Finding aid for the Director’s Office: Director Frank Aydelotte files
DO.AYDELOTTE

Summary Information

Repository
Shelby White and Leon Levy Archives Center
Creator
Aydelotte, Frank, 1880-1956
Creator
Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton, N.J.). Director's Office.
Title
Director's Office: Director Frank Aydelotte files
ID
DO.AYDELOTTE
Date [bulk]
Bulk, 1939-1947
Date [inclusive]
Bulk, 1939-1947 1927-1957
Extent
3.0 linear feet
Language
English

Preferred Citation note

The suggested citation for the material is "[item], Director’s Office - Director Frank Aydelotte files, Box [box number], From the Shelby White and Leon Levy Archives Center of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ, USA."

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Biographical note

Frank Aydelotte (1880-1956) served as Director of the Institute for Advanced Study from 1939 to 1947. He was a good friend of Founding Director Abraham Flexner, and was asked by Flexner to succeed him. He had previously served on the Institute's Board of Trustees from 1930 to 1939.

Frank Aydelotte was born in Indiana in 1880. He received a bachelor's degree in English from Indiana University in 1900. He taught English at several institutions, including Vincennes University and Louisville Male High School in Louisville, Kentucky. He then earned an M.A. from Harvard University in 1903. He was named one of the first Rhodes Scholars in 1905, and studied at Oxford University from 1905 to 1907, earning a B.Litt. in 1908. He remained committed to the program's goals for the rest of his life, administering it from 1917 to 1953.

Aydelotte served as an Associate Professor of English at Indiana University beginning in 1908, then Professor of English at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology starting in 1915. He then accepted the presidency of Swarthmore College, a position he held from 1921 to 1940. (Upon being named as Director of the Institute in 1939, he served as the head of both institutions until his Swarthmore successor was found.) During his tenure at Swarthmore he founded the Honors Program.

As Institute Director, Aydelotte was involved in a number of important initiatives to strengthen the Institute. He oversaw the move to Fuld Hall and adjustment to having its own campus. Since his tenure intersected with World War II, many initiatives were constrained or dictated by the delicate political circumstances of the time. He invited the Economics Section of the League of Nations to reside at in Fuld Hall in the years between its creation and the creation of the United Nations. He also approved the first Member housing project. He maintained good relations with Faculty, Trustees, and others in the Institute community, and his tenure is regarded as an important stabilizing link in the Institute's history.

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Scope and Contents note

The Director’s Office: Director Frank Aydelotte files files contain correspondence, memos, reports, and other documentation pertaining to Aydelotte's service as Institute Trustee and Director. Some of the materials date to his involvement as an Institute Trustee, rather than as Director. Some later materials from after his retirement are also included in the series.

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Administrative Information

Publication Information

Shelby White and Leon Levy Archives Center

Historical Studies-Social Science Library
Einstein Drive
Princeton
NJ, 08540
609-734-8375
archives@ias.edu

Revision Description

  November 27, 2018

Conditions Governing Access note

The collection is open for research.

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Related Materials

Related Archival Materials note

Additional records pertaining to Frank Aydelotte's tenure as Institute Director and Trustee are in other subgroups of the Records of the Office of the Director, most notably the General Files and the Trustees files.

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Collection Inventory

Files 
Box Folder

A file 1948 

 1 1

American Civilization project 1943-1944 

 1 2

American Friends Service Committee 1938-1948 

Digitized file (PDF)

[https://albert.ias.edu/handle/20.500.12111/2500] 		1 3

Architects - 1934-1938 - IAS 1937-1940 

 1 4

Aydelotte's Report to Policy Committee - 10/11/44 - Complete 1944 

 1 5

B file 1940-1951 

 1 6

Bamberger, E. 1933-1946 

 1 7

Bamberger, Louis 1934-1940. 

 1 8

Battlefield Park, Princeton 1945-1949 

 1 9

Board of Trustees 1940-1945 

 1 10

Board of Trustees - October 9, 1947 1947 

 1 11

Budget 1940-1949 

 1 12

Budget -- Old Material 1940-1947 

 1 13

Buildings -- Misc. 1938-1944 

 1 14

Buildings and Grounds, Committee on 1937-1940 

 1 15

Bulletin, 1945 

 2 1

Business notes - misc. 1934-1949 

 2 2

C file 1939-1950 

 2 3

Chinese Studies - Flexner 1936-1938 

 2 4

Committee on Site (for IAS) 1931-1933 

 2 5

D file 1942-1948 

 2 6

Dodds, Harold W. 1936-1950 

 2 7

Earle, Edward Mead 1940-1954 

 2 8

Economics 1940-1947 

General note

("Flyd" indicated on folder)

