Norman Wait Harris Memorial Foundation

The Norman Wait Harris Memorial Foundation is a trust fund, given to the University of Chicago in 1923, for the promotion of knowledge of an interest in international affairs. The original grant was given by Harris' children, Albert W., Normal Dwight, Hayden B., Stanley G., and Pearl Harris Maclean, through the bequest of his widow, Emma Gale Harris. A standing Committee of the Harris Foundation was set up to apply the provisions of the trust. The two main projects laid out by the trust were the annual Harris Institutes, composed of a private round table and a series of public and teaching in international relations. In 1931, the latter function was given discrete administrative existence as the inter-departmental Committee on International Relations, offering a regular program of studies and granting higher degrees. The Harris Committee held thirty-two consecutive annual Institutes, from 1924 to 1956, with only one omission (1934). After the 1956 Institute, it was decided that the intention of the trust might be better served by discontinuing the Institutes and applying the fund to a program of occasional public lectures by visiting experts.

From the guide to the Norman Wait Harris Foundation. Records, 1923-1956, (Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library 1100 East 57th Street Chicago, Illinois 60637 U.S.A.)

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