© The contents of this finding aid are the copyright of the University of Chicago Library
© 2006 University of Chicago Library
No restrictions.
When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: Harper, William Rainey. Papers, [Box #, Folder #], Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library
William Rainey Harper (1856 -1906) was the first president of the University of Chicago, from 1891 to 1906. Born on July 24,1856, Harper was the son of Samuel Harper and Ellen Elizabeth Rainey. An excellent student, Harper learned Hebrew at an early age and received his B.A. from Muskingum College at fourteen. After working for a few years in his family's store, in 1873 he went on to graduate work at Yale. There he studied philology, concentrating particularly on Hebrew. His dissertation was entitled, ";A Comparative Study Prepositions in Latin, Greek, Sanskrit and Gothic. Harper earned his Ph.D. in two years, graduating just before his nineteenth birthday.
In 1875, Harper married Ella Paul and they moved to Macon, Tennessee where Harper had found a position as the head of Masonic College. This was the first of several positions, including Denison University, Baptist Union Theological Seminary and Chautauque Institution, he held before returning to Yale in 1886 to teach Hebrew in the Semitic Languages department and the Divinity School.
Harper remained at Yale for only a few years. He had already been a member of the faculty at the Baptist Union Theological Seminary in Morgan Park, Illinois, where he had taught Hebrew. Before leaving, he had been offered the presidency of the failing old University of Chicago, so when the American Baptist Educational Society formed and decided to organize a midwestern Baptist university, Harper was invited to join the organizational committee. With the financial support of John D. Rockefeller, a board of trustees was formed and they soon nominated Harper for the presidency. On February 16, 1891, after lengthy negotiations, he accepted the presidency of the new University of Chicago.
Even before his official acceptance of the presidency, Harper was planning. Although originally envisioned as a Baptist, undergraduate college for the midwest, Harper had bigger ideas. Instead of merely an undergraduate institution Harper wanted to promote his ideal of higher education with a combination of undergraduate teaching and strong support for research. Also part of this plan was a continuation of the kind of correspondence education he had developed at the Baptist Union Theological Seminary and Yale. With this in mind, he began an intensive period of recruitment and building. Harper worked tirelessly to recruit first class faculty and raise money for his institution. He brought in faculty from a range of fields and institutions, using his persuasive skills and tenacity, as well as promises of time for research, to convince them to join the new university.
Eventually, the university came to include graduate degree programs, adult education programs, athletics, a university press and extension services. These were in addition to the undergraduate college. It was formed according to the plan of two years of general study of the classics followed by two years of greater specialization. Harper himself taught in the Department of Semitic Languages and Literatures. Despite the burden of administrative activities, Harper was the chair of his department as well as president, he felt it was important to teach. Even with this interest in teaching, a key part of Harper's vision of higher education was research and scholarship. Harper wanted his senior faculty to have ample time and freedom to pursue their research interests as well as teach. This emphasis on research was somewhat novel at the time, but Harper was able to exploit the absence of traditional constraints in forming a new university in order to give research and scholarship a central role.
When he was not occupied with his educational plan, Harper was raising money and soliciting donations, especially from John D. Rockefeller. In addition to the recruitment of faculty and the organization of programs of study, there were buildings to be built and academic ceremonies to be held. During all this activity Harper continued to write, producing biblical commentaries and other works, and maintaining a passionate interest in sports. He never stopped planning for the future and continued to expand the university and include new programs and schools over the following years. This caused problems in budgeting, however, and Harper ran up large deficits in his fifteen years in the presidency. These financial problems would not be addressed until Harry Pratt Judson was appointed president after Harper.
In 1905, Harper became ill. Although he continued to work and teach throughout the period of his illness, Harper died on January 10, 1906. He left behind the foundations of the University of Chicago, which would continue to grow and change after his death, but never lose his emphasis on a combination of undergraduate education and scholarly research.
Harper and his wife, Ella, had three sons, Samuel Northrup, Paul and Donald, and one daughter, Davida.
The William Rainey Harper papers is comprised primarily of correspondence, and papers not included in the Harper-Judson-Burton section of the Presidents Papers, and is of a somewhat more personal nature than the Presidents Papers. This collection has been arranged into six series: Correspondence, Speeches and Manuscripts, Personal, Writings, Books from the Library of William Rainey Harper and Notebooks and Scrapbooks.
The first series, Correspondence, has eight subseries. Divisions of material among these subseries is not strict. The first subseries, General, contains correspondence with a variety of correspondents including University of Chicago faculty such as Ernest DeWitt Burton and Albion Small and other university faculty and presidents. It also contains some correspondence with family members. This subseries is arranged chronologically and the names of the correspondents in each folder have been listed alphabetically. Most of the letters in subseries 1, General, have been individually described. These descriptions are located in the second volume (paper copy only) to the William Rainey Harper Papers. The second subseries is Distinguished Persons. It contains a certain quantity of correspondence that has been separated from the General correspondence and includes correspondence with F. T. Gates, Harry Pratt Judson and others. This subseries is arranged alphabetically by the name of the correspondent. The third subseries, Family, contains some of Harper's correspondence with his family and other personal correspondence. Subseries 5, Academic, contains correspondence with students including corrected lessons of Rev. Daniel Seymour. The sixth subseries, Founding of the University of Chicago, has correspondence about the founding of the university, correspondence concerning Harper's selection for the presidency and similar information. Related to this is subseries seven, Early appointments, that contains correspondence regarding early appointments to the faculty. This subseries is arranged alphabetically by subject. The last subseries, Harper-Shepardson Business, consists of two bound volumes of correspondence between Harper and his secretary, Shepardson.
Series II, Speeches and Manuscripts, includes Harper's first convocation address, his Quarterly Statement, Spring 1896 and lecture notes.
Series III, Personal, contains material related to Harper's illness and death. It includes correspondence with Harper's doctors and concerning his last operation. Also, Series III includes material about Harper's funeral and memorial services and letters of sympathy sent to Ella Harper, Samuel Harper and to University officials. These three correspondents determine the three groups that the letters are divided into and the three groups are arranged alphabetically by correspondent. Additionally there are tributes, memorials, clippings and correspondence and notes concerning Harper's desk.
The fourth series, Writings, contains a few reprints of articles by Harper and a bibliography of Harper's works, as well as a few reviews of his works. The articles are arranged chronologically.
Series V, Books from the Library of William Rainey Harper, includes three small volumes, one of which, Prophetae Posteriores, is heavily annotated.
Series VI, Notebooks and Scrapbooks, has three main divisions. The first group is the ";Red Books, which are arranged chronologically. Second are the Miscellaneous Notebooks, also arranged chronologically, although three of these are undated. The last group, Harper's Secretary's notebooks, appear to be notebooks kept by his secretary. They are also arranged chronologically and include a volume entitled ";General Reference Book.