The University of Chicago Central Administration Letterbooks cover the administrations of Max Mason (1925-1928), Robert Maynard Hutchins (1929-1951), and Lawrence A. Kimpton (1951-1960). Mason was the first President to come from outside the University. He oversaw a period of expansion, including the creation of a hundred new faculty positions, the completion of the hospitals, and a new football stadium. Under his successor, however, varsity football was eliminated; Hutchins sought to focus on cementing the University’s reputation for intellectual rigour, particularly at the undergraduate level, where he championed a liberal, non-specialized education. Despite his involvement with government projects on campus during wartime, notably the Manhattan Project, Hutchins was a defender of academic freedom who protected his faculty against post-war charges of communism. Kimpton’s administration was similarly ambitious, presiding over a controversial urban renewal project in Hyde Park to boost declining enrollment.
From the guide to the University of Chicago. Central Administration. Letterbooks, 1927-1957, (Special Collections Research Center University of Chicago Library 1100 East 57th Street Chicago, Illinois 60637 U.S.A.)
