Academic Freedom Letters (1949).

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Academic Freedom Letters (1949).

1949

https://aspace.library.jhu.edu/repositories/3/resources/426

This collection consists of four letters; 3 carbon copies and 1 hand-written. Two of the carbon copies came from letters written by Robert W. Williams to Zecharia Chafee, Jr. The other carbon copy Frank Ober's letter to Harvard President James Conant, with a hand-written draft of Williams's reply to Chafee on the backs of each page. The third letter is Chafee's hand-written letter to Williams. The letters are stapled together in one bunch. The inclusion of Ober's letter adds context for the letters exchanged between Chafee and Williams and helps underscore the intense fear of communism and the suspicion of academia's liberal views that was present in 1949.

4 letters

eng, Latn

Johns Hopkins University, Sheridan Libraries and the Milton S. Eisenhower Library

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SNAC Resource ID: 6815054

Johns Hopkins University, Sheridan Libraries and the Milton S. Eisenhower Library

Related Entities

There are 5 Entities related to this resource.

Harvard University

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64n9x97 (person)

Harvard College was founded by a vote of the Great and General Court of Massachusetts on October 28, 1636 that allocated “400£ towards a schoale or colledge.” Subsequent legislative acts established the Board of Overseers, but it was the Charter of 1650 that created the Harvard Corporation as the College's primary governing board and defined its composition and authority. The College Charter became a contentious target for College officials, the Massachusetts Governor and General C...

Chafee, Zechariah, 1885-1957

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6hn5zn1 (person)

Chafee was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and graduated from Brown University, where he was a member of Alpha Delta Phi, in 1907. Later, he received a law degree from Harvard University, completing his LL.B. in 1913. He was influenced by the theories of sociological Jurisprudence presented by Roscoe Pound and others at Harvard. He met Harold J. Laski, a political scientist and later a leader of the United Kingdom's Labour Party, who became a lifelong friend, there. He practiced at the law fir...

Ober, Frank Benedict, 1889-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6ms42z7 (person)

Williams, Robert W. (Robert Wood), 1890-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6jm2k2p (person)

Conant, James Bryant, 1893-1978

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6ww7jnn (person)

James Bryant Conant (1893-1978) was a chemist, educator and public servant. Conant taught chemistry at Harvard from 1917-1933; he served as Harvard's president from 1933-1953. He was the national director of defense research from 1941-1945, and was instrumental in the creation of the atomic bomb. He continued as President of Harvard until 1953, at which time he was made United States High Commissioner for Germany. When allied military occupation of Germany ended in 1955, Conant became the U.S. A...