UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
COLLEGE OF SCIENCE, LITERATURE, AND THE ARTS
MINNEAPOLIS 14

PROGRAM IN AMERICAN STUDIES

October 13, 1949

Dear Norman:

The University administration here has generously allowed us to set up a second graduate seminar in American Studies, designed for M. A. candidates whom we cannot accommodate in the original seminar (limited to candidates for the Ph. D.). As we have in the last three years organized both a senior proseminar and this doctoral seminar, we are now running low on ideas. If you will mail us an outline or reading lists or whatever you use in your undergraduate seminar in American Civilization, it may suggest to us what we should or (forgive me) should not do in our new course.

Things are not going well at our home this fall; Mary has reached the place where surgeons and physicians can do nothing more for her. But I am doing or pretending to do full time work at the University and am keeping myself very busy.

All of the best to you,

Tremaine McDowell

Professor Norman H. Pearson
Yale University
New Haven, Connecticut

19 October, 1949

Professor Tremaine McDowell
Program in American Studies
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Dear Tremaine:

I am enclosing some material which might conceivably be of interest to you in connection with your new graduate seminar. American Studies 90 is the group which is set up for Juniors in the University but of course involves an approach which is equally usable within the graduate school framework. It should be more or less self-explanatory, and of course is not so very different from the kind of thing you have long since been doing.

It is quite possible that the principle behind American Studies 91 might be of more use to you. This is the seminar given for Seniors in connection with the writing of their Senior theses. My plan has been to try to develop some scheme by which we could help the students not only in a general approach to the American scene, but also assist them in the writing of the paper. It seems to me that any paper dealing with the total complex of the American scene ought to be possible of reduction to a point where other students can discuss it, even though they do not have all of the data which the writer himself will eventually supply. Perhaps the best way of explaining what I am trying to do is to give you the story of how it has worked so far.

For the first two meetings of the seminar, my graduate assistant present the topic of his dissertation, which is based on the history of Williams College. We then asked the students in the class what questions ought to be asked by the writer, the answers to which we might expect as readers to find in his book, in order to show the relationship of an educational institution in its involvement with the American scene. This involved not only questions the answers to which one might likely find, but simply questions where the absence of necessary data ought to be borne in mind by the writer in framing his conclusions. Most of the detailed data was supplied by my assistant, but we found that there was complete freedom on the part of

Professor Tremaine McDowell

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the students in approaching the subject in abstract. By the
time of the third meeting the students began to see the
broader implications of the subject which they had chosen for
their theses, and in preparation for subsequent meetings we
have asked each student to prepare an outline of the problems
involved in his own paper. These have been given to the
fellow students before the meeting and at the meeting itself
each topic has, like that of Williams, been discussed in its
abstract. What has resulted already is a great potential
strengthening of the students' papers as well as a constant
practice in seeing the involvement of one aspect of the scene
with all the others. Thus in one sense we might say that the
papers are incidental to the general practice of American
Studies. As the year goes on I will expect the students to
have gained the facility in looking at a variety of problems
which will be of infinite benefit to them in their later life,
as in your case it would be good pedagogical training for
future teachers. Once we have gone through the outlines of
the students, I shall expect each one to have finished at
least in rough draft a chapter or section of his final work.
This will be placed on deposit in such a way that the other
students can read it before the seminar meets and knock it
to pieces when we are together. In this way faults of style,
verification, and the rest can be ironed out to the mutual
benefit of all as well as training them in the actual applica-
tion of what has hitherto chiefly been abstract. It seems to
me that you could work something over much like this, using
your Masters theses in place of the Senior theses, and that
the course might prove to be an exciting one indeed.

I enclose the first two outlines of the undergraduate
papers to show you the kind of thing that they have given to
us. Obviously they do not represent the discussion which
jumps off from them both in approval and disapproval.

My new graduate seminar in Twentieth Century American
Writing is divided into three sections of recent work in poetry,
fiction, and criticism, taking the last of these three in terms
of the curious state of affairs in which we seem to be emulating
the 18th Century in making criticism a form of creative expres-
sion. But since this is orthodox in nature, although new to
the Yale Graduate School in the dates of the matter concerned,
it will not help very much to solve your problem.

Let me know how your plans work out. I should be de-
lighted if I could have been in any way a help to you.

Sincerely yours,

30 June 1958

TO THE PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF YALE UNIVERSITY:

Gentlemen:

I submit herewith my annual report for 1957-58 as Chairman of
the American Studies Program.

Undergraduate Program.

As before, American Studies continues in conjunction with History
and English to serve as the major for one-half of all juniors and seniors,
each program serving roughly the same aim of providing as richly as possible
a humanistic background for the students' later period of professional
training. Of the 111 standard majors in American Studies who took the com-
prehensive examinations this spring, four received grades of Superior, sixteen
of High Pass, and three failed. Of the nine who comprised the first group to
receive their degrees in the revised Honors Program, three men were graduated
with High Honors in their major, and one with Honors. The senior thesis of
one member of the Honors Program was awarded the John Addison Porter Prize
in American History and divided the Frank H. Patterson Prize for the best
essay in American Politics.

The chief needs of the undergraduate program have been outlined
in the Chairman's report to the Executive Committee on 2 April 1958,
and it is only necessary to iterate the Program's desire to add eight junior
seminars to parallel the present eight senior seminars now offered. The need
of such seminars is perhaps all the greater with an interdepartmental curri-
culum. The inauguration of these seminars would permit an intellectual em-
phasis, at the beginning of the major, on interdisciplinary method, and thus
give added coherence to the Program; would permit a balance between the

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historical and thematic approaches; and would modify the present unbalanced reliance on large lecture courses. The allotment of $20,000 annually for the next five years to the Art Gallery, out of American Studies' share of the Coe Funds, makes financially difficult such an intellectual strengthening as the new seminars would provide. I wonder if it would not be possible to secure a foundation grant which would carry the additional seminars from 1959-62 on the basis that the Coe funds would be sufficient thereafter to maintain them.

## Graduate Program.

After a lean period of graduate enrollment, this past year has (thanks to the fine work of Professor David Potter) seen an enrollment of fourteen students whose records for course work have been of exceptionally high calibre. One doctoral degree was granted in June, and several students now have only their dissertations to complete. Thanks also to Professor Potter's impetus, next year's prospects look as bright. Nearly thirty applications for enrollment were made, and of the Woodrow Wilson Fellowships awarded throughout the country over a third of those in the field of American Studies made Yale their first choice. Eleven new students have been accepted, and seven returning students will be actively registered. A total of 19,000, of which 15,000 came from Coe funds, was awarded for Fellowships and Scholarships, and only one accepted applicant (to whom we made no grant) was seduced elsewhere by competing awards.

## Summer Program for High School Teachers.

At last year's summer program in American Studies for high school teachers in the fields of American literature and social studies, seventeen students were enrolled from the State of Connecticut. For this summer the area for applicants has been extended to include Western Massachusetts as well, and a total of twenty have been accepted from those who desired admission. As before, the administration has been jointly with the Master of

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Arts in Teaching Program. It will probably be wise to continue such a
program for the next year or two, but the project should be reviewed at
that time.

## Publications.

The Yale Publications in American Studies has been inaugurated with Father James P. Shannon's Catholic Colonization on the Western Frontier which has already gone into a second printing. The second volume, Otis Pease's *The Responsibilities of American Advertising*, has just been published. Its early reviews have welcomed it as a significant contribution. A third in the series is already in galley-sheets, and others are in preparation.

## General Notes.

The retirement of Professor Ralph Gabriel from the faculty is a
source of great regret to us all, and in combination with the unavailability
for the immediate future of the administrative services of Professor Potter
has made the present administrative weakness of the Program all the more evi-
dent in terms of a lack of involved senior members of the faculty. One exam-
ple is the post of Director of Graduate Studies which it was not possible to
fill last year and which remains vacant for next year as well. As a result,
the Chairman has had to contribute his services for those duties, in addition
to an already full load. With this in mind, as well as the significant un-
rest among younger members of the staff in terms of their split relationships
between the Program and the Departments in which they hold their official
appointments, the Provost appointed a committee composed of the Chairmen of
American Studies, History, and English, as well as himself and Mr. Healy
(for Social Studies) and Mr. Hilles (for the Humanities) to study the orga-
nization of the American Studies Program and its problems. Their report
was made on 13 March 1958 to the Provost and referred to the Executive

Committee of the University on 2 April 1956. The report was approved by the Executive Committee and referred by them to the Corporation as a part of its overall recommendations. It is hoped that there will not be too long a delay in taking action upon at least the section that refers to the urgency of our situation.

22 June 1959

To the President and Fellows of Yale University:

Gentlemen:

I submit herewith my annual report for 1958-59 as Chairman of the American Studies Program.

## Undergraduate:

Activities in the undergraduate division have continued more or less routinely as they concern the standard majors. Considerable attention however has been paid to the formulation of an appropriate syllabus for the proposed compulsory junior seminars which it is hoped to introduce for 1960-61. A general revision of distributional course requirements is also planned in order to tighten the intellectual discipline of the major without losing its valuable general quality for men preparing for graduate professional schools.

The second class to graduate from the revised Honors Program made a distinguished record and testified both to the quality of students who enroll and the quality of the teaching they receive from the younger men who have taken their degrees in American Studies (in three cases from Yale, and one from Harvard). Of the eleven enrolled, two graduated with Exceptional Distinction, four with High Honors, and one with Honors. Of the four who did not receive Honors, two had grades of Superior in their Comprehensives, and one of these was awarded a Keeby Fellowship to Cambridge University. Repeating last year's record, both the John Addison Porter Prize in American History and the Frank M. Patterson Prize for the best essay in American Politics were won by Honors majors in American Studies.

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## Graduate:

Graduate enrollment has been maintained within the overall limits of 25-30 students originally self-imposed by the Program and now established by the Graduate School. Both the number of inquiries and actual applications for enrollment continue to increase. The scholarship fund allocated from the Coe bequest was not however sufficient to meet the needs of graduate students already enrolled, so that among the ten new students for next year the only one to be helped by Yale will be coming on an Amherst-Yale Fellowship (in which the support is divided). Of the others, one will be a Danforth Fellow, one on a government grant, and four on Woodrow Wilson Fellowships.

## Summer Program for High School Teachers:

Last summer's program, with a full enrollment of twenty, was highly successful. The alumni of the course continue to be enthusiastic, and the influence of Yale on public secondary school teaching in Connecticut is increasing. This year there has been an even larger number of applications, but the enrollment is still being held to twenty. The traditional pattern of one seminar on "New Interpretations of American History," one on "Approaches to American Literature" and directed individual work on special projects will again be followed.

## Publications:

The third volume in The Yale Publications in American Studies has appeared with the publication of Robert A. Bone's *The Negro Novel in America*, in November, 1958. Some 1,100 copies have already been sold, which although not startling in trade circles keeps it well up on the list of dissertations. A fourth volume will appear in the fall.

## General Notes:

A loss to our teaching strength will be deeply felt by the

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acceptance of an Assistant Professorship of English at UCLA by Mr. Bone, and at the University of Toronto by Mr. Peter Buitenhuis. Mr. Cushing Strout is also leaving to become Associate Professor of History at California Institute of Technology. Among those remaining on our budget, Mr. Albert E. Stone, Jr., has been advanced to the rank of Assistant Professor of English, Mr. William H. Goetzmann to a similar rank in History, and Mr. John E. Smith to a Professorship in Philosophy. Since the latter was brought to Yale primarily because of the needs of American Studies, the recognition of his general value to the faculty is particularly appreciated.

Because of the vacancies caused by the removal of Bone, Buitenhuis and Strout, and by the absence of Goetzmann on a Morse Fellowship, the question of staffing for next year has been much in mind, particularly because of the lateness in the academic year of the withdrawals by Buitenhuis and Strout. To fill the gaps, one instructor has been hired in conjunction with the English Department, as has one visiting Associate Professor, and a visiting Professor and visiting Lecturer have been engaged with assignment to the English Department.

The need for permanent faculty members at the professorial rank, available for administrative duties within the Program, is more apparent than ever. Although the new Executive Committee has proved a great strength and a source of volunteer assistance during the illness of the Chairman, nothing has been done to provide the promised Director of Graduate Studies. Nor is there anyone of suitable rank to take over the work as Director of Undergraduate Studies next year when Mr. Stone's prolonged occupancy (done in addition to a full teaching schedule)

28 July 1960

Gentlemen:

I submit herewith my annual report for 1959-60 as Chairman of
the American Studies Program.

Undergraduates:

Major changes in the curriculum of the standard program have been made. The number of optional courses previously listed has been reduced from 48 to 22. In this way a more immediately visible projection is given of the actual core of courses traditionally chosen by the majors.

A more intellectually significant step has been the planning for the introduction in the fall of 1960 of a required multi-divisioned junior seminar for the standard program. By this means students will be introduced at the beginning of their major to an interdisciplinary approach, they will be given a common body of knowledge, and the instructors can rely on a common body of reference. The continuance of the required senior seminars will give a central focus to the second year of the major as well. The result should be an intellectual tightening of the program.

Another consequence of the restudied curriculum for the standard major will be the introduction in the fall of 1960 of *American Studies 140*, *The Structure of the American Economy*. This will be taught by Assistant Professor Broude of the Economics staff who has already given the

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graduate seminar for American Studies on the same subject. This lecture course will for the first time provide for upperclass majors who have not had Economics 10 an introduction to economics. The enrollment of upper-classmen from several other major fields has also been encouraging.

The third group of seniors has been graduated from the honors program. This honors program was established as a result of the general recommendations of the President's Committee. Twenty-eight seniors altogether have now completed the course. Their choice of future careers is interesting and indicative of the intellectual quality of what is generally regarded as one of the most difficult honors majors. It is doubtful if so large a percentage of students in any other honors program has chosen teaching as a profession.

<table><thead><tr><th>Students</th><th>Teaching</th><th>Law</th><th>Medicine</th><th>Divinity</th><th>Business</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>28</td><td>13 (46.4%)</td><td>7 (25%)</td><td>5 (17.8%)</td><td>1 (3.6%)</td><td>2 (7.2%)</td></tr></tbody></table>

## Graduates

Twenty-six students were actively enrolled in the graduate program during 1959-60. These included four foreign students here on outside fellowships for a year's study: one Englishman, one Russian, one Dane, and one Indian. Another Dane was enrolled with fellowship aid from Yale for the completion of his doctorate. Mr. Ajodhia Kaul, the Indian, performed so brilliantly that he has been invited to continue for the doctorate. By policy, we should like to carry through one foreign student at a time to his doctorate in American Studies. Fortunately the Rockefeller Foundation has given Mr. Kaul and his wife a much more substantial fellowship

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and allowance than we are locally permitted to grant. Yale's inter-
national reputation as a center of American Studies is being increasingly
established.

Our national reputation is also good. Two-thirds of the successful applicants for Woodrow Wilson Fellowships in this field put down Yale as their first choice.

At the completion in August 1960 of the fifth six-week summer session in American Studies for high school and private secondary school teachers, approximately one hundred teachers will have taken this graduate program intended intellectually to strengthen their work in the classroom. Because they have been drawn exclusively from the relatively small region of Connecticut and Western Massachusetts, their friendships and cooperation have been readily extended into their own professional teaching careers. Our best candidates for admission now apply at the recommendation of alumni of the program. Yale's impact on the secondary school teaching of American subjects within this area has become measureable.

## Publications

The fourth volume on The Yale Publications in American Studies has appeared during the academic year. It is William H. Goetzmann's *Army Exploration in the American West, 1803-1863*, a description and analysis of the role of the United States Corps of Topographical Engineers in the opening of the West. The book has been widely reviewed in newspapers and learned journals, and already is the recipient of a prize as

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"the best non-fiction Western book of the year." A second edition is planned for the Fall.

Two additional manuscripts have been accepted for the series by
the Yale University Press.

## Staff

July 1, 1960 marks the beginning of my last three years of administrative duties with the American Studies Program. This termination was the agreement with the Provost in 1957, because of my uninterrupted span of administrative responsibilities since the fall of 1946. In 1957 I was also promised the services of a director of graduate studies; this has never been fulfilled. The departure of Assistant Professor Robert H. L. Wheeler has now meant the necessity for me also to take over the directorship of the undergraduate honors program.

The resignation of Professor David Potter, effective June 30,
1961, means that I shall be the only remaining senior faculty member on
the staff with administrative experience in American Studies. It is
possible that the appointment of R. W. B. Lewis as Professor of English
and American Studies will take care of the directorship of the under-
graduate programs, or the graduate program. It is obvious that he is
neither temperamentally fitted for, nor interested in, becoming chairman.
It is essential, however, that my successor as chairman hold the rank of
full professor. No one below that rank should be tempted to turn aside
from his academic career by the assumption of the endless tasks of negotia-
tion required for an interdepartmental program.

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Since the Coo bequest includes the legal proviso that the American Studies Program be continued, a solution of the administrative problems for American Studies is imperative. No present, appropriate Yale faculty member seems available for the chairmanship. A new appointment at the rank of professor (continuing the title of "William Robertson Coo Professor of American History") ought to be made on the understanding that he will assume the chairmanship on my retirement. He must be on the scene for at least one year of administrative apprenticeship. Under optimum circumstances he should be appointed during 1960-61 so that he will previously have had one year of general acclimatization to Yale.

It is my intention to ask for sabbatical leave for the year 1963-64, to be followed immediately by a year's leave of absence without pay. Only in this way can I hope to bring myself up to date on the scholarly editing and the critical writing which were my primary intentions on entering the academic profession, and for which I have for a long time been specifically committed. My absence during these first two years of the next chairmanship underscores the necessity for prompt action in finding my successor (or my successors if one man proves unable or unwilling to perform so many functions simultaneously).

Two new instructors and one assistant in instruction have been appointed for 1960-61.

Respectfully submitted,

Norman Holmes Pearson,
Chairman

10 July 1961

Gentlemen

I submit herewith my annual report for 1960-61 as Chairman of
the American Studies Program.

## Undergraduate

The introduction during this year of a required multi-divisioned junior seminar for the standard program has apparently been well-received by the students. Enrollment for the major by next year's junior class will require an additional division to the four now offered. The increased limitation of optional courses in the curriculum also helped especially in the quality of applicants for the major.

A smaller than usual group of honors majors were graduated this year, but of these one was graduated with exceptional distinction and another with distinction. A full quota of twelve honors majors has been accepted for next year.

## Graduate

The graduate program continues to attract excellent students from throughout the country as well as abroad, although we have kept strictly to our limit of ten new students a year. Because of leaves-of-absence on the part of several members of our graduate faculty, the curriculum was more

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limited than it ought to be, and the same situation will obtain during next year. This is of course a situation equally applicable to the graduate programs in History and English and has become a common problem for all of us.

Over twice as many applications for the summer program were received, and twenty apparently able high school and preparatory teachers were selected from Connecticut schools and those in Western Massachusetts. Professors Morgan and Buitenhuis were appointed for the 1961 session.

## Publications

The fifth volume in the Series, Albert E. Stone, Jr.'s *The Innocent Eye: Childhood in Mark Twain's Imagination*, was published in the late spring. Some 500 copies have already been sold, and such reviews as have by now appeared have been commendatory.

## Staff

In collaboration with the Department of the History of Art, Mr. Jules David Prown has been appointed as instructor in American art. One-third of his salary is to be carried on the American Studies budget.

Unfortunately the efforts to persuade Professor Henry Nash Smith to join the Yale faculty, with a particular interest in the administration of American Studies, was unsuccessful despite the complete and enthusiastic cooperation of the History and the English Departments. We are thus no nearer the selection of my successor than we were a year ago at this time.

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Professor Smith's final decision came so late in the academic year that it was impossible to continue the search within the year. It is of course imperative that a successor be found, since he will now have at best only one year in which to familiarize himself with the complex problems, both intellectual and diplomatic, involved in the administration of such a large group of students and faculty so interdepartmentally involved. I think it is fair to say, however, that the urgency of the situation is generally recognized.

Respectfully submitted,

Norman Holmes Pearson
Chairman

3 July 1962

To the President and Fellows of Yale Universitys
Gentlemen

I submit herewith my annual report for 1961-62 as Chairman of the
American Studies Program.

Undergraduates:

During the past year there was a total of 111 majors from the junior
and senior classes. It seems probable that American Studies will continue
as the fourth largest undergraduate major by reason of its appeal as a
general background to specific graduate training in law, business, and other
professions. There has been little change to report in the undergraduate
standard curriculum, except for the successful reintroduction, by means of
our budget, of a course in American Art in which Mr. Prown has made excel-
lent use of the material in the Garvan Collections.

After careful study of the various problems involved, the curriculum
of the Honors Program has been considerably revised. Complete reliance on
seminar instruction has been given up, although one-half of each year's
schedule will be in seminars and individual tutorial guidance in the senior
year will be increased in order to permit greater diversity in the range of
topics on which the senior thesis can be written. Students will, under the
new scheme, be permitted to take for credit some of the lecture courses
given by the more famous members of the undergraduate faculty. The revision,

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in addition to providing greater flexibility in individual course schedules, will cut down on the present difficulty of properly staffing the Honors Program as a whole, because of leaves of absence on the part of the faculty.

## Graduate:

Applications for admission to the Graduate Program continue to mount, but the number accepted has been strictly held to the quota of 35 agreed upon with the Dean. During the past year a total of 32 students were actively registered, including 2 from India, 2 from Japan, 1 from Italy, and 1 from Canada. One student from Denmark, not actively registered during the past year, is now writing his dissertation in absentia. Only three doctorates were granted this past June, but the dissertation of Mr. Ajodhia N. Kaul, of India, was awarded both the Porter Prize and the Eogleston Prize.

A full complement of 20 students was registered for the session held last July and August, and a similar number are studying here during the summer of 1962. Somewhat fewer applications, however, were received for the 1962 session, and the possibility of revising the curriculum is being studied in order to attract fresher interest. The reputation of the program however continues to grow especially among the superintendents of the public school systems.

3.

## Publications

The sixth volume of the American Studies Series, Dorothee Finkelstein's *Melville's Orienda*, a study of Melville's interest in the Near East, was published last Fall. It is hoped to publish at least two additional volumes during the coming year.

## Staffs

The resignation of Assistant Professor Albert E. Stone, to become Professor of English and Chairman of the English Department at Emory College, will deprive us of the services of one of our ablest men. Mr. George D. Langdon, Instructor of History and American Studies, has also resigned to accept an Assistant Professor of History at the California Institute of Technology. Although we will be missing the instruction of Assistant Professor William Goetzmann and Professor R. W. B. Lewis during the coming year because of their leaves of absence, several new appointments have been made to the rank of Acting Instructor and Assistant in Instruction, and there should be no staff difficulties at least at the undergraduate level. Graduate instruction will, however, be severely crippled due to leaves of absence in the Department of History and the withdrawal of Professor Bickel's intended seminar on Constitutional History because of necessities in the Law School created by the death of Professor Francis Coker.

Respectfully submitted,

American Studies Program

30 July 1965

To the President and Fellows
of Yale University.

Gentlemen:

I submit herewith my annual report for 1964-65 as Chairman of the American Studies Program.

PART ONE

I. General conditions

The situation of American Studies remains favorably the same, refreshed by the admirable administration of Professor R. W. B. Lewis during 1963-64 when he was Acting-Chairman and Acting-Director of Graduate Studies in my absence. The morale of the junior members of the staff seems excellent. They are an exceptionally fine group of teachers with a lively interest in the coherence of the Program. The necessary cooperation by other departments has been agreeable despite the many demands made on them. The very considerable help shown by the university administration at all levels has been admirable. Our only disappointments have been with the Service Bureau, whose operations seem unfathomable. Requisitions for office equipment approved both for the budgetary years 1964-65 and 1964-65 remain unfilled; nothing has been delivered.

American Studies Program

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A single air-conditioning unit for the secretary's office, approved by Dean Springer to make working conditions tolerable for Mrs. Dingle, has by the beginning of August not yet been installed. Since the secretary's vacation begins within a few days, the loss in her summer working efficiency in preparation for the Fall term has been considerable.

The appointment of Professor R. W. B. Lewis as Director of Graduate Studies, thus diminishing the double burden on the Chairman of previous years, has clearly indicated the wisdom of separating the two functions. The departure last summer, however, of Associate Professor William Goetzmann to become Chairman of the American Civilization Program at the University of Texas, and the recent resignation of Assistant Professor Lawrence Chisolm for the last two years of a three-year broadening of his studies of Far-Eastern culture has left American Studies in the familiar condition of a lack of experienced senior faculty members able to take over administrative duties now or in the near future. During 1966-67, Professor Lewis expects to be on leave of absence. In the following year I myself hope to take at least one year's leave without pay. In any event, as of the expiration of my present appointment on June 30, 1967, I shall have completed twenty-one years of administrative effort. As I have informed the Provost in a recent conference, it would be unwise both for the Program and for me personally to accept any further administrative appointment. With this in mind it is proposed, with his agreement, to appoint a sub-committee of our Executive Committee to study what recommendations should be made to ensure the effective continuance of the Program under the terms of the Coe Bequest. This will permit two years in which to make senior faculty appointments and to arrange the

American Studies Program

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necessary slots for them. Both at the graduate and undergraduate level, the American Studies Program at Yale is generally regarded as the best in the country. As such, it carries considerable prestige for Yale both in the United States and abroad.

## PART TWO

### I. Current faculty

During 1964-65, our regular staff consisted of nineteen faculty members, four of whom were on leave of absence. Of this faculty, the Chairman was the only one on full-time. Associate Professor Broude, because of his temporary assistantship to the Provost, was relieved of his teaching assignment for American Studies but was nominally retained on our roster. Assistant Professor Shane Hunt was appointed to replace him, and will continue to teach for us in 1965-66. Assistant Professor David Hall was kept on our budget but his only duty for us was as director of the undergraduate honors program, a task carried out in addition to a full teaching load for History. In 1965-66, Mr. Hall and Mr. Broude will both be on leave. Three other men from our present staff will have left for positions elsewhere. To meet the needs of the Program, Professor Bickel of the Law School faculty will be teaching part time for us at the graduate level. Samuel Babbitt, Assistant Dean of the Graduate School, will also be teaching part time for us, but at the undergraduate level. By necessity I shall take on an undergraduate senior seminar, thus reducing my time allowance for the Chairmanship. Like the continued teaching of Dean Folsom, of Saybrook College, and Dean Cowan, of Branford, Dean Babbitt's time will be a donation

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from another budget than our own. Similarly the cost of Professor Ahlstrom's
undergraduate lecture course and his graduate seminar is carried by the
Divinity School. In a sense, my own extra class will also be a donation. The
registered total of the American Studies budget will thus be an unrealistic
one. Any strict adherence in the future to the present ceiling will be impossible.
William Lilley, Acting Instructor for 1964-65, has been appointed as
Assistant Professor of History and American Studies. William McFeely, presently
Assistant in Instruction, has been appointed Acting Instructor in History and
American Studies.

## II. Educational program

(a) Six students were enrolled in the *Early Concentration Program* in American Studies taught by Dean Folsom in Saybrook College. Of these: two received grades between 80-84, two between 85-89, one between 90-94, and one between 95-100. From the students' point of view the double-credit course was an immense success, and it is planned to continue the offering for 1965-66. For various reasons, however, the long-range future for the course is not altogether clear.

(b) Fifty-two students were graduated from the *standard undergraduate major*, of whom one received High Honors. The general level of the standard majors continues to improve, thanks largely to the effect of the fine and demanding teaching in the required junior and senior seminars. The enrollment of undergraduate drifters has largely moved on to other departments. American Studies remained, however, the fourth largest undergraduate major. This is a percentage of enrollment paralleled nowhere else in the country.

American Studies Program

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(c) Undergraduate enrollment for 1965-66. The class of 1966 presently has seventy-seven majors registered; and the class of 1967 appropriately has 67.

(d) In the graduate program, only two students were actually awarded their doctorates although an unusually large number of students are expected to submit their dissertations this Fall or next Spring. The Patterson Prize in American History went to William Lilley's dissertation, "The Early Career of Francis G. Newlands, 1848-1897." Five degrees of M.A. were given. Seven students passed their oral examinations. Altogether there were forty-six graduate students working for the doctorate, of whom seven were not in residence. Three Visiting Research Fellows were assigned to American Studies, two of them from overseas.

American Studies continues to play a vital role in the training of foreign nationals for the later teaching of American subjects in their own countries. Two Japanese candidates for the doctorate are presently enrolled, two from England, and one each from Norway and the Netherlands. A significant expansion of Yale's influence in the field will come into effect in 1966-67 with the establishment of the first two Max Kade Fellowships in American Studies. These have been given, through the instigation of Dean Miller, by the Max Kade Foundation, of New York City, to encourage and assist promising young German postdoctoral scholars in academic careers in the field of American studies, either within already-established disciplines or in special interdisciplinary programs. The fellowships will bring each post-doctoral fellow to Yale for two academic years and the intervening summer.

American Studies Program

6.

Costs of transportation plus living allowances for dependants will be borne by the German government. It is hoped that these fellowships will be continued until a total of ten will have been reached for Germany. The membership of the Chairman on the ACLS committee for the award of the Ford Foundation and other fellowships in American Studies to candidates from outside of America may bring still other suitable foreign students to Yale. The Chairman is also a permanent consultant to the Committee for the International Exchange of Persons, in Washington, D. C. A considerable amount of the Chairman's time is spent in the reception of an endless stream of foreign visitors interested in the Yale American Studies Program.

(e) In the summer of 1964 the ninth annual *Yale Summer Seminar in American Studies* was held for secondary school teachers. Limited to an enrollment of twenty, the costs of tuition and rooms plus allowances for food and books are borne by the American Studies budget. Established in response to the provisions of the Coe will, the seminar has continued to be an important contribution to the improvement of secondary school education in New England. Classes were held on "American History and Thought since World War I" taught by Associate Professor William H. Goetzmann, and on "Key Issues in American Literature since 1920," taught by Professor Charles T. Davis, of Pennsylvania State University. The tenth session is being held this summer. The chairman has, as before, acted as Director of the summer program.

American Studies Program

7.

### III. Publications

(a) *Yale Publications in American Studies.* The ninth in the series, published in 1965, was *Ishmael's White World: a Phenomenological Reading of "Moby Dick."* by Paul Brodtkorb, Jr., now Assistant Professor of English at Hunter College. *The Negro Novel in America*, by Robert A. Bone, now Associate Professor of English at Teachers College, Columbia University, has been revised and enlarged and will appear this autumn as a Yale paperback.

(b) *Writings by the staff.* The second and third of the books by the Chairman published in English in Japan have now appeared: *Some American Studies* and *American Literary Fathers*. Both are collections of essays on literary and cultural subjects. A paper delivered by him, before a joint session of the Modern Language Association and the American Studies Association, describing the Yale undergraduate major in American Studies, has been published by the Wemyss Foundation, of Wilmington, Delaware, and widely distributed by the foundation.

The edition of Melville's *Confidence Man* by Professor R. W. B. Lewis appeared last fall, and he has just completed proof on a new volume of his essays to be published by the Yale Press. A number of his influential reviews of current books have appeared during the year in various academic and national publications. During the year he has lectured widely throughout the country.

James Folsom's excellent study, *Timothy Flint*, has been published by Twayne.

Respectfully submitted,

July 28, 1966

Gentlemen:

I submit herewith my annual report for 1965-66 as Chairman of the American Studies Program.

# PART ONE

## 1. Administrative and other problems.

(a) As my annual report for 1964-65 indicated, a sub-committee of the Executive Committee was appointed, after discussion with the Provost, to present recommendations through channels to ensure the effective continuation of the Program under the terms of the Coe bequest, a matter of urgency because of my expected retirement from administrative duties on June 30, 1967, and the fact that Prof. R. W. B. Lewis is the only other faculty member with tenure occupying a slot specifically provided for American Studies. Satisfactory progress on the part of the committee would have permitted a span of two years for recruitment of additional senior faculty members and the provision of necessary slots. The necessity for these appointments, with at least one of them affiliated to History, has long been recognized by those directly associated with the administration of the Program, and indeed was emphasized by Prof. Lewis in his annual report as Acting Chairman for 1963-64 as well as by myself in all recent reports.

The sub-committee consisted of Professors Lewis (Chairman), Ahlstrom and Morgan, with Prof. Woodward attending the majority of their several

-2-

meetings. The chief subject of their attention was the drawing up of a
list of possible nominations who might be affiliated with History. Disap-
pointingly, when at last this list was presented to the Executive Committee,
none of the proposed historians proved acceptable to the actual historians
on the Executive Committee, even to those historians who themselves had
prepared the list. As a result the committee's work went for nothing, and
invaluable time had been lost. When shortly after the sub-committee's sug-
gestions were rejected, Prof. Lewis was named Master of Calhoun College, the
administrative rug was completely yanked out from underfoot and the Program
faced the same situation it did before Prof. Lewis's initial appointment to
the Yale faculty.

This hardly pleasing prospect must now be faced squarely, and next year
promises to be an especially difficult one in a long history of administrative
difficulties. The difficulties, moreover, are at all levels. Of our junior
members, Messrs. Folsom, Kaul, Martin and Ruland will be on leave; and of
the more experienced teachers, Mr. Babbitt will have left to become president
of a college, Mr. Shane Hunt to join the Princeton faculty, Mr. Broude will
be unable to teach because of extra duties in Economic History, and Mr.
Lewis's teaching for us will be reduced to a single one-term course. Since
the Dean of the Graduate School is understandably unwilling to have anyone
without tenure serve as a Director of Graduate Studies, I myself will have
to resume those duties in addition to the Chairmanship. Consequently, and
in order not to continue a load heavier than normal for one of my age, I
shall do no teaching at either the undergraduate or graduate level. The
reduction of the number of course offerings cannot be helped, at least at
short notice.

-3-

The necessity for additional senior faculty members has indeed been dramatically extrapolated for what is now the third largest undergraduate major and a significant factor in the operations of the Graduate School. It is clear that the problem of senior recruitment for American Studies must be faced on the basis of its own needs rather than those of the departments to which such men may nominally be attached. American Studies although not a department is, nevertheless, an established entity.

(b) The suggestion has been made to the Provost that the Social Sciences should now be represented on the Executive Committee. Prof. Herbert Kaufman, of Political Science, was particularly mentioned. By the ruling of the late President Griswold, only representatives of the Humanities were permitted membership, and earlier representatives from Political Science and Economics had to be dropped.

## 2. Early Concentration Program.

Seven freshmen, as against six for last year, enrolled in the program. In the view of Dean Folsom, of Saybrook College, who taught the double-credit course, and the students with whom I have talked, it was effective and well-received. The difficulty, however, of providing instruction for a specialized group of this kind, as well as the problem of following up with a suitable curriculum for their three following years, makes it important to consider whether such a program will again be feasible after Dean Folsom's return from his leave of absence. At best he himself will return for only one year. The Early Concentration Program will not be offered in 1966-67.

