© The contents of this finding aid are the copyright of the University of Chicago Library
© 2008 University of Chicago Library
The collection is open for research.
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
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).
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.
The following related resources are located in the Department of Special Collections: