Duke University Archives. Collection description

Duke University. President. William Preston Few
Records, 1910-1940

Source of acquisition
Duke University. Office of the President.
Mary R. Few.
Ellie P. Few.
W.C. Davison
Robert H. Woody.
Mattie U. Russell

Organization and arrangement
The materials are organized in four series:

1. Correspondence, 1885-1940, 88 boxes, arranged chronologically.
2. Subject file, 20 boxes, arranged alphabetically.
3. Clipping file, 1 box, arranged chronologically.
4. Volumes, 1 box.

Forms part of: Duke University. Office of the President, Records.

Publications: Woody, Robert H., ed. The Papers and Addresses of William Preston Few. Durham. Duke University Press, 1951.

Associated materials: Duke University Board of Trustees records, Duke University Archives, 341 Perkins Library, Duke University.

Historical/biographical note
Educator; President, Trinity College, Durham, NC, 1910-1924; President, Duke University, Durham, NC, 1924-1940. William Preston Few was born in Greenville, SC on December 29, 1867, the son of Benjamin Franklin and Rachel Kendrick Few. He attended Wofford College, Spartanburg SC (A.B., 1889), and Harvard University (A.M., 1893, Ph.D, 1896). He came to Durham in 1896 as Professor of English at Trinity College. He was named Dean of the College in 1902, and President in 1910, succeeding John C. Kilgo. On August 17, 1911 he married Mary Reamey Thomas of Martinsville, West Virginia. They had five sons: William, Lyne Starling, Kendrick Sheffield, Randolph Reamey, and Yancey Preston. In 1924, Trinity College became Duke University, and Few remained as President until his death in Durham on October 16, 1940. He was an active layman in the Methodist Church, and was often a delegate to the Church's General Conferences. Other activities included membership on a committee of the Harvard Board of Overseers (1911), President of the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association (1913), Trustee of the Negro Rural School Fund (1918), and President of the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools (1932). In his thirty years as President of Trinity and Duke, he had the time, and thanks to the generosity of the Duke family, the money, to oversee the transformation of Trinity College into Duke University and assist in the fulfillment of the concept behind the Duke Endowment.

Contents
The largest part of this collection consists of Few's office files as President of Trinity College and Duke University, with the bulk dates being 1910 to 1940. There is some correspondence, largely of a personal nature, dating from 1885, as well as family materials. The office files make up the bulk of the Correspondence series, and consist of incoming letters and copies of outgoing, along with reports, minutes, telegrams, newsletters and other material generated or received by the President's office. The Subject file consists of correspondence, reports, and printed material; it concerns Trinity and Duke departmental operations, the development of the institution from its beginnings in Randolph County, N.C.,the school's relationship with the Methodist Church, and other subjects. The clipping file consists of newspaper clippings relating to Few's activities, and events at the school. The volumes file includes a Bible, an incomplete set of Few's memoranda books for the years 1922-1933, and a manuscript arithmetic primer, dated 1814, written by Alston W. Kendrick, Few's grandfather. Among the correspondents are Alice Mary Baldwin, John Carlisle Kilgo, John Spencer Bassett, Angier Buchanan Duke, Benjamin Newton Duke, William Hayes Ackland, Julian S.Carr, Edward R. Murrow, and Robert D.W. Conner. Significant subjects treated in the papers include, besides education, philanthropy, the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and race relations. Of particular interest is a folder of historical materials which includes a proof of the first headline to use the term, "Duke University," copies of correspondence concerning the institution's relationship to the Methodist Church, and histories of Union Institute and Normal College. Also included in the Subject file are President's Reports, manuscripts of Few's speeches and writings, and records of committees of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Certain materials received by the President's office in the course of business may have been considered important enough to warrant the attention of the Board of Trustees; thus, some records of the President's Office will be found in the Board's records.