, 1942

Box 1   Folder 6

Correspondence, 1951-1958

Box 1   Folder 7

Correspondence regarding illness, 1956

Box 1   Folder 8

Department of Political Science, retirement, 1956

Box 1   Folder 9

Department of Political Science, departmental salutation (humorous), 1938

Box 1   Folder 10

Department of Political Science, Distinguished Service Professorship, congratulations, acknowledgments, 1955

Box 1   Folder 11

Department of Political Science, departmental matters, 1939-1956

Box 1   Folder 12

Department of Political Science, resignation from chairmanship, correspondence, 1948

Box 1   Folder 13

Education, high school reunion, correspondence and clippings, 1934

Box 1   Folder 14

Education, college and graduate school memorabilia and course records, 1913-1922

Box 1   Folder 15

Education, "A Study of the 1913 Session of the General Court of New Hampshire," thesis, 1914

Box 1   Folder 16

Education, papers, 1913-1917

Box 2   Folder 1

Education, "Origin of the Utility Commissions in Massachusetts," dissertation, 1921

Box 2   Folder 2

The Federalists, A Study in Administrative History, Woodrow Wilson Award, 1948

Box 2   Folder 3

Forrestal, James, correspondence, 1946

Box 2   Folder 4

Good Government, profile, 1945

Box 2   Folder 5

Guggenheim Fellowship, application materials, correspondence, 1927

Box 2   Folder 6

Harvard Graduate School of Public Administration, correspondence, 1936

Box 2   Folder 7

Hoover, Herbert, correspondence, 1948-1949

Box 2   Folder 8

Hoover Commission, citation, 1955

Box 2   Folder 9

Hoover Commission, correspondence, 1953-1955

Box 2   Folder 10

International Institute of Administrative Sciences, Honorary Vice- President, correspondence, 1947

Box 2   Folder 11

Letterhead samples, undated

Box 2   Folder 12

Loyalty Review Board, appointment, acknowledgment, newspaper clippings, 1950

Box 2   Folder 13

Memorial publications and obituaries, 1958

Box 2   Folder 14

Memorial publications and obituaries, 1958-1959

Box 2   Folder 15

Memorial publications and obituaries, David L. Jickling, "Remembering Leonard D. White," 1996

Box 3   Folder 1

Memorial publications and obituaries, David L. Jickling, "Remembering Leonard D. White," proofs, 1996

Box 3   Folder 2

Memorial publications and obituaries, David L. Jickling, "Remembering Leonard D. White," correspondence and research material, 1995

Box 3   Folder 3

Newspaper clippings, 1950-1956

Box 3   Folder 4

Order of Leopold II, decoration as Commander, 1948

Box 3   Folder 5

Photographs, 1930-1955

Box 3   Folder 6

Political Science Association, correspondence, programs, minutes, 1944

Box 3   Folder 7

Princeton University, honorary LL.D., congratulations, commencement program, 1952

Box 3   Folder 8

Pulitzer Prize, correspondence, newspaper clippings, 1959

Box 3   Folder 9

Retirement, correspondence, 1956

Box 3   Folder 10

Roosevelt, Franklin D., correspondence, 1934-1939

Box 3   Folder 11

Roosevelt, Franklin D., memoranda, 1934-1935

Box 3   Folder 12

Social Sciences Building, 25th anniversary, correspondence, 1955

Box 3   Folder 13

Social Sciences Building, 25th anniversary, articles, brochures, newspaper clippings, 1955-1956

Box 3   Folder 14

Speaking engagements, 1934-1956

Box 3   Folder 15

Stockberger Award, congratulations, acknowledgments, newspaper clippings, address, 1955

Box 3   Folder 16

"Toward a New U.S. Civil Service," 1934

Box 4   Folder 1

University of Chicago Magazine, Senate-Trustee Committee, article, 1946

Box 4   Folder 2

Will, 1951

Series II: Chicago Civil Service Commission

Box 4   Folder 3

Chicago Civil Service Commission, appointment, congratulations, 1931

Box 4   Folder 4

Chicago Civil Service Commission, journal, 1931 May 14 - 1931 October 1

Box 4   Folder 5

Chicago Civil Service Commission, journal, 1931 Oct 3 - 1933 April 27

Box 4   Folder 6

Chicago Civil Service Commission, journal, loose-leaf copy, 1931 May 14 - 1933 April 27

Box 4   Folder 7

Chicago Civil Service Commission, journal, monthly memoranda, 1931-1933

Box 4   Folder 8

Chicago Civil Service Commission, speech, 1934 April 5

Series III: United States Civil Service Commission

Box 4   Folder 9

United States Civil Service Commission, appointment, newspaper clippings, 1934-1935

Box 4   Folder 10

United States Civil Service Commission, Conspectus, 1934 Sep 1

Box 5   Folder 1

United States Civil Service Commission, invitations, correspondence, 1935-1937, undated

Box 5   Folder 2

United States Civil Service Commission, Munich, Berlin, Warsaw trip, schedules, programs, correspondence, 1936 Jul

Box 5   Folder 3

United States Civil Service Commission, resignation from, newspaper clippings, 1937-1941

Box 5   Folder 4

United States Civil Service Commission, Washington Post caricatures and related newspaper clippings, 1934-1937

Box 6   Folder 1-2

United States Civil Service Commission, papers, 1937

Box 6   Folder 3

United States Civil Service Commission, reports on merit system, 1937

Series IV: President's Committee on Civil Service Improvement

Box 6   Folder 4-6

Preliminary documents for the President’s Committee on Civil Service Improvement (with Table of Contents) 1939

Box 7   Folder 1-2

Tentative draft of report, September, 1939

Box 7   Folder 3

Tentative draft of report, 2nd revised copy, undated

Box 7   Folder 4

Tentative draft of report, undated

Box 7   Folder 5

Alternative drafts of two chapters of tentative report, undated

Box 7   Folder 6

Report of President’s Committee on Civil Service Improvement, April 20, 1940, but revised as of January 21, 1941

Box 8   Folder 1

Printed Report of President’s Committee on Civil Service Improvement, 77th Congress, 1st Session, House Document Number 118, February, 1941

Box 8   Folder 2

Minority Recommendations for the Selection of Government Attorneys, January 23, 1941

Box 8   Folder 3

Statement by Mr. Justice Frank Murphy as a supplement to the Report of the Committee, undated

Box 8   Folder 4

Press release on issuance of report, 1941

Box 8   Folder 5

Reviews of committee report, 1941

Box 8   Folder 6

Newspaper clippings dealing with committee, 1939-1941

Box 8   Folder 7

Materials concerning Inland Waterways Corporation, 1939

Box 8   Folder 8

Data on administrators, undated

Box 8   Folder 9

Material concerning Veterans’ Preference, 1939

Box 8   Folder 10

Data on economists, 1939

Box 8   Folder 11

Material concerning engineers and economists, 1939

Box 8   Folder 12

Material dealing with examinations, 1939-1941

Box 8   Folder 13

Documents concerning the Civil Service Commission and its work, 1939

Box 8   Folder 14

Report on administrative personnel, 1939

Box 8   Folder 15

Documents on State, War and Navy Departments, 1939

Box 8   Folder 16

Reports on state civil service recruitment, 1939

Box 8   Folder 17

Material concerning legal positions, 1939-1941

Box 9   Folder 1

Material concerning legal positions, 1939-1941

Box 9   Folder 2

Transcript of hearings before the Committee, 1939

Box 9   Folder 3

Documents and reports, 1938-1940

Box 9   Folder 4

L. D. White longhand notes on Committee report, undated

Box 9   Folder 5

Schedule of miscellaneous material assembled for the use of the Committee, Document numbers 1-161