## 3. Summer Program for Secondary School Teachers.

With the session of 1965, ten such summer programs have been held. An eleventh is being held in 1966. These have been given at the specific request

-4-

of Mr. Coe's bequest, and so far as the students have been concerned
have been a great success. Certain difficulties, however, have begun
to arise.

The removal of the M.A.T. office to Park Street has been an added
inconvenience to the Chairman of American Studies, since that office has
been responsible for the mechanics of the summer program although the
Chairman of American Studies has been responsible for the recruitment of
faculty, selection of participants, and the actual direction of the program
during its session from late June until August 5th. It might be observed
that such a prolongation of the annual tour of duty is shared by no other
chairman known to me.

The increasing number of NDEA summer programs in history has caused
additional difficulties. The much higher faculty salaries paid by govern-
mentally sponsored programs has made the recruitment of our own increasingly
difficult. Equally difficult is the fact that teachers enrolled in the NDEA
programs receive compensation for the loss of otherwise earned summer income.
As a result, the number of applicants for the American Studies Summer Program
offered by us has diminished, as it has for similarly Coe-sponsored programs
elsewhere in the country.

Serious consideration must therefore be given to the question of whether
or not our summer program should be continued, or whether some new type of
special program -- perhaps summer grants to foreign scholars for research
at Yale on American subjects -- should be substituted. The Coe Foundation
has responded to a preliminary and informal discussion of a change by saying
the two immediate Coe heirs would be agreeable to any change I might wish
to make.

-5-

## PART TWO

### 1. Current faculty and research staff.

During 1965-66, our staff consisted of one full-time and seventeen part-time faculty members, two of whom were on leave of absence. Of these, Samuel Babbitt has left as of June 30th to become President of Kirkland College; and Asst. Prof. Shane Hunt has joined the faculty of the Woodrow Wilson Institute at Princeton. Asst. Prof. James K. Folsom will be on leave in 1966-67 while he teaches at Leeds University, in England. Asst. Professors Kaul and Ruland will be enjoying Morse Fellowships, and Asst. Prof. Jay Martin has been granted a Guggenheim Fellowship. Because of the leave to be taken by Prof. William Parker, Assoc. Prof. Broude will be required to devote his full time in 1966-67 to the Department of Economic History.

### 2. Appointments and promotions.

To meet the instructional needs of the Program during 1966-67, David L. Minter who received his doctorate from us in 1965 and has been teaching at the University of Cologne, Germany, has been given a year's appointment as Lecturer in English and American Studies, two-thirds of his time being ours. Dean Edwin Redkey, of Trumbull College, has been named Lecturer in American Studies, to teach one senior seminar. Michael Cowan has resigned the Deanship of Branford College and will return to two-thirds teaching for us. Mr. Daniel Howe, of Stanford, has been appointed Acting Instructor in History and American Studies, two-thirds of his time being ours. Mr. Van Doorn Ooms, of the Economic Growth Center, will replace Mr. Hunt in "The Structure of the American Economy." Messrs. Harry Henderson and James Matlack have been appointed Danforth Assistants in Instruction and will

-6-

each teach a division of the junior-year seminar.

At the graduate level, the curriculum has been strengthened by the
appointment of Prof. Alexander Bickel, of the Law School, as Professor
of History, the cost of his Graduate School salary to be charged to the
American Studies budget; and by the introduction of a seminar to be taught
by Prof. Charles Reich of the Law School, without cost to American Studies.

Messrs. Robert F. Dalzell and William S. McFeely, who have been Acting Instructors, have on the completion of their dissertations been appointed Assistant Professors of History and American Studies, with two-thirds assignment to us.

During the coming year, Mr. McFeely will serve as Director of the
undergraduate standard program, with Mr. David Hall as Director of the
intensive major.

3. Educational Program.

(a) Seven freshmen were enrolled in the Early Concentration Program in American Studies taught by Dean Folsom in Saybrook College. The results were successful, due largely to Folsom's lively and dedicated teaching. The students responded well to the opportunity for specialized work. Although the top individuals during the past year did not intellectually equal the very best of the six freshmen of the previous year, the general standard of performance was said to have been higher.

(b) Sixty-two students were graduated from the *standard major*, of whom one received High Departmental Honors, and two graduated with Departmental Honors. Five received their degrees Cum Laude.

The level of instruction and the response of the students to the seminars
required in the junior and the senior year remains high. Particularly success-

-7-

full, too, has been the revised scheme by which no student is admitted to
the intensive major except competitively on the basis of his first term's
performance in junior year and his advance selection of an acceptable
subject for a senior thesis. This scheme has provided an incentive to
serious work at the beginning of the major, and a certainty that the
student both wants to do honors work and is capable of it.

For all majors, the distinction between the nature of the junior and
senior seminars has helped to eliminate the senior-year lassitude which,
for example, majors in English are said by that department to evidence.

Enrollment in American Studies has continued to increase. Next
year's junior enrollment is 102; the senior class will have 69. This
makes American Studies the third largest undergraduate major and points
up the problems of administering so large a major by so small and so
junior a shared staff.

(c) Thirteen seniors were graduated from the _intensive program_, of whom two received Departmental Honors with Exceptional Distinction, three with High Departmental Honors, and two with Honors. Two men received their degrees Magna Cum Laude, and two Cum Laude.

For his senior thesis on "The New York Port: Politics and Reform,"
Robert L. Pratter was awarded the Porter Prize in History; and Mark E.
Neely, Jr., was given the McClintock Prize in History for his thesis on
"The Mounted Regular in America: 1933-1948." For his thesis on "Caroline
Gordon and the Fiction of Southern Agrarianism," Andrew M. Wolfe divided
the Henry H. Strong Prize in English with an honors major in English.

(d) In the *graduate program*, a total of forty-five students were
preparing for their doctorates. Four degrees of Master of Arts were given

-3-

at Commencement, including one jointly with that of Bachelor of Law. Six degrees of Doctor of Philosophy were awarded. Among the doctoral dissertations, Robert Dalzell's on "The Rhetoric and Politics of Nationalism: Daniel Webster, 1843-1852" received the Green Prize in History.

Attached to the graduate program were six visiting scholars: from Italy, Japan, India, Sweden, Australia and Great Britain. Yale's increasing world reputation as a university has already attracted for the coming year twelve foreign scholars with similar affiliations to American Studies. Two students from Japan, one from Norway, and one from the Netherlands are currently enrolled for their doctorates.

During the past year a meeting was held at Freiburg-im-Breisgau by the German committee for the selection of Yale's Max Kade Fellows in American Studies. Joined also by Dean Miller, the committee selected two post-doctoral fellows who will begin their studies and research in the Fall.

(e) In the summer of 1965 the tenth annual *Yale Summer Seminar in American Studies* was held for twenty experienced secondary school teachers from New England. This brought to a total of two hundred, the number of teachers in the region who have benefitted from the relevant provision of the Coe will and Yale's interest in the improvement of the secondary school teaching of American subject matter. Seminars were taught by Prof. Barry D. Karl, of Washington University, St. Louis, on "The United States in Recent History, 1929-1945"; and by Asst. Prof. Jay H. Martin, of Yale, on "Literature of the American Scene, 1929-1945."

## 4. Current fields of research.

By those members of the staff whose duties are chiefly with American Studies, the following fields of research are being undertaken: R. W. B.

-9-

Lewis is finishing a book on Hart Crane and beginning a biography of Edith Wharton; Michael Cowan is completing his study of Emerson's concern with the metaphor of the city; Robert Dalzell is enlarging his study of Daniel Webster, as is William Lilley his biography of Senator Newlands.

A. N. Kaul is at work on Emerson. Jay Martin has begun the authorized biography of Nathanael West. Richard Ruland has completed his book on "The Rediscovery of American Literature," and is now working on fictional interpretations of America by European writers. David Hall is completing his volume on "The New England Clergy in the Seventeenth Century."

## 5. Faculty publications, lectures, and honors during 1965-66.

(a) Yale Publications in American Studies. The only new volume in the series was #10, Robert C. Bannister, Jr., *Ray Stannard Baker*, although a revised and enlarged edition of Robert Bone's *The Negro Novel in America* was issued in both cloth and paper. W. H. Goetzmann's *Army Exploration in the American West, 1803-1863* was also reissued in a paperback edition. Two new additional titles in the series are to be published in the Fall of 1966.

(b) Books by members of the staff:

James K. Folsom, *The American Western Novel* (1966)

A. N. Kaul, ed., *Hawthorne: a Collection of Critical Essays* (1966)

R. W. B. Lewis, *Trials of the Word* (1965)

Jules Prown, *John Singleton Copley 2 volumes* (1966)

(c) Lectures:

James K. Folsom addressed The Grolier Club of New York City on the image of the American West in British nineteenth-century juveniles.

R. W. B. Lewis gave individual lectures at the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Indiana, Carleton College and Lawrenceville

-10-

Academy, as well as a series of lectures at Smith College.

The Chairman addressed The Grolier Club of New York City on British juvenile historical novels, delivered a paper at the Modern Language Association annual meeting in Chicago, and gave the principal address at the annual meeting of the Southern Modern Language Association in Atlanta.

(d) Honors.

Both Prof. R. W. B. Lewis and Asst. Prof. Jay Martin were awarded Guggenheim Fellowships. The Chairman was elected President of the New England American Studies Association and named as a Counsellor of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.

Respectfully submitted

NLP/8

Yale University New Haven, Connecticut 06520

AMERICAN STUDIES PROGRAM

232 Hall of Graduate Studies

31 July 1967

Gentlemen:

I submit herewith my Annual Report for 1966-67 as Chairman of
the American Studies Program.

PART ONE

An Annual Report "at the end of [a] three- or five-year term" should, Chairmen are instructed, "be a comprehensive resumé of the development during that period." My term has been for ten years, preceded by an earlier decade as Director of Undergraduate Studies, thus at the beginning coinciding with the enrollment of the first majors. Since that time 1,434 undergraduates have taken their degrees in American Studies. Including the Americanists in the earlier H.A.L. graduate program, a total of 71 have earned their doctorates, and a number of others have taken lesser degrees in this field.

I am attaching a tabulation of undergraduate majors as an indication both of the Program's development and its impact. The table does not of course give any indication of the immensely larger number of students from other majors who have been registered in courses provided by American Studies. This latter contribution of the Program to the college curriculum has been significant since 1950 when the standard major was first added to the already existent honors major and, as Ralph Gabriel's Annual Report for that year consequently indicates, "The desirability of adding certain courses to the curriculum, which will add to Yale's general education resources, is increasingly clear as experience with the American Studies Program continues."
The desirability and the convenience of such experimentalism have remained clear and effective. Courses in American philosophy, art and economics (for upperclassmen who are not majoring in economics) are among those which would not originally have been given without American Studies support. Courses by Professors Bickel and Reich of the Law School are among the most recent.

Attached also is a list of holders of the Ph.D. in American Studies with an indication of their subsequent careers. I have included this as an indication of their impact in the world of education and scholarship which the great majority have entered. That four college presidents should be among them is not insignificant. "Yale's ambition," as President Brewster properly puts it in his most recent Annual Report, "deeply rooted in the Arts and Sciences and related professions, is to continue to have an important intellectual, artistic, and moral impact on the shape of worlds to come."
American Studies itself is a "factor in the Yale picture which encourages variety, and greatly broadens the range of educational possibilities...."

2.

The list of Doctors of Philosophy is one which will stand up with that
of any of the Yale Departments for the corresponding years. This is true,
I think, chiefly because we have consistently limited graduate enrollment.
An important initial reason for such restriction was the fear of a limited
market; now a more confident reason is the recognition that American Studies
demands a special type of mind and breadth of interest such as the late
President Griswold had or such as attracted President Brewster to a parallel
interdisciplinary undergraduate major in History, Arts and the Letters.
There is little problem in placing our graduates. Good men find good jobs.

My third attachment is a group of Annual Reports, in general
terminal, by others who have been Chairman or Acting Chairman of the Program.
These comprise a history of American Studies at Yale, and review some of the
problems consistently faced by the Program during three presidencies and a
succession of administrative officers at the College, Graduate School and
University levels. Since my own tours of duty include the span, their ac-
counts are mine too. There is much to be said for the study of history.
Annual Reports are primary source material.

Few of the problems have been solved although they have always
been present. In Potter's Report for 1952, at the time required senior
seminars were established as an integrating force in the standard major,
he commented on the fact that "it is evident we will be in the position of
carrying certain departmental responsibilities without commanding depart-
mental resources in terms of staff." Annual Reports since then have iterated
and reiterated this dilemma. My own first Report, in 1958, stressed that the
retirement of Gabriel and the immediate unavailability of Potter made "the
administrative weakness of the Program all the more evident in terms of in-
volved senior members of the faculty." Again in 1959, remembering that a
separate Director of Graduate Studies had been promised in 1957 but never
appointed, I remarked that "the need for permanent faculty members at the
professorial rank available for administrative duties within the Program is
more apparent than ever." Since Potter left Yale, there has never been more
than myself and one other senior professor appointed with the particular
needs of the Program in mind. The help of R. W. B. Lewis has been invaluable,
but he was for all intents and purposes withdrawn by the administration.

Nothing will be gained at this new terminal moment by reviewing
the necessity for an increased number of tenure slots earmarked for American
Studies. I have no reason to change my conviction that these slots are
appropriate to the present system of departmental appointments, and that a
minimum of four, or preferably five, will be necessary in addition to those
occupied by Professor Lewis and myself and now also by Professor Morison.
The fortunate appointments of Professors Ahlstrom and Feidelson as Chairman
and as Director of Graduate Studies do not solve the basic problem but only
postpone its solution. The University's responsibility for the American
Studies Program must be taken seriously, as seriously as the responsibility
for any large Department. For American Studies plays a departmental role
in terms of the students. Yale is recognized in the United States and abroad
as having the leading Program of its kind. American Studies is worth the
responsibility it entails.

3.

Potter's terminal report of 1957 takes on a certain irony, in retrospect, with its statement that "The Coe gift and later Coe bequest have virtually eliminated financial problems...." Both the original gift of $500,000.00 for a professorship, in addition to Mr. Coe's invaluable collections of books and manuscripts, and the later legacy by which securities and cash to the value of $4,337,531.36 were turned over to the University in 1955 and 1956, were generous indeed. Since the gifts were to have been separately invested, their total capital must by today's inventory value be considerably higher. The provisions of Mr. Coe's will were explicit enough, but again there seems to be little need, in this Report at least, to reconsider the degree to which the expenditure of the Fund's income conforms to his intentions. Such a discussion is, however, relevant to the future of the Program so long as the lack of funds is given as the chief objection to efforts "to continue and to maintain and to develop the established Program of American Studies," to use Mr. Coe's concluding testamentary words. The discussion is relevant too to Yale's current concern that so many recently deceased and loyal alumni have left money not to Yale but to privately managed foundations which can continue to carry out the donors' wishes. Such action is, I think, based to a considerable degree on a distrust of an otherwise too sophisticated use of their bequests. At least this is true of the wills of two living alumni (not including myself). There is of course never enough money for everything. Perhaps in view of Yale's significant new financial policy of utilizing a percentage of capital gain as appropriate income, this might be done from the increase in the capital of the Coe bequest and directed towards the pressing needs of American Studies as it develops under refreshed leadership.

There is room for refreshment. The introduction of the new Chairman and new Director of Graduate Studies to administrative responsibilities will increase the effectiveness of the Executive Committee by doubling the number of its members actually experienced in the Program's problems. The agreement of Professor Morison to serve on the Committee is additionally good. The time has come, however, to return to the original practice of having representatives from the Social Sciences on the Committee, a prohibition that President Griswold imposed.

The undergraduate major is in a satisfactory state. The teaching is excellent, and the requirement of seminars both in the junior and senior years has given rigor as well as cohesion to the major. This has resulted in a steady increase in the quality of students, since it is more difficult to be passive in a seminar than in large lecture courses. The reduction of the Intensive major virtually to the senior year, admission to which is competed for during the junior year, is again a measurable advance and particularly important in a Program which does not give introductory courses in the Freshman and Sophomore years to test the interest and the ability of candidates for Intensive work. The question of the retention of the comprehensive examination in American Studies will certainly become a matter of discussion. I hope very much it will be kept in one form or another as a cohesive force. If as the result of its retention American Studies should seem harder as a major than either History or English, any lessened enrollment would come only from those who chose for the wrong reasons. The development of the

4.

undergraduate curriculum has been excellent in relation to History and English, and increasingly satisfactory in reference to Economics. Additional courses are, however, needed in American art and architecture, especially the latter. Much closer rapport can and ought to be developed with Political Science and to some degree with Psychology. The greatest present weakness lies in the available offerings in Sociology and speculative socio-anthropology. Perhaps a joint appointment with the Department of Sociology might begin a cure. I had very much hoped, using men trained like Chisolm, to introduce a core of courses dealing with comparative history and culture, a field of particular interest in these days of the second American empire. I had hoped, too, to develop seminars on the history of the Feminine Movement and the changing status of woman. But these are simply indications of the kind of exploration and experimentation which American Studies can do. By the kindness of the Associate Provost a small amount, but a meaningful one, was included in the budget to bring occasional speakers and encourage forum discussion of the nature of American Studies. At the graduate level this has been done for some years; at a meeting of the staff with the undergraduate majors it became clear that they too wished for this kind of relationship with themselves and with the faculty.