 2 9

Einstein, Albert 1940-1956 

 2 10

Endowment 1946 

 2 11

F file 1936-1949 

 2 12

Faculty - Minutes & Notes 1944-1947 

 2 13

Faculty Policy Committee 1944 

 2 14

Finance Budget 1940-1947 

 2 15

Finance Committee 1944-1947 

 2 16

Financial -- Corresp. [re] Pensions 1943 

 3 1

Financial -- Pensions 1934-1946 

 3 2

Financial -- Pensions 1943-44 

 3 3

Financial -- Salaries 1943-1949 

 3 4

Firestone Library (Princeton University) 1944 

 3 5

Flexner, Abraham 1927-1932 

Digitized file (PDF)

[https://albert.ias.edu/handle/20.500.12111/2304] 		3 6

Flexner, Abraham 1933-1934 

Digitized file (PDF)

[https://albert.ias.edu/handle/20.500.12111/2305] 		3 7

Flexner, Abraham 1935-1937 

Digitized file (PDF)

[https://albert.ias.edu/handle/20.500.12111/2306] 		3 8

Flexner, Abraham 1938-1955 

Digitized file (PDF)

[https://albert.ias.edu/handle/20.500.12111/2307] 		3 9

Frankfurter, Felix 1933-1949 

 4 1

Frankl, Paul 1945-1950 

 4 2

Fulbright Committee undated 

 4 3

Fuld, Mrs. C. 1930-1933 

 4 4

G file 1932-1952 

 4 5

Gest Library Committee 1940-1947 

 4 6

Gest Oriental Library - Correspondence with Carl Schuster 1940-1944 

 4 7

Goldman, Hetty 1947 

 4 8

Government Contracts 1944-1947 

 4 9

H file 1933-1948 

 4 10

Herzfeld, Ernst 1946-1953 

 4 11

Houghton, Alanson B. 1939-1940 

 4 12

Humanistic Faculty Minutes and Faculty Correspondence re: Meetings 1943-1950 

 4 13

Institute for Advanced Study 1930-1939 

 4 14

Institute for Advanced Study 1940-1946 

 4 15

Institute for Advanced Study 1950-1956 

 4 16

Institute: Executive Committee; Director's Reports 1944-1945, 

 5 1

Institute: Faculty meetings 1939-1940 

 5 2

Institute: Misc. memos, etc. 1939-1945 

 5 3

Institute: Notes for meetings, etc. (2 folders) 1943-1954 

 5 4-5

K file 1939-1943 

 5 6

L file 1940-1948 

 5 7

Jens Frederick Larson drawing plans (4) for Building A and Building B (folder 1 of 2) undated 
Box Folder

Leidesdorf, Samuel D. 1935-1945 

 5 8

Liaison Committee 1935-1937 

 5 9

Librarian Search 1939-1942 

 5 10

Lowe, E. A. 1947 

 5 11

M file 1933-1950 

 5 12

Maass, Herbert H. 1936-1940 

 5 13

Mathematics, School of -- Faculty Appointments 1941-1947 

 5 14

Meritt, Benjamin D. 1936-1952 

 5 15

Mitrany, David 1935-1945 

 5 16

Moe Committee on Directorship 1945-1947 

 5 17

Moe, Henry Allen 1928-1948 

 5 18

N file 1934-1950 

 5 19

Nominating Committee 1933-1947 

 5 20

Olden Manor, restoration and remodeling 1936-1940 

Digitized file (PDF)

[https://albert.ias.edu/handle/20.500.12111/2303] 		5 22

O file 1940 

 5 21

Oppenheimer, J. Robert 1947-1955 

Digitized file (PDF)

[https://albert.ias.edu/handle/20.500.12111/2626] 		6 1

P file 1939-1948 

 6 2

Panofsky, Erwin 1935-1949 

 6 3

Princeton Bicentennial Conference on Far Eastern Studies 1947 

 6 4

R file 1936-1948 

 6 5

Report of the Director - Oct. 1944 1939-1944 

 6 6

Riefler, Winfield 1937 and undated 

 6 7

Rockefeller-Bamberger Fund 1940-1949 

 6 8

S file 1933-1951 

 6 9

Sabin, Dr. Florence R. 1933 

 6 10

School of Humanistic Studies [note folder label misspelling: Humanities] 1941-1947 

 6 11

School of Humanistic Studies: Correspondence 1941-1949 

 6 12

Stewart, Walter W. 1939 

 6 13

Stipends -- IAS 1933-1957 

 6 14

T file 1938-1947 

 6 15

V & W file 1930-1948 

 6 16

Veblen, Oswald 1936-1940 

 6 17

von Neumann, John 1953 

 6 18

Warren, Robert B. 1940 

 6 19

Weed, Dr. Lewis 1939-1943 

 6 20

Weyl, Hermann 1939-1946 

 6 21

Z file 1945 

 6 22

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