Box 9   Folder 6

Document number 1

Box 9   Folder 7

Document numbers 3, 5, 6

Box 9   Folder 8

Document numbers 11, 14

Box 9   Folder 9

Document numbers 17, 18, 22

Box 9   Folder 10

Document numbers 24, 28, 29

Box 9   Folder 11

Document number 30

Box 9   Folder 12

Document numbers 31, 32

Box 9   Folder 13

Document numbers 37, 38

Box 10   Folder 1

Document numbers 47, 53, 54

Box 10   Folder 2

Document numbers 57, 63, 65

Box 10   Folder 3

Document number 71

Box 10   Folder 4

Document numbers 73, 74, 75

Box 10   Folder 5

Document number 77

Box 10   Folder 6

Document numbers 78, 79

Box 10   Folder 7

Document numbers 80, 81, 86

Box 10   Folder 8

Document numbers 88, 89

Box 10   Folder 9

Document numbers 90, 91, 92

Box 10   Folder 10

Document numbers 93, 94

Box 10   Folder 11

Document number 99

Box 10   Folder 12

Document number 100

Box 11   Folder 1

Document numbers 101, 103

Box 11   Folder 2

Document numbers 104, 105

Box 11   Folder 3

Document numbers 108, 109, 111, 112, 113

Box 11   Folder 4

Document number 114

Box 11   Folder 5

Document numbers 115, 117, 118, 119

Box 11   Folder 6

Document number 120

Box 11   Folder 7

Document number 121

Box 11   Folder 8

Document numbers 122, 123, 125

Box 11   Folder 9

Document numbers 127, 128, 129

Box 11   Folder 10

Document numbers 130, 131

Box 11   Folder 11

Document numbers 132, 133, 134

Box 11   Folder 12

Document numbers 93, 94

Box 11   Folder 13

Document number 138

Box 11   Folder 14

Document numbers 139, 142

Box 12   Folder 1

Document numbers 143, 144, 145, 146

Box 12   Folder 2

Document numbers 147, 148, 149, 150, 151

Box 12   Folder 3

Document numbers 152-153

Box 12   Folder 4

Document number 154

Box 12   Folder 5

Document number 155

Box 12   Folder 6

Document numbers 156, 157

Box 12   Folder 7

Document numbers 158, 161

Box 12   Folder 8

First report, January 9, 1937

Box 12   Folder 9

Second report, February 15, 1937

Box 12   Folder 10

Third report, March 5, 1937

Box 12   Folder 11

Report to the Executive Director on the Survey of Legal Staffs in Department and Independent Establishments, Fred A. Ironside, Jr., General Council, November 23, 1934

Box 12   Folder 12

L. D. White “Plan for a more systematic recruitment of junior attorneys not under provisions of the Civil Service law” January-June, 1935, correspondence, reports

Box 12   Folder 13

Address, “New Opportunities for Economists and Statisticians in Federal Employment” December 29, 1936

Box 12   Folder 14

Miscellaneous material on legal positions in government service, correspondence, memoranda, 1934-1943

Box 12   Folder 15

Miscellaneous material on the Board of Legal Examiners, 1942- 1945

Box 13   Folder 1

Hoover Commission, L. D. White memoranda on the federal “decentralization” program and rank status, 1952-1954

Box 13   Folder 2

Hoover Commission, Personnel Task Force, L. D. White memorandum on postmasters and rural carriers, 1954

Box 13   Folder 3

Hoover, L. D. White memo on the status of Federal Attorneys, 1954

Box 13   Folder 4

President’s Committee on Civil Service Improvement, hearings November 1 and 2, 1939 (9:30-12:30; 1:30-4:30) Room 144-B, Supreme Court Building, Washington, D. C., 44 pages

Box 13   Folder 5

Report of proceedings before the President’s Committee on Civil Service Improvement, Federal civil service, Supreme Court Building, Room 144-B, 9:30 a.m., Washington, D. C., November 1, 1939, 163 pages

Box 13   Folder 6

Report of proceedings before the President’s Committee on Merit System Improvement, Federal civil service, Supreme Court Building, Room 144-B, 9:30 a.m., Washington, D. C., November 2, 1939, Ward and Paul, Official reporters, Washington, D. C., 242 pages

Box 13   Folder 7

Report of proceedings before the President’s Committee on Merit System Improvement, Federal civil service, Supreme Court Building, Room 144-B, 9:00 a.m., Washington, D. C., December 8, 1939, Ward and Paul, Official reporters, Washington, D. C., pages 243-336

Box 13   Folder 8

Report of proceedings before the President’s Committee on Merit System Improvement, Federal civil service, Supreme Court Building, Room 144-B, 9:15 a.m., Washington, D. C., December 9, 1939, Ward and Paul, Official reporters, Washington, D. C., pages 337-424

Box 13   Folder 9

President’s Committee on Civil Service Improvement, minutes of meeting, March 20 and 21, 1940, photocopy, with covering letter

Box 13   Folder 10

President’s Committee on Civil Service Improvement, minutes of executive session, September 30, 1940, suite 152, United States Supreme Court, Washington, D. C., 150 pages, carbon copy, Mr. Walter H. Hickman, Official reporter

Box 13   Folder 11

President’s Committee on Civil Service Improvement, minutes, executive session, January 21, 1941, 10:00 a.m., U. S. Supreme Court, Washington, D. C., 119 pages, carbon copy, Mr. Walter H. Hickman, official reporter, also a photostat copy of a page of the minutes which was replaced by a revised page, with a covering letter

Series V: University Senate

Box 14   Folder 1

Trustee-Senate Committee on Academic Reorganization, I. Basic Documents, 1943-1944

Box 14   Folder 2

Trustee-Senate Committee on Academic Reorganization, II. Basic Documents, 1944

Box 14   Folder 3

Trustee-Senate Committee on Academic Reorganization, III. Basic Documents, 1944-1945

Box 14   Folder 4

Trustee-Senate Committee on Academic Reorganization. Borgese's remarks, 1944

Box 14   Folder 5

Trustee-Faculty Committee on Chancellor Candidates, official lists, 1950-1951

Box 14   Folder 6

Trustee-Faculty Committee on Chancellor Candidates, correspondence, 1951

Box 14   Folder 7

Trustee-Faculty Committee on Chancellor Candidates, correspondence with H. H. Swift., 1951

Box 14   Folder 8

Trustee-Faculty Committee on Chancellor Candidates, official correspondence. 1950-1951

Box 14   Folder 9

Trustee-Faculty Committee on Chancellor Candidates, papers, 1951

Box 14   Folder 10

Bell, Laird, 1943-1945

Box 14   Folder 11

College, 1944

Box 14   Folder 12

Educational policy, memo on, 1944

Box 14   Folder 13

Faculty comments, 1944

Box 14   Folder 14

Faculty contract, 1944

Box 14   Folder 15

Faculty rank, 1944

Box 14   Folder 16

Gideonse article, 1945

Box 14   Folder 17

Hutchins-Faculty, exchange of letters, 1944

Box 14   Folder 18

Instruction and Research, Committee on, statutes, Laird Bell draft, 1945

Box 14   Folder 19

Instruction and Research, Committee on, report, March, 1944

Box 14   Folder 20

Instruction and Research, Committee on, report, December 28, 1944

Box 14   Folder 21

Meeting of May 22, 1944

Box 14   Folder 22

Meetings, summaries of, 1943-1944

Box 14   Folder 23

Meetings with Deans, 1944

Box 14   Folder 24

Memorandum, November 30, 1943

Box 14   Folder 25

Memorial, 1944

Box 15   Folder 1

Miscellaneous correspondence, 1944

Box 15   Folder 2

Miscellaneous documents and reports, 1943-1944

Box 15   Folder 3

Miscellaneous notices, 1944

Box 15   Folder 4

Newspaper comments, 1944

Box 15   Folder 5

Proportional Representation memo, 1944-1945

Box 15   Folder 6

Report: Interim report, May 1, 1944

Box 15   Folder 7

Report of Senate Committee to the Senate, April 30, 1945

Box 15   Folder 8

Senate, Organization of, 1944

Box 15   Folder 9

Statutes, 1939-1944

Box 15   Folder 10

Wright, Quincy, correspondence, 1944

  • Series VI: Drafts, Reports and Publications
Box 15   Folder 11

“Commission on the Future Policy of the University Libraries,” tentative report, 1924

Box 15   Folder 12

Edmund J. James Lectures on Government, containing article by Leonard D. White, 1938

Box 15   Folder 13

History of Public Administration Service, drafts of chapters for proposed Vol. 5, 1956-1957

Box 16   Folder 1

History of the United States Civil Service, by Paul P. Van Riper, 1958

Box 16   Folder 2

“The Intellectual Influence of Leonard B. White on the Field of American Public Administration” Ph.D. dissertation by Stolcis, Gregory B., Virginia Commonwealth University, April 2002

Box 16   Folder 3

Local Community Research Committee: Annual Report, 1926-1930

Box 16   Folder 4

Notes found in Introduction to the Study of Public Administration, 1941-1946

Box 17   Folder 1

The Practice of Public Administration, by Ernst von Harnack, revised by Jean Schneider, preface by Leonard D. White, 1942

Box 17   Folder 2

“Problems of Public Administration,” by Leonard D. White and Maure L. Goldschmidt, undated

Box 17   Folder 3

The Public Service and the Party Machine, from lectures delivered at the University of Chicago by Leonard D. White, 1938

Box 17   Folder 4

Report of President’s Committee on Civil Service Improvement, by Leonard D. White, 1941

Box 18   Folder 1-3

Reprints, 1921-1924

Box 19   Folder 1-2

Reprints, 1925-1940

Box 20   Folder 1-2

Reprints, 1940-1941

Box 20   Folder 3

Three Jacksonians, a series of lectures under the auspices of the Charles R. Walgreen Foundation, by Leonard D. White, 1952

Box 20   Folder 4

Three Jeffersonians, a series of lectures under the auspices of the Charles R. Walgreen Foundation, by Leonard D. White, 1950