Enrollment in the graduate program is limited to an annual quota of ten, not including visitors from overseas. For these spots over one hundred and twenty applications were made. Admission was offered to fourteen; of these eight are coming, the others having refused in favor of Fulbrights, higher fellowships, the presence of relatives in Wallingford, or no reason at all. Of the eight, too great a proportion are women; otherwise it is an excellent group. From time to time, the Executive Committee has made changes in the balance of emphasis of the material for which candidates for degrees are held responsible; presumably they will continue with healthy experimentation. With the return of Chisolm, however, and the developing experience of David Hall in graduate teaching, it was possible to plan for seminars in 1967-68 which could serve as laboratories of the American Studies approach to problems. The need for this has been felt since the withdrawal of the course once given by Potter and Sirjamaki, out of which Potter's *People of Plenty* came as an exemplar.

The growing reputation throughout the world of the Yale Graduate School and its American Studies Program has led to constantly increasing requests from scholars abroad for the privilege of coming as Visiting Fellows in American Studies. Since the majority of these come without expense to Yale, and indeed bring income to Yale, they are a source of financial benefit as well as satisfaction. They do, however, require tact and they must be helped with sympathy and understanding. Yale's reputation, as well as America's, is otherwise not helped but hurt. That there will be eight new graduate students in 1967-68 but sixteen new Visiting Fellows indicates the unbalance and the problem.

The word "Problem" has been a favorite in this terminal report. Yet the excitement and the sense of being alive during my twenty years of administration with American Studies is because the Program has been un stereotyped and itself always a problem in the invigorating sense of the

6.

PART TWO

During 1966-67, the American Studies staff consisted of one full-time and twenty-four part-time faculty members, four of whom were on leave of absence. An overburdoned and exceptionally cooperative secretary works for most of them. Of the staff, Professors Bickel and Pearson will be on sabbaticals during the coming year; Assistant Professor Ruland will be Visiting Associate Professor at Washington University, St. Louis; and Assistant Professors Cowan and Lilley will enjoy Morse Fellowships. Assistant Professor Folsom's only teaching, in addition to his Saybrook Deanship, will be for the English Department. Assistant Professors Ehman, Ho, Jager and Ooms are retiring from our payroll. David Minter, Lecturer in English and American Studies, has become Assistant Professor of English at Rice University; and James Matlack, Danforth Assistant in Instruction, who taught a division of the junior seminar, now holds a rank similar to Minter's at Cornell.

Enthusiastically welcomed was the announcement of the appoint-
ment of Professor Sydney E. Ahlstrom as Chairman of American Studies,
and of Professor Charles Feidelson, Jr. as Director of Graduate Studies.
William McFeely who has done an unusually fine job as Director of Under-
graduate Studies will continue in this position. The responsibility of
directing the Intensive Majors has not yet been settled. David Hall has
done this well during the past year.

Because of the lightened teaching schedules of several members of the staff, the need for additional instruction in the graduate program, and the sudden unavailability of Messrs. Folsom and Ruland, an undesirably large number of appointments for 1967-68 has had to be made at the sub-instructorial rank. These include Messrs. Fendelman, Forrey, Moore and Parrish, with the reappointment of Henderson. James McIntosh has been named Assistant Professor of English and will teach a division of the junior seminar. David Levey's appointment as Assistant Professor of Economics will enable him to teach A.S. 40. John Smith, Professor of Philosophy, will teach a one-term course in American Philosophy, the final year of carrying the cost of such instruction on the American Studies budget. Professor Charles Reich, of the Law School, will teach a one-term undergraduate lecture course in addition to his graduate seminar, and receives token budgetary acknowledgment. The appointment of Elting Morison as Professor of History and American Studies will add meaningful strength to the Executive Committee and, from time to time, to the course offerings.

Lawrence Chisolm returns to the faculty as Lecturer in History and American Studies on a one-year appointment. Jules Prown has been promoted to Associate Professor of Art, with tenure; and Messrs. Kaul and Martin have been named Associate Professors of English and American Studies, without tenure. During the course of the year Daniel Howe and Edwin Redkey have been promoted to the rank of Assistant Professors of History and American Studies.

7.

### 3. Educational Program.

(a) Because of Dean Folsom's leave of absence in 1966-67 the Early Concentration Program in American Studies, for freshmen, was not taught. Its resumption has been scheduled for 1967-68 during Folsom's terminal year, but the needs of the English Department caused its cancellation. Whether it should be resumed in the future is problematical.

(b) Seventy-three students were graduated from the *undergraduate* program, of whom eight were Intensive majors. Of these, one received Departmental Honors with Exceptional Distinction and seven were given High Honors. In the category of General Honors one was graduated Summa Cum Laude; three, Magna Cum Laude; and five, Cum Laude. Mr. Walter W. Garnsey, Jr., shared the John Addison Porter Prize in American History for his paper on "Robert Walter Speer and Benjamin Barr Lindsey: the Progressive Dilemma in Municipal Government." David Richards won the Walter McClintoch Prize in Western American Civilization and Culture for his work on "The Memorable Preservations: Narratives of Indian Captivity in the Literature and Politics of Colonial New England, 1675-1725." The prize for the best essay in the Scholar of the House Program went to J. Harvie Wilkinson, 3rd, who was an American Studies Intensive major when he began his essay. Wilkinson graduated Magna Cum Laude, receiving Departmental Honors with Exceptional Distinction.

This excellent record is a tribute to the continued high quality of undergraduate instruction in the Program. One hundred and five members of the Class of 1968 are registered as majors, of whom sixteen will be in the Intensive program. Of the Class of 1969, ninety-three have thus far enrolled.

(c) In the *graduate* program, a total of forty-four students were preparing for their doctorates. Four degrees of Master of Arts were given at Commencement, plus two Masters of Philosophy. Nine received their Ph.D.'s. Four others are expected to complete their dissertations by October. The George Washington Egleston Prize in American History was awarded to Allen Weinstein for his dissertation on "Origins of the Silver Question: Myths, Policies and Politics of a Monetary Issue, 1867-1878." Eight first-year candidates for the doctorate have been admitted for 1967-68.

The close relationship of Yale's American Studies Program to the teaching of American subject matter abroad continues to develop, at the same time internationally strengthening the reputation of Yale's Graduate School. It is pleasant to note that among the successful candidates for ACLS Fellowships for 1967-68 more had requested admission to Yale than to any other American university. The quality of the applications for the second pair of Max Kade Fellowships also showed a satisfying regard for the opportunity to study here. At the moment two Japanese, one Englishman, one Norwegian, one Netherlander, and one Canadian are candidates for the doctorate; one Englishman and one German are candidates for the degree of Master of Arts. Visiting Research Fellows for 1966-67 included scholars

8.

from France, Germany, England, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, a total
of eleven in residence. The total number of Visiting Research Fellows
for 1967-68 will be eighteen, including one American.

(d) The eleventh annual *Yale Summer Seminar in American Studies* was held from June 27th to August 5th, 1966, for twenty experienced secondary school teachers from New England. With the Chairman of American Studies serving *ex officio* as Director, seminars were given by Professor Hugh Hawkins, of Amherst College, on "The Negro in American History" and by Professor Robert A. Bone, of Teachers College, Columbia University, on "American Negro Writing." The Summer Seminars were begun to fulfill a specific provision of the Coe will, and a total of two hundred and twenty teachers have benefitted from them. The benefit has been real, but the competition with other summer training programs, heavily subsidized by the government, has made increasingly difficult the recruitment both of faculty and students. Particularly in view of the lateness of the appointment of a successor to the Chairman who could take over the direction of the summer program as part of his duties, it was decided not to hold a session in 1967. For many reasons I doubt that they will be held again, but other means should be considered for carrying out this provision of the will. One is reminded of the so-called American Studies plan of 1949, in part that "We must not content ourselves with training citizens at Yale. We must train the teachers of millions of citizens elsewhere."

4. Yale Publications in American Studies.

The first volume of the series was published in June 1957. To
celebrate the conclusion of the decade, two new volumes have been added:
#11 by Norman Pettit, _The Heart Prepared: Grace and Conversion in Puritan
Spiritual Life_; and #12 by George D. Langdon, Jr., _Pilgrim Colony: a History
of New Plymouth, 1620-1691_. Three additional manuscripts have been accepted
for the series and will be published during the coming year.

5. Faculty publications and lectures.

(a) Books by members of the staff.

Jay Martin, *Harvests of Change: American Literature 1865-1914*.
(1967)

(b) Lectures.

R. W. B. Lewis gave lectures at Pennsylvania State College,
Carleton College, and the University of Chicago.

N. H. Pearson addressed the Melville Association in September,
1966, at Lenox, gave a series of three lectures at the University of Texas,
and one at the University of Wisconsin.

Other members of the staff have been reported by their Depart-
ments.

Ph.D.'s in American Studies

1933 A. Whitney Griswold (d. 1963). President of Yale. "Probably the first Ph.D. to be awarded anywhere for American Studies." (Pierson).

1938 **Arthur Bestor.** Professor of History, University of Washington.

1941 **Norman Holmes Pearson.** Professor of English and American Studies, Yale.

1942 **Elizabeth Foster.** Associate Professor Emeritus of English, Oberlin College.

1943 **Walter E. Bezanson.** Professor and former Chairman of American Civilization, Rutgers University.

1947 **Paul F. Boller, Jr.**, Professor of History, University of Massachusetts at Boston. President of American Studies Association of Texas (1961-62).

**James H. Stone.** Professor of Humanities and English, San Francisco State, and Coordinator of American Studies Programs. Member Executive Council, American Studies Association.

1948 **Christine Hunter Donaldson.** Assistant Professor of History, Southern Connecticut State College, New Haven.

**William H. Jordy.** Professor and former Chairman of Art, Brown University. Formerly Chairman of American Studies Program. Director, Society of Architectural Historians.

**Joseph L. Leach.** University of Texas Research Professor, formerly Chairman of English, El Paso.

1949 **Marshall Fishwick.** Formerly Professor and Chairman of American Studies, Washington and Lee. Now Director, Wemyss Foundation, Wilmington, Delaware; Visiting Professor at University of Delaware and Lincoln University.

**Guy S. Métraux.** Secretary General, International Commission for a History of the Scientific and Cultural Development of Mankind, Unesco, Paris.

**Nathalia Wright.** Professor of English, University of Tennessee.

1951 **Charles E. Blackburn.** Associate Professor English, Washington State University, Pullman.

**David Denker.** President, New York Medical College.

**John Hague.** Professor and Chairman of American Studies; Chairman of Honors Program, Stetson University.

1952 **Walter Blackstock.** Professor of English; Chairman, Area of Language and Literature, Methodist College, Fayetteville, North Carolina.

Ph.D.'s in American Studies

2.

1953 Charles Fenton (d. 1960). Professor English, Duke University.

Richard M. Huber. Co-editor, 35-volume New Jersey Historical Series.

Robert H. L. Wheeler. Visiting Associate Professor and Director of American Studies Program, Emory University.

1954 John H. Clagett. Associate Professor of English, Middlebury College.
Novelist.

Murray Murphey. Professor of American Civilization, University of
Pennsylvania.

Otis Pease. Professor and Chairman of History, University of Washington.

William S. Prince. Professor of English, Pacific University, Oregon.

1955 Robert A. Bone. Professor of English, Teachers College, New York.

Peter Buitenhuis. Professor of English, McGill University. Former
Secretary, Canadian Association for American Studies.

Bishop James P. Shannon. Formerly President of the College of St. Thomas,
St. Paul, Minnesota.

1956 Harold H. Saunders. Member National Security Council Staff, White House,
Washington, D.C. Responsible for Near East, South Asia and North Africa.

1957 Lawrence W. Chisolm. Lecturer in History and American Studies, Yale.

Horton W. Emerson. Professor of History, Gorham State College, Gorham,
Maine.

Dorothee Metlitsky Finkelstein. Continuing Lecturer in English, Yale;
formerly Associate Professor of English, University of California, Berkeley.

Lillian Fischer Schlissel. Assistant Professor of English, Brooklyn College.

William H. Goetzmann. Stiles Professor of American Studies, Chairman of
American Studies, University of Texas.

Albert E. Stone, Jr. Professor and Chairman of English, Emory University.

Thomas K. Wolfe, Jr. Free-lance writer, New York.

1958 Michael McGiffert. Associate Professor of History, University of Denver.
President, Rocky Mountain American Studies Association, 1962-63.

1960 Donald A. Campbell. Associate Professor of History and Director of
Teacher Preparation, Dartmouth College.

Ph.D.'s in American Studies

3.

**1961** **James L. Colwell.** Director of International Education, Lecturer in History and Integrated Studies, University of Colorado.

**Richard L. Francis.** Assistant Professor of English, Brown University.

**George D. Langdon, Jr.** Associate Professor of History, Vassar College.

**Richard C. McCleary.** Assistant Professor of English, University of Massachusetts, Boston.

**1962** **Robert C. Bannister, Jr.** Assistant Professor of History, Swarthmore College.

**Ajodhia N. Kaul.** Associate Professor of English and American Studies, Yale.

**Theodore L. Tarson.** Manager, Model Development, Information Analysis Department, Data Processing Division, IBM Corporation, New York.

**1963** **Paul Brodtkorp, Jr.** Assistant Professor of English, Hunter College.

**L. Jesse Lemisch.** Assistant Professor of History, University of Chicago.

**Norman Pettit.** Assistant Professor of English, Brown University.

**1964** **Michael Cowan.** Assistant Professor of English and American Studies, Yale, Formerly Dean of Branford College.

**Alan Donovan.** Assistant Professor of English, Kenyon College.

**David D. Hall.** Assistant Professor of History and American Studies, Yale.

**Erik Hansen.** Assistant Professor of English, University of Aarhus, Denmark.

**David W. Marcell.** Assistant Professor and Chairman of American Studies, Skidmore College.

**Keith Melder.** Associate Curator-in-Charge, Division of Political History, Smithsonian Institution.

**Patricia Watlington.** Assistant Professor of History, Quinnipiac College, Hamden.

**1965** **William Lilley.** Assistant Professor of History and American Studies, Yale.

**David Minter.** Assistant Professor of English, Rice University.

**1966** **Samuel F. Babbitt.** President, Kirkland College.

**Robert F. Dalzell.** Assistant Professor of History and American Studies, Yale.

**Byrd Jones.** Assistant Professor of History, California Institute of Technology.

Ph.D.'s in American Studies

4.

**William S. McFeely.** Assistant Professor of History and American Studies, Director of Undergraduate Studies in American Studies, Yale.

**George M. Marsden.** Assistant Professor of History, Calvin College, Grand Rapids.

**Myra Lakof Rich.** Instructor of History, Hunter College, New York.

**1967 Yohmah Gray.** Assistant Professor of English, Mundelein College, Chicago.

**Richard J. Jensen.** Assistant Professor of History, Washington University, St. Louis.

**Fred Niklason.** Assistant Professor of History, University of Maryland.

**Doris Platzker.** Instructor in American Studies, Richmond College, City University of New York.

**Robert G. Pope.** Assistant Professor of History, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

**Edwin S. Redkey.** Assistant Professor of History and American Studies, Dean of Trumbull College, Yale.

**Allen Weinstein.** Assistant Professor of History, Smith College.

**George E. White.** Student, Law School, Harvard University.

**Robert L. Woodbury.** Assistant Professor of History, California Institute of Technology.

REPORT OF THE AMERICAN STUDIES PROGRAM - 1948-49

Dear Mr. President:

I have the honor to present the report of the American Studies Program.

The year 1948-49 was one of basic organization and the establishment of general principles governing the work in American Studies at the graduate and undergraduate levels. The organization of administration was as follows. Administrative control of the work was vested in an interdepartmental committee of permanent officers whose personnel included Messrs. Griswold, Hamilton, Reynolds, Williams and Gabriel, Chairman. Mr. Griswold was appointed Director of Graduate Studies and Mr. Norman Pearson, Director of Undergraduate Studies. The University accepted the principle of supporting the work in American Studies with a substantial budget that would enable American Studies to purchase part of the time of men from appropriate departments and also to pay the major part of the salaries of some men most of whose time is devoted to the work of American Studies. In the matter of the appointment of new members of the faculty with special reference to their importance for the work of American Studies the following principle was established. Appointments of men participating in the American Studies Program shall be made to the established departments, with the cooperation and support of American Studies. In accordance with the policy William Jordy was nominated by the Department of the History of Art, American Studies concurring, to be instructor in the History of Art and in American Studies for the year 1949-50. This appointment was approved by the

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by the Dean of Yale College and confirmed by the Corporation. The
reasons for the adoption of this plan of appointment were two: the
appointment in an established department guarantees that appointments
in American Studies will meet the most rigorous standards; such
appointments, it is hoped, will further the cooperation of appropriate
departments with American Studies. The experience of the year 1948-49
has justified this hope. The circumstances of the appointment of Wil-
liam Jordy brought about the closest and most cordial cooperation
between the History of Art Department and the program of American
Studies. The same principle was followed in the case of Mr. Pearson
in the English Department, though this was not an original appointment.

## The work of American Studies in the Graduate School

Thirteen full-time students were enrolled in the work of American
Studies. Two, an Englishman and a Frenchman, were not candidates for
a degree. Three students received the doctor's degree in American
Studies in June, 1949.

It is the policy of the program to keep the number of its graduate
students small through careful selection. During the year the plan
of the graduate work of the program was reorganized under the leader-
ship of Professor Criswold. The plan announced is as follows:

The purpose of American Studies is to enable students to combine
in the study and interpretation of American civilization, basic elements
of history, art, literature, and the social sciences. American civiliza-
tion is treated both in historical perspective and as an integral part
of western European civilization. This program is recommended for
students preparing for teaching careers in American Studies and similar

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programs, American social or intellectual history, American literature, or writing or journalism in the American field.

**Examination.** An oral examination will be given to each student. The purpose of this examination will be to discover the student's understanding of the basic aspects of American civilization with particular reference to his field of investigation.

**Languages.** A thorough reading knowledge of French and German will be required in accordance with the rules of the Graduate School. A third language may be required if deemed advisable by the Director of Graduate Studies.

