Duke University Archives

Duke University Archives. Record Group Description

Glasson, William Henry, 1874-1946
     Papers, 1891-1945

Extent: 4.3 linear feet in 4 Hollinger boxes + 1 flat box

Biographical: Educator and academic administrator, born in Troy, NY. Ph.B., Cornell, 1896; Ph.D., Columbia, 1900. Specialized in U.S. pension systems. Head of Dept. of History and Civics, George School (Newton, Pa.), 1899-1902; Professor of Political Economy and Social Science, Trinity College and Duke University, 1902-1940, and Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, 1926-1938. Secretary of the Phi Beta Kappa Society for the South Atlantic district; editor, South Atlantic Quarterly; member, Durham Board of Education.

Contents: Personal, professional, and official correspondence and reports, along with lectures, research notes, articles, printed material, scrapbooks, diaries, account books, postcards, photographs and other papers concerning Professor Glasson's family, career and interests.

Major subjects found in the collection are the growth of the Department of Economics and the Graduate School, Trinity's efforts to obtain a Phi Beta Kappa chapter, and Duke University's contract with TIAA. A letter to Wm. P. Few (1934 February 22) signed by 24 faculty members praising Duke's record on academic freedom is in the correspondence, which also includes reports directed to University administrators and copies of family genealogical material dating to the 1850s. In 1934, Glasson and Dean Wannamaker were among a group of academics who travelled to Germany on a Carl Schurz Tour to see the effects of Hitler's rise to power. The file includes maps, scholarly papers, postcards, an itinerary, and other materials; letters written while on the trip are filed in the correspondence.

Dr. Glasson's manuscripts include recollections of Trinity and Duke, a variety of writings and lectures on money and banking, pension systems, and Durham's charter of incorporation. The volumes include 10 diaries (1898, 1900-1902, 1935-1942, 1944), 3 family account books (1900-1901, 1922-1933, 1937), the second recording his daughters' expenses while students at Duke, and scrapbooks of clippings, photographs of Glasson as a young man, poems, and pictures of Cornell University. Significant correspondents include J.P. Breedlove and John S. Bassett of Duke, H. Clay Evans, the U.S. Commissioner of Pensions, and Prof. Henry R. Seager of Columbia.

Organization: 1. Correspondence, 1891-1945; 2. Manuscripts; 3. Subject files; 4. Printed matter; 5. Graphics; 6. Volumes.

Provenance: Accession: 48-1942: 675 items + 46 volumes, gift, 26 Nov 1954, Mrs. Wm. H. Glasson, 710 Buchanan Blvd., Durham.
Accession: 48-2022: 7 items, gift, 17 Feb. 1955, Mrs. Wm. H. Glasson.

Guides: Accession records are in the collection file.

Box list:
1. Correspondence; manuscripts.
2. Manuscripts.
3. Subject files; printed matter.
4. Clippings; photographs; diaries.
5. (oversize) scrapbooks; account books, notebooks, diplomas, Durham charter.

Status: processed, open for research. Copyright in the personal papers of William H. Glasson has not been transferred to Duke University.

Subject entries
Academic freedom--Durham, N.C.--1934
Account books
Bassett, John Spencer, 1867-1928--Correspondence
Breedlove, Joseph Penn--Correspondence
Cornell University--Photographs
Duke University. Dept. of Economics--Anecdotes
Duke University--Diaries
Duke University. Graduate School--Planning--1924
Duke University--Tuition and fees--1922-1933
Durham (N.C.)--Politics and government--Charters--1915, 1921
Economics--Study and teaching--Durham, N.C.
Evans, H. Clay, 1843-1921--Correspondence
Few, William Preston, 1867-1940--Anecdotes
Germany--Description and travel--1919-1944. Carl Schurz Tour, 1934
Hatcher, Orle Latham, 1868-1946--Correspondence
Phi Beta Kappa. Beta of North Carolina--Records and correspondence
Southgate Residence Hall--Fundraising
Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association
Trinity College (Durham, N.C.)--Anecdotes
United States. Dept. of the Interior. Bureau of Pensions. Office of the Commissioner--Records and correspondence--1900-1905