**The dissertation.** The subject of the dissertation will be determined by the student after consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies, and must receive the approval of the professors in American Studies. Two permanently bound copies of the dissertation must be deposited in the office of the Registrar of the Graduate School not later than May 1 of the year in which the candidate plans to take the degree.

## Courses

*   **American Studies 150, American Thought and Civilization, 1620 to the Present.** Mr. Gabriel

Lectures, special readings, and discussions.

*   **American Studies 151, American Democracy in Theory and Practice, 1776 to the Present.** Mr. Griswold

*   **American Studies 152, American Intellectual History in the Early Twentieth Century.** Mr. Gabriel

*   **American Studies 153, American Civilization in Modern Civilization.** Mr. Pierson

*   **American Studies 154, The Colonial Period in American History.** Mr. Labaree

*   **American Studies 155, Development of Twentieth-Century American Literature.** Mr. Pearson

*   **American Studies 156, American Literature in the Nineteenth Century.** Mr. Williams

*   **American Studies 157, American Painting of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.** Mr. Phillips

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American Studies 158, Modern Art in Europe and America. Mr. Hamilton

American Studies 159, Nineteenth Century Architecture: Europe and America. Mr. Meeks.

American Studies 160, American Culture. Mr. Sirjamaki

American Studies 161, Modern Economic History: Europe and America. Mr. Morse

In special cases, courses other than those listed above may be elected, with the permission of the Director of Graduate Studies.

## The work of American Studies in Yale College

In 1948-49 the undergraduate work of American Studies was organized as an intensive major. The distribution of the courses of each student enrolled in the major was guided by the Director of Undergraduate Studies. All men in the major took the seminar, American Studies 90. The work of this seminar is an attempt to survey the principal institutions and characteristics of American civilization concluding with an effort to analyse and formulate the values of this civilization. Jordy was in charge of the seminar and was assisted throughout the year by Sirjamaki and Gabriel. In addition the following members of the faculty cooperated at various times in the work of the seminar: Messrs. Raymond Kennedy, Davie, Hollingshead, Brubacker, Simmonds, Doob, Jones, Pearson, and Weigle.

During the year plans were made to develop the work of the American Studies major through the addition of another seminar and two new courses. In 1949-50 Mr. Pearson will give a lecture course in Twentieth Century American literature. Mr. Jordy will give a discussion course in the social background of American Art in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. There will be a junior coordinating seminar (American Studies 90) and a senior essay seminar (American Studies 91).

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General Plans for the Future
=======================

In June 1949 the role of American Studies in general university
development was discussed with the President. Dean DeVane, and Messrs.
Criswold and Gabriel participated in the conference with the President.
Out of the discussion emerged the following outline for the pattern of
American Studies at Yale.

A. **Research and publication.** It is proposed that money be allocated for the purpose of stimulating research and writing in the general field of American civilization. To make this work generally available it is proposed that the American Studies Program shall sponsor and supervise a series to be known by some such title as the Yale Series in American Civilization.

B. **The Graduate Program.** The purpose of the graduate program is to train teachers in American civilization and to provide advanced work for properly qualified students who may not plan to follow academic careers.

C. **The Undergraduate Program.** It is proposed that the undergraduate program consist of two parts:

1. The intensive major for selected advanced students.

2. A specially developed divisional program in American Studies.

It was agreed that during the year 1949-50 the University will
publish a pamphlet on the entire program of American Studies at Yale.

Respectfully submitted,

Ralph H. Gabriel
Chairman

July 26, 1957

Dear Sirs:

I submit herewith my annual report for 1956-57 as Chairman of American Studies. On July 1, Norman H. Pearson succeeded me as Chairman, and this is therefore in the nature of a terminal report on my part.

Physically, the American Studies program is in prosperous condition. The Coe gift and the later Coe bequest have virtually eliminated financial problems, and American Studies has been able to strengthen its activities in various ways. For instance, in the Summer of 1956, a Summer program for Secondary school teachers was offered for the first time; in the Fall of 1956, a group of fellowships for graduate students became available for the first time, and at the undergraduate level, American Studies began to offer one of the four divisional honors programs, with staff facilities which make possible tutorial work with a limited number of gifted juniors and seniors; in June of '57, the Yale Press published the first volume of a series of Yale Publications in American Studies. The undergraduate enrollment in the program is so heavy that, in some respects, it creates a problem. The graduate program has continued, in spite of several years of sub-normal applications, to turn out a limited number of excellent doctoral graduates, and in the Spring of '57 the applications were of better quality apparently than at any time in recent years. The undergraduate teaching

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staff, consisting mostly of men attached to the History and English departments, is, in the opinion of a good many people, of unusually high quality.

On the physical side, therefore, I feel justified in summarizing with the general observation that affairs are in good shape, and in passing on to two questions which seem to be emerging as the perennial problems of American Studies, not in any local sense at Yale, but in colleges generally, including Yale.

The first of these is the question of undergraduate enrollment in the American Studies major. It seems to be a general tendency that, in colleges where the vocational emphasis remains strong, American Studies does not readily prosper, and, in fact, faces a struggle for survival (Rutgers is a case in point), but where there is little vocational emphasis, enrollment in the major may run very high (Yale and Brown are examples). In the face of efforts to maintain a wide distribution of elections for majors, this concentration in an area which had almost no majors a decade ago, has been a cause for some concern, and I think some misunderstanding, both within American Studies and outside of it. In seeking to account for this enrollment, some enthusiasts have, I believe, been too confident in attributing it to the success of American Studies in creating a new and exciting integration which, for the first time, views our civilization as a whole. I believe our progress in this direction, and even one effort to achieve this view, whether successful

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or not, are significant points of attraction, but there are certainly other important factors in the enrollment situation. On the other side, some skeptics entertain the idea that American Studies may attract majors by offering them an easier course of study by indulging them in making up a major program out of a random collection of unrelated courses. Neither of these ideas can be dismissed out of hand, for it is a known fact that, in addition to attracting some of the ablest seniors in every class, American Studies has also attracted more than its proportion of men who stand below the median point of their class. Also, it is true that if individual programs could in fact be made up at random from the extremely large panel of courses which properly ought to be available in specific instances, the major would lose all rigor.

As to the level of students attracted, one must recognize that it does not require as strong a motivation to choose the major in American Studies as it does to choose, for instance, mathematics or the classical languages, and this differential will probably always be present. But though this factor is present, there is no reason that American Studies should offer an easier program than other majors, and there is in fact very little reason to suppose that it does. A program is easy or difficult in proportion as the courses which make it up are easy or difficult, and there is no evidence that the courses heavily elected by American Studies majors, such as F. L. Baumer's course in European thought, or Vincent Scully's course on

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architecture, or J. E. Smith's course in philosophy, are in fact
easier than other courses.

As for the matter of too much latitude in the selection of
unrelated courses, I have only to note that the presence of a
multiplicity of courses from which the student and advisor may
shape an individual program does not mean that these courses are
available promiscuously. In fact, each individual program must
be sufficiently integrated to satisfy an advisor; the require-
ments in the field of History and Literature are fairly exacting;
and an analysis of course elections seems to indicate that the
majors in American Studies have a larger common core of required
studies than students in many of the departmental majors.

The recurrent attention to questions like these is unfortu-
nate primarily because it tends to obscure what is probably the
basic reason for the heavy enrollment. This is the fact that,
for the ordinary non-honors undergraduate, American Studies is,
for practical purposes, the one alternative to a departmental
major. If the student does not feel enough of a commitment to
a given discipline to specialize and take his degree in that
discipline, American Studies is his best recourse. Thus it would
seem likely that American Studies not only fulfills a specific
purpose of offering courses in the American field, but that it
also fulfills a generic purpose equivalent to that of General
Studies. On this basis, it would attract a considerable number
of majors who are more interested in finding a broad program
than they are in American civilization for its own sake. Of

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course, this is not an ideal motivation for the choice of a
major, but it may operate nevertheless, and insofar as it does
operate, one would perhaps be justified in wondering why there
are not more majors in American Studies rather than why there
are so many.

It stands as an obvious corollary of this argument that if a reduction of the enrollment in American Studies should ever be sought, the most constructive way to achieve it would be to offer as a standard program some other non-departmental major of broad appeal--perhaps something in the divisional field comparable to what is offered at the honors level currently. It also stands as a corollary that, in any analysis of the Yale College curriculum, the evaluation of American Studies should be based upon an awareness that it serves, somewhat inadvertently, to perform a general function in providing a non-departmental major, as well as to perform its particular function in the American field.

The second problem which has apparently come to stay is at the graduate level and it concerns the academic position of graduate students to whom we grant doctorates in the field of American Studies. The problem, in brief, is that, since very few institutions make appointments in American Studies as such, most doctoral graduates must look to appointment in departments of History and departments of English and to doing part of their teaching outside of the ordinary departmental orbit. I think

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they may be unique among doctoral students in that there is no departmental field of academic appointment and teaching corresponding to the academic field of their study and their degree. So long as departments of History and of Literature continue to need and to appoint men with training in American Studies, this anomaly may remain mostly abstract or theoretical, and no real difficulty may arise. But I have been interested to learn, at a conference mostly of younger men, held by the American Studies Association at Washington last Spring, that most of these younger men are quite dissatisfied with the existing structure, and that they do not agree at all with what I might call the older generation of men who took degrees in History or Literature and then became active in American Studies. They insist that American Studies can best fulfill its role in the curriculum if it is accorded regular departmental status.

Personally, I must say that this presents a problem to which, after several years of fairly intensive work with American Studies, I have never found a satisfactory answer. At Yale two things have been done to keep the problem within reasonable compass: First, by giving to American Studies a separate budget, the University has assured it of some independence and autonomy, short of departmental status; with us, American Studies is not a charity case, supported by the sacrifices of dedicated teachers, as it may become in places where it has no budget. Second, we have tried to avoid encouraging unwitting graduate students toward a degree which might be disadvantageous for them by

-7-

accepting so limited a number that the problem of placement
would be easier, and by pointing out to them specifically the
nature of the problem that might arise. Because of these arrange-
ments and precautions and because the Departments of History and
of English have cooperated with us fully, we have avoided any
concrete difficulties. But I always feel that this is a tactic
of holding the problem at arm's length, rather than of solving
it--that it leaves us, as I said in a previous report, always in
a state of unstable equilibrium, which perhaps must be our per-
manent condition.

In pointing out this problem, I do not mean to suggest
that the younger advocates of departmental status are at all on
the right track. On the contrary, it seems to me clear that in
an area which is itself so intimately connected with history
and literature, departmental separation from history and litera-
ture would be self-defeating. I think it too bad that a movement
which began as a kind of spiritual protest against departmental-
ization should move into a phase of seeking to be institutional-
ized departmentally. But though I am not at all in the position
of supporting this impulse, I do regard it as a significant
indication of the continuing nature of a problem which is always
with us and which must never be lost sight of. The graduate
program of American Studies should be conducted in all its phases--
recruitment, curriculum, etc.,--with specific recognition of the
fact that it is training for American Studies degrees men who
will want, but for the most part will not receive, American Studies

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appointments. The staffing of our own undergraduate instruction should be conducted with specific recognition of the fact that faculty members who do their teaching in areas which lie outside the orbit of their department face peculiar hazards and insecurities in tenure and promotion, and that every consideration and every device short of departmental status should be brought to bear to offset the basic disadvantage under which they labor. If this is done effectively enough, it may never be necessary to solve the dilemma in structural terms, but I think I am justified in regarding it as one of the two perennial problems of American Studies.

In previous reports I have acknowledged the invaluable help of the Provost and the generous cooperation of the chairmen and members of the related departments--especially English and History. As I now review my experience since 1950, I feel more acutely than ever how large-spirited and unstinted this help and cooperation have been. Three people particularly have made contributions vital to American Studies which I am personally very glad to acknowledge, and which deserve to be set down in the permanent record: Ralph H. Gabriel has always been ready to take a hand with any matter great or small; his experience and vision as a founder of the program have been of unique value. Norman H. Pearson has played the instrumental part in making the undergraduate program a pronounced success and has given himself to the program as a whole, even to the sacrifice of his personal objectives; no one else including the Chairman has given as much hard work and as much overall constructive

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thought to American Studies as he has.

Edgar S. Furniss has been an inexhaustible source of
strength and support; I marvel that a man could sit on the
Provost's side of the desk for as many years as he has and
could still instantly grasp, evaluate, and feel an affinity
with the point of view of the person on the other side of the
desk, who had come to make one more draft on his attention and
on the resources of the University.

American Studies Program

30 July 1963

To the Acting President and
Fellows of Yale University.

Gentlemen:

I submit herewith my annual report for 1962-63 as Chairman of the American Studies Program.

## PART ONE

### Problems and needs of the program.

S/KA.
July 1, 1963 marks the end of my 6th year as Chairman and Director of Graduate Studies, and my seventeenth since I became Director of Undergraduate Studies at the inauguration of the American Studies Program, as such, in 1946. My association with the idea of the Program has been even longer, however, starting in 1931-32 when I was a student in the first American Studies course at Yale (given by Professors Gabriel and Williams, with A. Whitney Griswold as Reader). It was the intellectual stimulation of this course which largely determined me to give up a business career for academic life, and to take my doctoral degree (as Mr. Griswold had done) in H.A.L., the prototype for American Studies.

Although I have never considered an American Studies curriculum as one to be prescribed for all undergraduates, I have not been surprised that it has established itself as a popular major for students intending to go on

American Studies Program

2.

to professional schools, or for those who are reluctant to commit themselves
to a particular discipline whose subject matter is narrower than their
interests and needs, as well as for those students whose focus is cultural
history. For these several reasons American Studies seems to have settled
in as the fourth most popular major. It provides simply one among many
curricula which Yale offers to its students. Although not given wide
publicity, American Studies at Yale has increasingly been recognised as
one of the most successful of such undergraduate programs given in American
colleges.

A similarly favorable situation exists in reference to its graduate
program. The Yale Program is well known. A few weeks ago, for example, I
was invited by the University of Minnesota to go there on my return from
Japan to advise them on a revision of their own program, "because Yale's
is generally considered to be the best." The number of annual applicants
for admission would seem to substantiate this optimistic view. Although
Yale's graduate program in American Studies is kept smaller in number than
that in most universities, the percentage of applications to acceptances
is, I am led to believe, higher than at any other. Excellent graduate
students, who would not otherwise have come to the traditional departments,
have been drawn by American Studies to Yale. The Yale faculty has in turn
benefited by recruitment from them to its own ranks. At the present moment,
the English Department has only two members whose degrees are or will be in
American Studies, but there are four others of their staff whose interest
in coming to Yale was because of the Program. In History, seven men from
our graduate group are now employed as teachers.

American Studies Program

3.

When I became Chairman in 1957, the then-Provost emphasized to me that American Studies was, as he put it, "here to stay." He cited Yale's acceptance of the provision of Mr. Coe's will (among other provisions of the gift to Yale of 30% of "my gross testamentary estate so set aside for charitable purposes,") "to continue and to maintain and to develop the established Program of American Studies, ... including a Summer Refresher Program of American Studies for selected teachers and professors to be patterned after the existing Program at the University of Wyoming." Yale's real responsibility, he said, is to make the Program as good as possible. With that in mind, the Provost suggested that there should be, in addition to myself as Chairman, a Director of Undergraduate Studies and a Director of Graduate Studies, in order that a large proportion of my own time should be devoted to a consideration of the problems of "development."

Unfortunately nothing was actually done to provide such a separate Director of Graduate Studies. As a result, I have carried those duties in addition to the Chairmanship. This has saved the university 1/3 of a salary but has caused me to assume 4/3 of a normal academic schedule. The consequences to my own scholarly research has of course been substantial; what is perhaps more important to American Studies and to Yale, however, has been the impossibility of any truly creative effort on my part constantly to improve the rationale either of the undergraduate or the graduate programs. As a result, although changes have in fact been made at both levels, these have perhaps been fewer than might otherwise have proved valuable.

Perhaps the chief administrative change during the past five years has been that of a strengthened Executive Committee, and a marked improvement

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4.

in the administrative relationships between American Studies and the
traditional departments. Indeed, without the voluntary and invaluable
assistance of this Committee and other members of the faculty, American
Studies could hardly have functioned.

Other changes have been in the enrichment of the general curriculum.
The study of American philosophy had already, before my chairmanship, been
introduced and supported by our budget. In the past five years, offerings
in American intellectual and cultural history have been similarly increased
at both the undergraduate and graduate levels; and during 1962-63 a graduate
course in American Constitutional History was offered, from our budget, for
our own students and those in History. Again, both at the undergraduate and
graduate levels, a course in "The Structure of American Economy" has been
introduced, taught at our expense by a member of the Economics Department,
but for the first time offering instruction at the upper-class and graduate
level to students not primarily concerned with economics. A similar coopera-
tion has existed with the History of Art, by which the American Studies
budget and enrollment from its students are largely responsible for the
teaching of American art as a distinct field. Vitally important work has
also been done in the placating of Mrs. Garvan through the increased use by
students of the Garvan Collections and by subsidizing the administration of
these Collections from American Studies funds. Through such means as these,
American Studies plays a role not only within its own domain but in relation
to the intellectual life of the university as a whole.

When the question was raised of my assuming an administrative position
for one more term of office -- a position which I was most reluctant to

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5.

resume -- it was agreed that there should actually be a separate Director of Graduate Studies as well as a Director of Undergraduate Studies. This implementation will mean a closer approximation of the original intention of an interdisciplinary chairmanship.

I have expanded considerably on the above points chiefly because they point up what is likely always to be the chief problem of any large interdisciplinary program: that of administration. With the exception of myself, all members of the staff teach in a traditional department as well as in American Studies, and all of us have responsibilities to both masters. The adjudication of these responsibilities is among the many involvements with other departments which demand an exceptional amount of liaison work, for I cannot call upon our own staff with the same freedom which a conventional chairman can assume.

Because of the comparative smallness of our staff in relation to the number of majors, since we do not offer general introductory courses at the customary freshman and sophomore level, the problem of faculty turnover is unusually acute. As a result, our budget includes only three men with tenure, of whom one is only on 1/3 time with us; one associate professor without tenure; and one assistant professor. When one of the two full professors is on leave, the burden on the second becomes almost intolerable. I can only hope for the time when at least four senior members will be included on our budgeted staff, with the majority of their time allotted to American Studies. From an administrative point of view, the American Studies Program involves far too many students for it, as presently, to depend so heavily upon only two such senior men, especially when, as this

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6.

year and next, the dependence is really upon one. A sudden illness would
be catastrophic. In any event the Program ought not to be identified with
any one person. It is in this danger.

Although somewhat outside the usual activities of a department, the
American Studies Program's Summer Session for High School Teachers ought to
be commented on. This is an important aspect of Yale's relationship to
secondary education, and a welcomed reminder to the public that Yale's
abolishment of its Department of Education did not mean a relinquishment
of its practical concern for the public schools. The eighth of such summer
seminars is to be held in July 1963; the area for enrollment has been ex-
tended to cover all of New England instead of only Connecticut and Western
Massachusetts. The planning and direction of the summer program is another
of the Chairman's activities.

American Studies Program

7.

PART TWO

During 1962-63, 16 faculty members (all but one of them part-time) composed our staff. Of them two were on leave of absence, one was a Visiting Lecturer from Smith College, and one relinquished his classroom work during the second term in order to accept a Guggenheim Fellowship. As for 1963-64, there will be 13 members of the working staff, of whom three will be on leave of absence, and one whose time on our budget will be loaned to History. The amount of time devoted to American Studies by the remaining nine is as follows: one Full Professor (2/3); one Associate Professor, with tenure (1/3); one Associate Professor, without tenure (2/3); one Assistant Professor (2/3); one Instructor (2/3); one Instructor (1/3); and three Acting Instructors (2/3).

2. Appointments and promotions during 1962-63.

To Associate Professor, with tenure, for 1/3 of his time, Henry W. Broude; to Associate Professor, without tenure, for 2/3 of his time, William H. Goetzmann; to Acting Instructor, for 2/3 of their time, Robert F. Dalzell and William Lilley.

3. Education programs for which degrees are awarded.

a. **Undergraduate standard program.** Of the class of 1963, 72 students were graduated from the standard program, of whom three received degrees with honors. The class of 1964 has 55 majors presently enrolled, and the class of 1965 has 60.

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b. **Undergraduate honors program.** Eight members of the class of 1963 were graduated from the honors program, of whom three received degrees with honors. The class of 1964 has ten honors majors presently enrolled, with perhaps two more entering the program in September. Several entered at mid-year. Possibly because of the present opportunity to enter the honors program at the beginning of the senior year, only four members of the class of 1964 had enrolled by June. Serious attention must be paid to this situation during the coming year, if the present junior-year response continues.

c. **Graduate program.** During 1962-63 there were 33 students working for their doctorates, although eight were not in residence. Two candidates were awarded the degree of Ph.D. in June 1963, and three the degrees of M.A., one of these in conjunction with her study of law. The George Washington Eggleston Prize in History was again awarded to an American Studies dissertation, that of Norman Pettit. In addition to the above number of students, there were six foreign students attached to American Studies (from France, North Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, Pakistan, and Japan). Three students are expected to hand in their dissertations in September 1963. Otherwise, not including foreign visiting students, 39 will be on our list for 1963-64, of whom eight will be new students, seven will not be in residence, and five will be members of the Yale faculty. One volume was added during the year to the Yale Publications in American Studies, that of N. A. Kaul, *The American Vision, Actual and Ideal Society in Nineteenth-Century Fiction*, which was last year's winner of the Eggleston and Porter Prizes. Lawrence Chisom's

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*Fenollosa: The Far East and American Culture* will appear in November, 1963.

4. Current fields of research being undertaken by faculty.

An account of the research being carried on by the staff of American Studies will inevitably overlap that submitted by the department to which they also belong, and for that reason be duplicative. An untypically large number of the staff are still at work on their dissertations. Otherwise: Professor R. W. B. Lewis is completing a volume on the poetry of Hart Crane; Professor Pearson has been tidying notes for his final work on the Italian notebooks and the correspondence of Hawthorne, now one of the oldest living projects; Associate Professor Goetzmann is nearing the completion of his second volume on the scientific exploration of the West; Assistant Professor Chisolm is finishing a book on aspects of American culture; Mr. Poisson, awaiting the publication of his critical study of Hawthorne's fiction, is now engaged on a study of the literary image of the American West; Mr. Martin, having published his book on Conrad Aiken, is now writing on the poetry of John Trumbull; Mr. Prown is completing his work on the paintings of Copley; and Mr. Ruland, having finished the rewriting of his dissertation on the American humanists, is studying the fanciful images of America as reflected in the work of foreign writers like Kafka and Brecht.

5. Faculty publications, lectures, and honors during 1952-53.

Professor R. W. B. Lewis, has lectured during his leave of absence at Bennington College, in Italy, and in Poland. In addition to numerous book reviews during the past year, he has published *The Malville Reader*.

American Studies Program

10.

At commencement, 1962, he was given an honorary degree by Wesleyan University.

Professor Pearson has addressed the annual meeting of the Association of Southern Independent Schools, at Dallas, Texas, and his talk has since been published by the M.A.T. Program at Yale, by the John Hay Whitney Foundation, and in *The Independent School Bulletin* (May 1963), distributed from the last also in pamphlet form. He has also lectured at Willimantic State College, at Smith, and at Columbia, and given a series of three talks at Simpson College, Iowa. During the year he published *Four Studies* (Verona, Italy, 1962), *The American Writer and the Feeling for Community* (University of Alabama, 1963), and *Hawthorne's Two "Engagements"* (Smith College, 1963). His essay on "Die amerikanischen Dichter als Sprachschopfer" appeared in *Amerikanische Zelehrtenwoche* (Munich, 1962), his "Poetry and Language" in Robert Spiller, ed., *A Time of Harvest* (New York, 1962), and he wrote an introduction to Van V. Burger, ed., *Invitations to a Country* (New Haven, 1962).

Associate Professor William Goetzmann gave a paper on "The Wheeler Survey and the Exploration of the West" at the Conference of Western historians at Denver, in October; and was a commentator at the History of Science session at the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, at Omaha in April. He has published an introduction to *Canyon Voyage* (Yale, 1962).

Mr. James K. Folsom published an article on "Social Darwinism or Social Protest? 'The Philosophy' of The Octopus" in *Modern Fiction Studies* (Winter 1962-63).

American Studies Program

28 July 1964

Gentlemen:

I submit herewith my annual report for 1963-64 as Acting-Chairman of the American Studies Program.

# PART ONE

## I. General conditions

The American Studies Program at Yale is, in general, in very good health. It seems to me to be gathering strength and coherence all the time -- and to just that point where the two or three really important needs become clearly visible. This past year, we had an unusually large and well qualified group of honors majors in the college (see below); and at the same time, an exceptionally distinguished group of doctoral dissertations. Most of these, and by all means the best of them (for example, Michael Cowan's prize-contending essay on Emerson and the American urban tradition) could simply have not been carried through in conventional departments -- say, the department of History or of English -- at least as they are currently established here. This is not only to say, limply, that American Studies "serves a need." It is to say that the program grapples with aspects and areas of

American Studies Program

2.

culture that are at most peripheral to the purposes of conventional depart-
ments. It is also to say (or at least to claim) that these aspects and areas
are vital, fascinating, and profoundly important; for a certain kind of mind,
undergraduate and graduate, uniquely important.'

It would carry me much farther afield than an Annual Report, pre-
sumably, ought to travel to demonstrate the basis of these claims. But let
me throw out a few more, all of which I should be happy to discuss on other
more suitable occasions. For example: the American Studies Program, far from
being parochial (or worse, yet, nationalistic), shows signs of becoming the
most cosmopolitan and internationally-minded of the humanistic portions of
the university. Again, far from tending to admit inferior students -- as it
is sometimes vaguely suggested -- while the run-of-the-mill students in the
Program are at least the equal of their equivalents in the departments, the
best students are, annually, among the very best students throughout the
university. For the fact is, that while it is as easy (though no easier) to
perform with minimal adequacy here as elsewhere, it is probably more difficult
to achieve work of distinction. And when this does happen, the distinction
shines.

## II. Needs

### 1. Administrative

Let me here second, emphatically, the remarks of Professor Pearson's
report of last year -- to the effect that, for satisfactory administration,
the Program absolutely requires a separate Director of Graduate Studies, in
addition to the Chairman and to the Director of Undergraduate Studies. Having

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3.

attempted this year (as Mr. Pearson has mysteriously succeeded in doing for
several years, at whatever cost) to act as both Chairman and Director of
Graduate Studies, I very heartily concur. Not only did both functions suffer
somewhat, but my teaching verged at times on the deplorable. This is, if
anything, a more serious problem with an interdisciplinary program than with
a regular department: mainly because every important step in virtually any
administrative phase of the program involves consultations and negotiation
with one or more other administrative offices.

This, however, cannot be truly listed as a current need. During the
coming year, while Mr. Pearson happily returns to the Chairmanship, I will
continue as Director of the Graduate Program; while Mr. Jay Martin will turn
his considerable abilities to directing the program in the college.

## 2. Staff

a. On the literary side, the faculty in American Studies may well -- in 1964-65 -- be the strongest and most variously efficient in the program's history. The new appointments of Assistant Professor Kaul (from India) and of Mr. Summerhayes (from Canada) will help a good deal; but at least as much value will accrue from the ever-increasing experience of men like Jay Martin and Richard Ruland. Sheer continuity is always a problem in a program like this; and we are beginning, I should hope, to meet it. The two full Professors involved in the program are both, of course, concerned primarily with literature.

b. It is on the historical side that the major staffing problem looms. In 1964-65, there will not be a single historian actually teaching in and paid by the American Studies Program above the rank of Acting Instructor.

American Studies Program

4.

Mr. Goetzmann has gone permanently to Texas; Mr. Chisolm has left on a three-year leave of absence; Mr. Hall has once again (in part through my own permissive lack of foresight) been lent entirely to the department of History.

(1) Needless to say, courses which count (heavily) for credit in the program are regularly offered by such truly eminent American historians as Messrs. Morgan, Woodward, Blum, and Pierson; and these gentlemen also give generously of their time in the supervising of dissertations and oral examinations. The fact remains that no one of them is technically on the staff of the Program; no one of them receives any salary from it; and no one of them may properly be invited to assume any administrative burden or devote time to long-range planning.

(2) In my view, therefore, the health of the Program requires the immediate appointment of a tenure professor in History. During the year, I made the strongest and most intensive of my annual efforts to secure an appointment as Professor of History and American Studies for Professor Daniel Aaron of Smith College. This effort failed, for reasons that were both understandable and even defensible, but also in part debatable. The problem remains. It is: to find, to persuade the history department to support and the university authorities to appoint to a tenure position a man who can function as a compelling scholar and teacher of History and American Studies (not only of History); who can offer one or two of the most urgently needed courses; who can share in or alternate with the present tenure professors as Chairman or Graduate Director; and who can take a good deal of the burden (of exams, dissertations, etc.) off the unpaid shoulders of Professor Blum and his colleagues.

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(3) We also need at least two teachers of history-and-American-
Studies on the lower levels. Assuming that Mr. Hall will eventually teach
in the Program, I would myself urge the appointment of one more man who might
be expected -- as no one of the current Acting Instructors seems to be
expected -- to survive for, say, half a dozen years at Yale.

3. Program

a. College

American Studies will offer one of the new freshmen "early con-
centration" seminars this coming year. This will help at least a few
freshmen to become aware of the Program without waiting till the end of
their sophomore year to discover that they would have liked to major in
American Studies but have failed to fulfill the prerequisites. I myself
would like to see the program brought much more sharply to the attention of
freshmen and sophomores: not only or even primarily to swell the number of
later majors (which is an arguable purpose: it may be that the program
should have a cut-off point of eighty-five or ninety); but to alert ever
more qualified students and to see to it that they _do_ fulfill the prerequisites.

As to the latter, the only prerequisite at the moment is History
20, a somewhat chancy requirement since the course seems always about to be
abandoned. If the History Department continues it, we will continue it. In
addition, though, I began last year preliminary exploration of a second pre-
requisite: namely a course (i.e., a number of sections or seminars, like
English 25) dealing mainly with American literature, open (again like English
25) to sophomores and to some freshmen. I have little doubt of the value --
and for students, the attractiveness -- of such a course. But it would involve

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6.

a partial reorganization of the present curricular structure; and we need
to consider and compare priorities here. It would also involve additional
staff. Calculating loosely, it would require the additional services of
four-thirds or possibly five-thirds (this is how we have to calculate in
programs like this one) of a man.

b. <u>Graduate program</u>

What is most needed here, I believe, is a key graduate seminar
required of all students in the program, dealing specifically with what
might be called "the literature of American Studies." I have in mind a
rough equivalent of History 180 ("the literature of American History").
This seminar, which might be a year-long or merely a semester-long course,
would examine a variety of books that represent the field (methods, emphases,
purposes) of American Studies -- books by people like Henry Nash Smith,
Ralph Gabriel, Perry Miller, and so on: bringing them to bear, in their
different ways, upon certain "original" historical and literary materials.
For many kinds of reasons, I regard this seminar as the most profoundly
felt need in the present graduate program.

Mention of it takes me back to my contention earlier about the need
for a new tenure appointment in History and American Studies. It would be
a central element of that person's academic duties to prepare and offer the
new seminar.

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PART TWO

1. Current faculty

During 1963-64, our regular staff consisted of thirteen faculty members, all of them part-time. Three of these were on leaves of absence. The amount of time devoted to American Studies by the others was as follows:

<table><tr><td>One professor:</td><td>two-thirds</td></tr><tr><td>One associate professor, with tenure:</td><td>one-third</td></tr><tr><td>One associate professor, without tenure:</td><td>two-thirds</td></tr><tr><td>One assistant professor:</td><td>two-thirds</td></tr><tr><td>One instructor:</td><td>two-thirds</td></tr><tr><td>One instructor:</td><td>one-third</td></tr><tr><td>One instructor<br>(whose time on our budget was loaned to History)</td><td>---</td></tr><tr><td>Three acting-instructors:</td><td>two-thirds</td></tr></table>

2. Appointments and promotions during 1963-64

To Assistant Professor for three years with two-thirds of their time:
A. N. Kaul, Jay Martin, Richard Puland

To Assistant Professor for two years with one-third of his time:
James K. Folsom (who will also be the residential dean of Branford College)

To Acting-Instructor for two-thirds of their time:
Robert F. Dalzell, Eugene D. Levy, William Lilley

To Acting-Instructor for one-third of his time:
Don C. Summerhayes

To Assistant-in-Instruction to teach one undergraduate seminar:
William S. McFeely

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8.

### 3. Departures and special leaves

Associate Professor William Goetzmann is leaving Yale to join the Department of History at the University of Texas in Austin. Assistant Professor Lawrence W. Chisolm has been granted a three-year fellowship by Yale University to study Oriental languages and culture.

### 4. Education programs for which degrees are awarded

a. Fifty-five students were graduated from the Standard program of whom three received degrees with Honors. The class of 1965 has 58 majors presently enrolled, and the class of 1966 has 62. The undergraduate Intensive program had nine members of the class of 1964, of whom six received degrees with Honors. (This was the most distinguished group of Honors candidates within recent memory.)

b. Only two members of the class of 1965 are presently enrolled in the Intensive program, but as many as half a dozen more have been recommended for transfer into it in their senior year, and they will probably do so. It was half expected (see last year's report) that the class of 1966 would again have very few junior-year applicants for the Intensive program. In fact, a dozen students applied, and nine have been accepted.

c. Graduate program: Seven candidates were awarded the degree of Ph.D. in June 1964, and five the degree of M.A.

During the year there were thirty-nine students working toward the doctorate, of whom five were not in residence. In addition, five persons -- from England, France, Holland, Yugoslavia, and Japan -- were associated with the Program in post-doctoral capacities.

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9.

As many as ten current graduate students are expected to complete their dissertations during the next academic year.

## 5. Yale Publications in American Studies

The eighth volume in this Series, published during the year, was *Fenollosa: The Far East and American Culture*, by Lawrence Chisolm. Yale Press has also accepted for publication in this Series a study of "the world of Melville's *Moby-Dick*," by Paul Brodtkorb, who received his Ph.D. in American Studies in 1962. It is also giving serious and most probably favorable consideration to a study of cultural change in America during the nineteenth century by Robert Wheeler.

## 6. Other writings and activities by the staff

Professor Pearson, who was on leave during the year, and who spent about half of that time in the Far East, was the author of *American Literature (Tokyo)* and *Some American Studies (Kyoto)*. He also wrote an introduction to an *Anthology of Korean Poetry* (John Day). He lectured widely, by invitations from Tokyo University, Kyoto University, Doshisha University, Kyushu University, and other centers in Japan; and by invitation from the State Department in Seoul, Korea, for a week in November. He also addressed the American Literature Society of Japan in several places; and he spoke at the dinner of the Yale Alumni Association in Japan at its first meeting in several years. Later in the year, he lectured several times at the University of Delhi, and consulted with the directors of the new American Studies Center in Hyderabad, India. Mr. Pearson, returning in March, has been spending the last months completing his long-awaited edition of Hawthorne's French

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and Italian journals. Several articles on Hawthorne, off-shoots from this major enterprise, are due to appear in the fall.

Professor R. W. B. Lewis edited and wrote introductions to Edith Wharton's *House of Mirth*, and to a volume he compiled of critical essays on Malraux. He contributed an essay on Hawthorne and James to the *Centenary Essays* volume on Hawthorne, published by Ohio State University Press; and read this essay at the "Hawthorne Festival" in Columbus, Ohio in April.

Mr. Lewis also wrote an Afterword to a Signet edition of Melville's *Confidence Man* (to be published this fall) and delivered this essay as a lecture at Penn State in May. In the wake of these activities, Mr. Lewis is gathering together a volume of his essays on literature, written during the past fifteen years, to be submitted to the Yale Press. A section of his work in progress on Hart Crane appeared in the *Massachusetts Review* in October 1964, entitled "Hart Crane and the Clown Tradition"; a complete version of this chapter was published in *Learners and Discerners*, the first publication of the new University of Virginia Press.

Associate Professor Goetzmann published "The Mountain Man as Jacksonian Man" in the *American Quarterly*, Fall 1963; and has contributed an essay on Western Exploration for the next issue of the *Journal of World History*. His large work in progress, *Exploration and Empire*, is virtually completed and will be published by Knopf next year.

Assistant Professor Martin contributed reviews of books about Allen Tate (Yale Review) and Michael Wigglesworth (William and Mary Quarterly) in the fall of 1963. But Mr. Martin spent most of his Morse fellowship on a compact study of the backgrounds of American literature between 1865-1914.

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11.

This book, commissioned by Prentice-Hall, is nearing completion, and will
probably be published in 1965.

Assistant Professor Folsom published an essay on Beckford's "Vathek"
for the winter 1964 issue of *Criticism*; and wrote a study of *Timothy Flint*
for an American series of Twayne publishers (this is due for print next
year). His main effort during the year was to continue a study of the
Western novel in America.

Assistant Professor Ruland finished the revision of his study of
Twentieth-century American Criticism and its relation to "the rediscovery
of American literature." This is now being considered seriously by the
Princeton Press. He is at work on a study of the image of America in modern
European literature.

Mr. Prown contributed an essay about John Copley to the fall, 1963 issue of *The Art Quarterly*. He is now at work on a full length study of Copley with the assistance of a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Respectfully submitted,

R. W. B. Lewis
Acting-Chairman

AMERICAN STUDIES PROGRAM

Chronology Administration American Studies Program

**N. H. Pearson**
Director Undergraduate Studies, 1947-57
Chairman and Director of Graduate Studies, 1957-62
Chairman, 1957-

**R. W. B. Lewis**
Visiting Lecturer in English, 1959-60
Professor of English and American Studies, 1960-
Director of Graduate Studies, American Studies, 1962-
Acting Chairman and Director of Graduate Studies, 1963-64

(Lewis was brought here primarily for teaching duties in American Literature, but occupied an American Studies slot.)

Spring 1961 saw efforts to bring Henry Nash Smith to Yale to serve as Chairman at the termination of NHP's five-year appointment as Chairman. This was not successful. I gave up my plan for a two-year's leave (agreed to by Provost Buck), beginning in 1963, (one year to be with sabbatical salary and the second without compensation) in order to serve a further three-year appointment as Chairman while efforts were made to bring additional senior faculty members for administrative purposes, or to promote junior members to tenure.

Assistant Professors who might have been expected to fill at least some administrative posts were, Robert Wheeler, Lawrence Chisolm, Albert E. Stone, William Goetzmann. Of these, Wheeler was let go because of failure to publish; Stone left to accept a full professorship and the Chairmanship of English at Emory University; Goetzmann left to accept an Associate Professorship with tenure and the Chairmanship of the American Civilization Program at the University of Texas; and Chisolm resigned to accept a three-year fellowship from Yale for the study of Chinese language and culture.

Chisolm will return for 1967-68 on a promised Lecturorship at the salary of Associate Professor. His continued status will be discussed only in the Fall of 1967, at his request.

The other "senior" members of the American Studies staff are David Hall (History), and A. N. Kaul (English) and Jay Martin (English), all of whom are presently Assistant Professors. The question of Kaul's and Martin's promotion is presently being considered.

At the time of my last appointment as Chairman it was agreed that this would be a final term, both for the good of the Program and my own research. In my Report to the President for 1964-65 I again announced my intended retirement. Lewis was to be on leave for 1966-67, and I would take over his duties as Director of Graduate Studies. A new senior appointment would be made effective for 1966-67 who would have one year of general teaching to familiarize himself with Yale, in 1967-68 would become Director of Graduate Studies and in 1968-69 would become Chairman.

AMERICAN STUDIES PROGRAM

Chronology

2.

With this in mind, an *ad hoc* committee was appointed from the Executive Committee to propose long range plans for the Program and suggest suitable candidates for appointment. This proved to be ineffective, for various reasons.

In the Spring of 1966, the President appointed Lewis as Master of Calhoun, thus removing him from even an interim administrative post within the Program.

As of the Fall of 1966, the Provost has met once (at his request) with the *ad hoc* committee. Unfortunately Lewis was absent because of the fatal illness of a Calhoun undergraduate.

AMERICAN STUDIES PROGRAM

October 21, 1966

Prof. Alvin Kernan, Associate Provost
Yale University
134 Hall of Graduate Studies

Dear Al:

Since I have only a faded thermofax of the relevant portion of
William Robertson Coe's will, I have had it typed out for you and enclose
an extra copy in case it may be useful for your files as well as those of
the Provost.

You will notice that the bequest was to be considered as a "separate
fund", to be managed, invested and reinvested as such. For this reason, the
total capital will, even with the recent collapse of the market, be consider-
ably bigger than it was ten years ago. (The Coe Fund, No. 1, was the endow-
ment of the Coe Professorship, a fund now amalgamated with Coe Fund, No. 2.)

The precise proportioning of the income between the three focuses
is not stated, Mr. Coe's intention being that when the particularized objec-
tives of (1) and (2) had been carried out, the remaining income would go
"to maintain <u>and develop</u> the established Program of American Studies...."

So far as the Library is concerned his intentions were two-fold:
to pay the salary of the Librarian, and "to maintain, utilize, make additions
to, and develop increased use of the Collection of Western Americana and the
Collection of Ornithology given to the said University in my lifetime." It
does not say that the income should go for the salary of the "William Robertson
Coe Reference Librarian" as Roy Watkins was listed in last year's university
directory. It does not say that income should go for the general purchase of
books or manuscripts (other than Western Americana or Ornithology) for either
Sterling Library (including L & B) or the Beinecke Library and its collection
of American Literature. In other words, a study of the internal expenditures
of the Libraries should be made to determine whether Coe income is being
diverted from Mr. Coe's original intention.

His will in no way provides for the share presently diverted to
the Yale Art Gallery for curatorial costs in connection with the Garvan and
Related Collections. The original diversion of $20,000 a year was for a
specific term of five years, with the understanding on the part of Provost
Buck and myself that the money would afterwards revert to the American Studies
Program.

I do not know of course what disposition is being made of the funds
intended for the William Robertson Coe Chair, but this was originally endowed
for the purposes of the American Studies Program and it was agreed by History
that it should so be used. President Griswold preferred that David Potter
should be known as the Coe Professor of History, but the title can be rephrased

Yale University

New Haven, Connecticut 06520

AMERICAN STUDIES PROGRAM

Prof. Alvin Kernan, Associate Provost -2-

October 21, 1966

(according to the pattern of Sterling professorships) to fit the holder.
In any event, like other appointments, it should read as the "William
Robertson Coe Professor of ...... and American Studies."

In reference to our discussion this morning about the summer
program, you will notice that the final phrases specifically cite the type
of program that should be offered. Although I had an informal agreement
to a shift, any actual change ought to be formally agreed to by the Coe
sons.

encs.
NHP/s

October 18, 1966

Mr. Charles Taylor, Provost
Yale University
117 Hall of Graduate Studies

Dear Charles:

Although we have not had a chance to discuss in even a preliminary way my projection of the needs of American Studies until 1972, the prime necessity of the moment is of course the matter of personnel for the future administration of the Program.

At the present moment, only five tenure members of the faculty are carried on our budgetary roster. Of these Henry Broude this year receives no salary from us and performs no duties for us. Sidney Ahlstrom teaches for us at both the undergraduate and graduate level, but in combination with Religious Studies so that no salary charge is made on us. A. M. Bickel teaches one graduate seminar, but is administratively involved with the Law School. R. W. B. Lewis will presumably be unavailable until his five years as Master of Calhoun are over; he will unquestionably wish to be on at least one year's leave of absence on completing the Mastership, and in any event has already served four years of administration in the Program. As of June 30, 1967 I shall have completed twenty-one consecutive years of administration with the Program, and it had been expected that I should withdraw from administration at the end of the year.

The size and administrative complexity of the Program requires a substantial allotment of additional tenure slots if the administrative problem is realistically to be solved rather than extemporized as it has been during past years.

The direction of the undergraduate standard and honors major can be handled by junior members of the staff; the chairmanship and direction of the graduate program cannot be. Thus, with both Dick Lewis and myself unavailable for administration, there must be an absolute minimum of three new tenure slots. Triennial leaves of absence so complicate the availability of any senior staff that the addition simply of one full professor to act as chairman and one associate professor with tenure to act as Director of Graduate Studies will not solve the problem.

Actually a more far-sighted solution would be the addition of five tenure slots, one of which would be for a full professor with an affiliation to History, plus two younger men with slots on the History side and two similarly placed in respect to English. These men's prime responsibility would be to American Studies. Indeed with the lessening burden of course instruction the new full professor (counting his administrative tasks) would hardly teach except in an American Studies sponsored graduate seminar.

Mr. Charles Taylor, Provost

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October 18, 1966

The budgetary increase would seem considerable, though not out of keeping with Departments concerned with fewer students at the undergraduate and even graduate level. Dean Miller has suggested to me that the amount of money brought annually to the University as fees from Visiting Research Fellows from overseas justifies the addition of one full professional salary. The $20,000 from Coe funds presently allotted to the Garvan Collections for curatorial expenses (but originally granted for only a five-year terminal period) would pay for another. In fact the whole matter of the distribution of the income from the Coe bequest has not been re-examined for many years, and the use of so-called "American Studies Funds" for the purchase of books for L&B and rare books and manuscripts for the Beinecke other than the Collection of Western Americans may account for more. But the proper question of course is still that of the needs of an educational program which must be met, no matter where the funds are drawn from.

Four younger members of the American Studies staff can be considered seriously for at least non-tenure appointments at the rank of Associate Professor. These are David Hall and Lawrence Chisolm, on the side of History, and A. J. Kaul and Jay Martin, on the side of English. Of these, Hall, Chisolm and Kaul have had at least limited teaching experience at the graduate level, though without tenure they would not be acceptable for an appointment as Director of Graduate Studies.

Certain present tenure members of the Yale faculty might perhaps be drawn into consideration for a term of three years as Chairman. These are Howard Lamar and Sidney Ahlstrom from History; Henry Broude, from Economics; or William L. Miller, from Social Ethics (who has expressed the desire to teach a course for American Studies). From the Department of English, the only possibility would seem to be Charles Feidelson.

If an attempt is made to recruit a new professor from outside, the vacant Coe Professorship of --- and American Studies could be used as an inducement. This has been vacant since the departure of David Potter, and the nomination of a successor would please both the recipient and the Coe family.

NHP/s

2.

## Publications

## Staff

3.

Respectfully submitted,

July 28, 1966

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American Studies Program

## PART TWO

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American Studies Program

3. Educational Program.

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American Studies Program

(d) In the _graduate program_, a total of forty-five students were preparing for their doctorates. Four degrees of Master of Arts were given

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American Studies Program

4. *Current fields of research.*

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American Studies Program

(a) **Yale Publications in American Studies.** The only new volume in the series was #10, Robert C. Bannister, Jr., *Ray Stannard Baker*, although a revised and enlarged edition of Robert Bone's *The Negro Novel in America* was issued in both cloth and paper. W. H. Goetzmann's *Army Exploration in the American West, 1803-1863* was also reissued in a paperback edition. Two new additional titles in the series are to be published in the Fall of 1966.

(b) **Books by members of the staff:**

(c) **Lectures:**

Yale University

New Haven, Connecticut 06520

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American Studies Program

(d) Honors.

Respectfully submitted

NHP/s

REPORT ON THE NEEDS OF AMERICAN STUDIES,

SUBMITTED TO THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, 2 APRIL 1958.

In response to the request of the Provost, the following statement of future needs is herewith presented for your consideration. To it, because of the particular present problems of administering the American Studies Program, I have prefixed a report of the special committee appointed by the Provost in response to the unanimous vote of the Executive Committee of American Studies, on 25 October 1957: "that in view of the critical situation of American Studies in the University, we recommend an official investigation of its status, program, and administrative arrangements."

Respectfully submitted,

4

on the recommendations of the original President's Committee and the subsequent Course of Studies Committee, is limited to 12 members from each of the two upper classes. So far as we can determine, there will be no occasion to increase the formal offerings within this special program, despite the fact that unlike H.A.L. we do not offer a pro-seminar in sophomore year. Any enlargement of upperclass enrollment would necessitate a doubling of the staff and appropriation. No such need has been felt.

(3) Graduate Program. A properly rounded graduate program should include the addition of the following full-year seminars:

<table><thead><tr><th>Course</th><th>Units</th><th>Est. Cost</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Interdisciplinary Problems of American Studies</td><td>1</td><td>$4,000.</td></tr><tr><td>Socio-Anthropological Analysis of American Society</td><td>1</td><td>4,000.</td></tr><tr><td>American Art</td><td>1/3</td><td>2,500.</td></tr></tbody><tfoot><tr><td colspan="2"></td><td>$10,500.</td></tr></tfoot></table>

N.B. It should be borne in mind that, with the exception of the proposed eight junior seminars for standard majors and the graduate seminar in "Interdisciplinary Problems", the other new courses might well be given on an alternating basis. In this case the estimated cost for new undergraduate and graduate courses might be entered at an average total of $32,750, as against: $44,500

## ADMINISTRATIVE NEEDS:

(1) <u>Undergraduate Standard Program.</u> The number of majors (equivalent to those in English, and in History), plus the necessary personal attention to the structuring of individually appropriate schedules is so time consuming as to require an immediate allotment of one unit for the duties of the Director of the Undergraduate Program. At present the only additional compensation to the Director is $250 annually over his normal salary for an otherwise full work-load. $3,000.

(2) <u>Undergraduate Honors Program.</u> The present duties of the Director of the Honors Program can be accommodated within his present workload.

(3) <u>Graduate Program.</u> A unit is presently committed for the direction of the graduate program, but because it has so far proved impossible to fill the post, the necessary unit has been contributed by the Chairman. The expense is included as a need rather than as an unfulfilled commitment since the present budgetary total is deceptive.

$4,000.
$7,000.
$7,000.

7

RECAPITULATION

Present annual Budget, plus additional allocations:

<table><tr><td>Instructional</td><td>$58,077.</td></tr><tr><td>Administrative</td><td>3,250.</td></tr><tr><td>Expenses</td><td>12,813.</td></tr><tr><td>Graduate Fellowship Funds from Coe Bequest</td><td>15,000.</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>$89,140.</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>$89,140.</td></tr></table>

Proposed additional annual needs:

<table><tr><td>Instructional</td><td>$44,500. (or $32,750)</td></tr><tr><td>Administrative</td><td>7,000.</td></tr><tr><td>Graduate Fellowship Funds</td><td>52,500*</td></tr><tr><td>Research Funds</td><td>3,500.</td></tr><tr><td>Publication Funds</td><td>10,000.</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>$117,500. (or 105,750)</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>$117,500.</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>$206,640 (or 194,890)</td></tr></table>

* It should be remembered that this is a conservative (i.e. maximum) estimate of expense, since it is likely that some outside grants will lower, however unpredictably, the annual sum necessary.

Additional units recommended, or to be filled:

<table><tr><td>Undergraduate Instruction</td><td>13</td></tr><tr><td>Undergraduate Administration</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>Graduate Instruction</td><td>3</td></tr><tr><td>Graduate Administration</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>18*</td></tr></table>

*The alternation of certain of these courses would of course reduce the total as for any one year. A full quota would (on the basis that all American Studies staff members should teach at least one course in a regular department) require an addition of nine to the present staff.

Memo: to all members of the American Studies Executive Committee

Subject: "Committee of the Future" for American Studies, etc.

A meeting of this committee will be called as soon as possible to discuss the proposals listed below.

## I. The Committee

1. Earlier this winter, Mr. Pearson, after discussions with the Pro- vost, appointed an ad hoc "Committee of the Future" for American Studies. Serving on this committee were: Messrs. Morgan, Ahlstrom and Lewis (Chair- man). The committee met on five successive Mondays, between February 14 and March 14, usually for two hours or more. At the last two meetings, Mr. Woodward also joined the discussions.

2. The committee meetings were coincident with the Administration's request that all departments make out projected Budget Forms for 1972, but they were not aimed specifically at those forms. The purpose of their com- mittee was rather to answer certain immediate and recurring questions with which the American Studies Program is confronted.

3. The committee by no means attempted to consider every aspect of the Program. It was not primarily a Course-of-Study committee, and did not, for example, discuss the role of philosophy courses or Fine Arts courses in the program. It did not touch on procedural matters: for example, on the differ- ing practices of the History and English departments regarding course loads, oral exams, and dissertations. (These latter will be the subject of talks this spring between Mr. Lamar, Mr. Culler and Mr. Lewis.) Virtually nothing was said about the American Studies undergraduate program.

4. The committee may be re-activated or a new committee appointed at any time this year or later that conditions may seem to require it.

## II. Proposals.

The following proposals are forwarded from the ad hoc committee to the Executive Committee as a whole, for detailed discussion and, if so decided, for action.

### 1. A Director of Foreign Students.

There are, annually, between six and ten foreign students associated with the American Studies graduate program for limited periods of time and for special purposes. In addition, there are usually four or five foreign students registered as regular graduate students.

The proposal is to appoint some person as Director of Graduate Students, with the name and title listed in the graduate catalogue.

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The person so appointed would devote between one-and-a-half and one-half of his time to this task. The duties would include: correspondence prior to the student's arrival; assistance in settling the student in the university community; and, perhaps especially, offering a "Directed Reading" course designed to meet the students' special needs.

The likeliest person for this position is Mr. Norman Pearson — as of 1968, after Mr. Pearson has retired as Chairman of the program in 1967 and completed his year's leave of absence 67-68.

## 2. Annual Coe Seminar or Seminars.

Proposal: to request sufficient funds to invite one or more persons from outside of Yale each year to offer an extra-curricular series of lectures-cum-discussion.

The title suggested for each series was Coe Seminar or Coe Colloquium. We would of course draw on people within commuting distance of Yale. Names mentioned included: Daniel Aaron, J.W. Ward, Leo Marx, Richard Hofstadter, James McGregor Burns, Daniel Hoffman.

These seminars might be given under the auspices of the American Studies Graduate Club. In any case, they would be aimed primarily at American Studies graduate students, though they would presumably be open to the public and announced through all the usual channels. They would serve greatly to give a much needed sense of coherence and community among the graduate students; and would provide occasions for the students to discuss questions of methodology and other sources of anxiety and apprehension.

Any given seminar might consist of from four to six meetings, say on successive Thursday evenings.

The advice of the Executive Committee is solicited as to names and topics for these seminars.

Although no money, of course, has been budgeted for this purpose for 1966-67, Mr. Lewis reported that Daniel Aaron has in hand a series on the Civil War and American Literature which, if invited, he could readily offer next fall. This, in any case, is the kind of seminar envisaged.

## 3. Outside Field on the Oral Exam.

Proposal: any graduate student whose B.A. was in an American field should be required to offer an outside field as one of the four areas on his oral exam.

By "outside," the committee meant geographically outside. The notion is that the student would offer, for example, English or French history or literature (or rather a phase thereof). This would not only broaden the base of study, but it would be to the student's real advantage in finding a job in a regular department later on.

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4. Multiple patterns of study.

graduate

Proposal: to permit and even encourage patterns of study in addition to the two that now predominate.

At present, nineteen out of twenty students follow patterns that either emphasize history, with a portion of literary study; or they emphasize both literature, with a portion of historical study.

Presumably, the vast majority of American Studies graduate students will continue to follow those two schemes. But the committee proposes for discussion the possibility of encouraging additional patterns. Some that were mentioned:

* History -- social sciences -- law

* History -- social sciences -- city planning

* Literature -- philosophy -- theology

* Inter-cultural: American-Russian history and/or literature; American-Far-Eastern; American-Latin American.

If this proposal is accepted, it would mean making an important change in the "statement" the American Studies office sends out to people making inquiries. The statement now implies that only the present two patterns are normally permitted, and that all graduate students must take some work in history and some work in literature.

5. New Members for the Executive Committee.

Proposal (somewhat in line with the proposal above): to invite Mr. Dahl and perhaps Mr. Broude to serve on the Executive Committee.

At present, according to an old ruling by President Griswold, only representatives of the humanities and only full professors may serve on this committee. Presumably, the Provost's approval would be needed to invite the new members named; though such approval would almost certainly be forthcoming.

New Administrative Offices and

6. New Tenure Appointment in History-and-American Studies.

This was the subject on which the committee spent the most time, mainly because it was much the most complex as well as important.

Proposal: to recommend to the proper authorities the appointment, as of 1967, of a full professor of History-and-American Studies, from outside of Yale if said person also is to serve as Chairman if As. at least from 1968 to 1971.

a. The proposal arises out of several pressing but distinctive needs:

(1) As of August, 1968 -- unless various actions are taken -- there will not be a single person on the American Studies staff (with the possible exception of Mr. Broude) who has a tenure appointment and is available for administrative duties. Mr. Pearson will withdraw from administrative work in 1967, Mr. Lewis in 1968.

In order to guarantee a Chairman and a Director of Graduate Studies during the six years after 1968, four tenure positions must be added to the staff. On the assumption that Messrs. Kaul and Hall will have received tenure by 1968, and

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possibly Mr. Martin, w one outside appointment will still be imperative. Such a person, moreover, will have to be a full professor. It is nearly inconceivable that either Mr. Kaul or Mr. Hall will occupy a full professorship by 1968; and despite occasional arguments to the contrary, the Chairman of American Studies (though not necessarily its DGS) must have the highest rank.

If either Mr. Kaul or Mr. Hall does not receive tenure, then at least two outside appointments will be imperative.

(2) The History Department, meanwhile, has long been in need of a specialist in the Jacksonian period of American history; and the American Studies program has felt this same need.

(3) The American Studies program, in addition, feels the absolute need of what can only be described as an "American Studies kind of historian" -- both to offer certain kinds of courses not currently given and to direct certain kinds of dissertations. One such course would be a semester course or year-long course required of all first year students, and devoted to exploring the various "methods" that are and can be employed in American Studies. Far from imposing a doctrine, this course would presumably seek to do away with the very notion of a single doctrine or approach.

b The ideal candidate for the new appointment would thus: be a specialist in the Jacksonian period; would have administrative experience and be willing to serve as chairman for three years (upon appointment) and perhaps as DGS for three years after that; would be oriented towards general American cultural history; and could perhaps offer the course described above.

c The names proposed for the appointment are:

William Taylor (Wisconsin)

Merrill Peterson (Virginia)

d Many other names were considered, and were either rejected for a variety of reasons or held in reserve. These included: Daniel Boorstin (Chicago), J.W. Ward (Amherst), William Hutchison (American), Martin Duberman (Princeton), Marvin Meyers (Brandeis), Richard McGormick (Rutgers), John Thomas (Brown), David Fisher (Brandeis), Marcus Cunliffe (see below).

Richard Wadl (Chicago)

(1) President Brewster is considering the possibility of inviting Marcus Cunliffe to become the Master of one of the Yale Colleges. If this appointment is made and accepted, Mr. Cunliffe might well hold a professorship in History-And-American Studies. We might get the benefit of a part of his time; it is not impossible that he could serve as Chairman or DGS, either while a Master or later. But the committee is emphatic on the point that Mr. Cunliffe should be an additional appointment to the one it proposes.

YALE UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY
NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT 06520

G. W. PIERSON

12 July 1967

1691 YALE STATION

Professor Norman H. Pearson
231 HGS

Dear Norman:

Now that you are taking wing I would like to say one or two things.

First of all, I should like to express my personal admiration for your extraordinary devotion and care to the interests of American Studies. I don't think people wholly appreciate but I do think they will increasingly begin to realize what you have contributed over the years.

I have only seen some of this but I should like to express my admiration for the care you have given to your students, for the endless hours and pains you have lavished on the doctoral work and the placement of your Ph.D.'s, and not least for the contacts you have maintained with the world of letters. Our University and the New Haven community have been the richer for the many things you have done.

The department and program of American Studies have not achieved all the University support that you would wish and they are not all that even I might think desirable or even necessary. Indeed I am sorry that I have failed to secure for you and for the cause the kind of financial support and academic understanding which I had hoped to promote. It has not been entirely for want of trying.

The other day the Provost, the Treasurer, Mr. Bowman, Mr. O'Connor, and I sat for an hour and a half and talked about the Coe Fund. And I'm not altogether certain what was accomplished. I do know that I made it quite plain that while it seemed to me legitimate to use the Coe Professorship moneys temporarily for the employment of younger men or the part-time employment of professors in related departments, I do not think that an endowed professorship should go indefinitely unfilled.

In the second place, I made it plain that siphoning money to the salary or part-time support of people interested in American History or American Literature or American Art, etc., was not the same thing as appropriating money for an American Studies Program. American Studies would be here anyhow. I think this was Illuminating to the Treasurer, who for the first time began to understand why the appropriation of Coe moneys to American interests was not entirely and automatically justifiable. How far the message carried to the Provost I am not sure. He is inclined to cite all the contributions made to American Studies by professors in other areas and to justify the fellowship funds by the larger awards

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or fellowships not charged to the Coe Fund, etc., etc. But I managed to come away with the remark that I was afraid I still felt the way I felt because I had to live with myself. And I thought the Provost would come around to my view in time. We'll see. In any case, I want you to know that you have had a very genuine backing from yours truly in a number of ways, however negative or limited the apparent results.

I guess not everyone will agree with your view of American Studies or sympathize with my proposals for it anymore than they have in times past. But I rather think that what the program has meant and what you have done will come to loom larger in retrospect. In any case, I know that I feel Yale owes you a great debt for your loyalty and perseverance and devotion to this cause and to the cause of the University. And I should like to take this occasion to say so.

GWP/ee

Excerpt from the Last Will and Testament of William Robertson Coe

(Dated January 7, 1955)

THIRD

(C) I direct my Executor to set aside for the benefit of the following charities and for the following purposes, one-fourth of my gross testamentary estate after deducting the bequests directed in the provisions of Article Second and the foregoing provisions of this Article Third of this my Will, (These refer to bequests of certain stocks and other personal property to his wife and children) and I give and bequeath the same as follows:

(1) To Planting Fields Foundation, ......$100,000.

(2) The balance of my gross testamentary estate so set aside for charitable purposes shall be divided among and shall be paid over to the charities hereinafter named as follows:

(a) Thirty per centum to YALE UNIVERSITY, to be held by it and maintained by it in a separate fund known as the William Robertson Coe Fund, No. 2, and managed, invested and reinvested by it, and the net income therefrom used and applied by it (1) to pay the salary of the librarian of the University, (2) to establish and maintain a Chair of Ornithology and a Department of Ornithology at said University and to maintain, utilize, make additions to, and develop increased use of the Collection of Western Americana and the Collection of Ornithology given to said University in my lifetime, and (3) to continue and to maintain and develop the established Program of American Studies which has been designed as a positive and affirmative method of meeting the threat of Communism, Socialism, Collectivism, Totalitarianism and other Ideologies opposed to the preservation of our System of Free Enterprise, including a Summer Refresher Program of American Studies for selected teachers and professors to be patterned after the existing Program at the University of Wyoming.

YALE STUDIES FOR RETURNING SERVICE MEN

OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

May 23, 1946.

Professor Ralph H. Gabriel,
Sheffield Hall,

Dear Ralph:

This is in reply to your letter of May 18th reporting on
the recommendations of the Committee on American Studies for
Foreign Students. The suggestion is a very important one and
I agree that any plans for its development would require the
most careful investigation of the sort that you put forward.

The University Corporation has been, and still is, engaged
in a survey of the strength and weakness of our Departments and
is currently discussing plans by which funds might be raised
to strengthen existing aspects of our whole educational program.
At the moment I do not think that it would be wise and I do not
believe that the Corporation would approve a venture so important
as this both from the point of view of expenditure of University
resources and of academic effort. It has been agreed that we
would not embark upon new undertakings of a major sort until we
had a clear picture as to how we might support those already in
existence.

I realize the desirability of starting an investigation
pointing toward the development of these plans as soon as
possible, but I am quite clear that it ought to be postponed
until the University program is crystallized.

I would say that the number of most interesting proposals
which have come to us is growing and that in each case we have
felt it necessary to defer any effort toward translating them
into specific plans until the situation was cleared.

I should be very glad to discuss the matter with you, or
with any of your colleagues involved.

THE COE FOUNDATION

SUITE L&M
225 EAST 57TH STREET
NEW YORK, N.Y. 10022

July 7, 1967

Dr. Norman Holmes Pearson,
Chairman
American Studies Program
Yale University
New Haven, Connecticut 06520

Dear Norman:

I hope the following is the information you need.

Cash and securities were delivered to Yale Uni-
versity by the Executors of the Estate of William Robertson
Coe, who died on March 14, 1955, as follows:

Nov. 21, 1955 - Securities, Inventory Value ... $2,537,531.36
Dec. 19, 1955 - By Cash ... 1,500,000.00
Aug. 9, 1956 - By Cash ... 300,000.00
---
$4,337,531.36

(Being on account of 30% of one-fourth of the gross testa-
mentary estate after deducting certain bequests under
Article Second and Fund of the Will)

I told Bill Coe about your retiring from the
American Studies, although I also told him you were con-
tinuing your advice and counsel. Of course, we all had
such a good feeling when you were there, but we know you
will take an interest in what's going on.

I think I told you on the phone I will be pretty
well tied up on the 26th, 27th, 28th and 31st of July, but
any other time I feel sure I can have lunch with you. If
I know in advance, perhaps Bill Coe will manage to come in
and join us. I know he would like to do this if he is
feeling well enough.

With all good wishes,

Norman Holmes Pearson

5 November 1947

Report to The Committee on American Studies:

As of the present moment 13 undergraduates are registered as majors in American Studies Program. Of these, the distribution by classes is as follows:

1947M -- 4
1948 -- 3
1949 -- 6

13

During the past year one student was dropped from the major as unsuited to the program, and a substantial number of applications were rejected for the same reason. It has been felt that a program of this type should, in the beginning at least, be restricted to those with superior abilities or a vital interest in its thesis. Unless the Committee on American Studies advises to the contrary, or we are forced by University policy into another position, the policy of limited enrollment will be continued by us. Ten members of the class of 1950 have so far tentatively indicated their wish to enroll as of their Junior year.

The integrating seminar required for seniors in the Division has been meeting since the beginning of the fall term, under the supervision of Prof. Ralph Gabriel of the History Department, Prof. John Serjemaki of the Department of Sociology, and myself from the English Department. The four students from 1947M and the three from 1948, who will be graduating in February 1949, have made up its enrollment. Listed as American Studies 90, it is attempting to arrive at some scheme of organization and synthesis of cultural data, which can be useful in the integration of the various interdepartmental subjects which the students take in individual courses outside the seminar. Its emphasis has so far been chiefly socio-cultural rather than ideological. It is hoped that the experience of this undergraduate seminar will prove of value in establishing a similar integration at the graduate level.

In accord with the policy of the Program, all seniors majoring in American Studies will submit a senior thesis as a requirement of their graduation, and each of the seniors has made substantial progress in the gathering of his material.

I am very glad to add such information as I can to the memorandum which you have read, and to the presentation by Professor Nettleton. He has elucidated, I think, the essential aspects of this proposed work.

1. **Character:** (Very brief). The careful study of a civilization.

2. **Origin:** Its very natural origin is in the needs of the students. Especially in honours work do instructors become aware of the inevitability of this kind of study. All teachers here, I believe, have in one way or another used this approach.

Such a demand created the courses, History 21, 22, 31, 41. These have obviously your sanction and approval. They certainly have the sanction and approval of the best type of Yale student, if we examine the history of each of these courses.

3. **The Proposal:** Professor Nettleton has spoken of the proposal, which is from a group of teachers interested in this work to formalize and announce this work by publication of the program in a pamphlet. It should be noted again that the proposal does not include new open courses. Its concern is with the exceptional student with this special interest in the study of a civilization.

It does propose to unify and centralize this work by offering to specially qualified students a concentration in such study so that it will be the principal interest of their junior and senior years. It proposes to accomplish this:

* by suggesting election to the qualified student of related courses in various departments;

* by use of reading or honours or departmental courses in the field of civilization;

* by pointing all these studies toward a comprehensive examination in the field of a particular civilization.

Such is the character and origin of the work and such is, in essence, the proposal of this group. The group presents the proposal through the Course of Study Committee and hopes to have the approval of the Yale College Faculty, if it seems wise to this body.

Perhaps I may offer also two or three observations upon this plan which may prevent misunderstanding.

The observations I have to make are connected with the question which has been asked concerning the proposal, "Why is the proposal an improvement over the present arrangement?" The answers to this question seem to many of us obvious and compelling.

1. First, to give this work thoroughness and greater significance; to permit it to be really the principal interest of the able student's last two years, both in honours work and departmental courses which are essential. These under the guidance of a supervisor of the student's entire program of study correlate, fill in gaps, and supplement in the study of a particular civilization. However admirably the existing departments similar for their own students it would hardly be practicable for them, in addition, to supervise reading courses in a particular civilization, for example, the French Civilization. The Department of History, the Arts and Letters stands ready to direct such reading courses in particular civilizations.

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2. A second reason for the superiority of the proposal over the present arrangement is closely allied with the first. Such work in the reading courses and in electives, premises and demands comprehensive examinations. Again it would appear impracticable for the departments of English, History, Romance Languages, or Social Sciences, to set and judge such examinations. No mechanism exists for this in any one department, without calling in members of other departments. The Department of History, the Arts and Letters stands ready to furnish this mechanism.

3. A third important reason for the superiority of the proposal is that with several hundred students interested in the study of civilization, it becomes a duty to announce through the pamphlet to exceptional students the possibility of such concentration. It is, in brief, already a distinct field of study, imperfectly developed. It should be formally organized -- such is the belief of this group -- and announced as a legitimate intellectual objective for able students.

These in the minds of the group formulating the proposal are the reasons for formalization of the work through announcement in the pamphlet and catalogue.