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Collection Overview

Creator:
West, Andrew Fleming, 1853-1943
Collector:
Princeton University. Library. Special Collections
Title:
Princeton University Library Collection of Andrew Fleming West Correspondence
Repository:
Manuscripts Division
Permanent URL:
http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/1g05fb61k
Dates:
1873-1974 (mostly 1894-1933)
Size:
2 boxes and 0.4 linear feet
Storage Note:
Firestone Library (mss): Boxes 1; B-000879
Language:
English

Abstract

Consists chiefly of correspondence of Andrew Fleming West, who served as dean of Graduate Studies at Princeton University when Woodrow Wilson served as the University's president.

Collection Description & Creator Information

Description:

The collection consists chiefly of correspondence of Princeton Dean Andrew F. West regarding a conference (1917) on classical studies and the foundation of the American Classical League, as well as letters to his sister, Clara L. West, and his son, Randolph West. Correspondents include John Jay Chapman; President Calvin Coolidge; John Huston Finley, Princeton University faculty member, 1900-1903; Sir Auckland Geddes; James Curtis Hepburn, Princeton Class of 1832; Charles Evans Hughes; Jean Jules Jusserand; Sir Frederic Kenyon; Howard Seavoy Leach; Richard Winn Livingston; Henry Cabot Lodge; A. Lawrence Lowell; Samuel Walker McCall; John William Mackail; Albert Mansbridge; Allan Marquand, Princeton Class of 1874; Alexander Meiklejohn; Edward P. Mitchell; Alfred Noyes (letter accompanying an autograph manuscript signed on the "Value of Classical Studies"); William Osler; George W. Pepper; Mahlon Pitney, Princeton Class of 1879; Elihu Root; Charles M. Schwab; President William Howard Taft; Miss M. Carey Thomas; Frank A. Vanderlip; Benjamin Ide Wheeler; Shirley Weber; and George W. Wickersham.

Also included are typescripts of several poems written by West, entitled "Boston" (finely printed copy, 1899), "Philadelphia" (1894) and "Here and Beyond"; the latter was written for his 80th birthday, signed and dated May 17, 1933. Also included are West's final class grades for his junior year at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), signed by the registrar and dated July 7, 1873.

Arrangement

Arranged alphabetically by correspondent.

Collection Creator Biography:

West, Andrew Fleming, 1853-1943

Andrew Fleming West graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in the Class of 1874. In 1883 he was called to Princeton by President McCosh to fill the newly founded Giger chair in Latin. He was president of the American Philological Association, a trustee of the American Academy in Rome, one of the founders of the American School of Classical Studies in Rome, and the principal founder of the American Classical League, which he organized in an effort to stem the decline of interest in the classics. The organizing and fund-raising talents West used in his efforts on behalf of the classics continued in Princeton University's highly successful sesquicentennial celebration in 1896. As secretary of the committee in charge of the celebration, he organized a three-day affair, including a program of public lectures by visiting scholars from abroad that set a pattern for other, later university celebrations, and a spectacular torchlight procession of 2,000 fancily costumed alumni that stimulated the development of the most colorful event of the annual Commencement season -- the alumni parade. With his appointment in December 1900 as first dean of the graduate school, West devoted his energy and talents to the development of the school and particularly to the creation of a residential graduate college. West retired in 1928 after forty-five years as Giger Professor of Latin and twenty-seven years as dean of the graduate school.

Collection History

Acquisition:

The collection was formed as a result of a Departmental practice of combining into one collection material of various accessions relating to a particular person, family, or subject.

Letter to Allan Marquand was a gift of Mrs. Douglas Delanoy on Dec. 19, 1974 .

Letter to Shirley Weber was a gift of Shirley Weber.

Poems "Boston" and "Philadelphia" were gifts of the Allan Marquand estate.

Letters from Chapman, Coolidge, Mansbridge, Finley, Geddes, Hughes, Jusserand, Kenyon, Livingston, Lodge, Lowell, McCall, Mackail, Meiklejohn, Mitchell, Noyes, Osler, Pepper, Pitney, Root, Taft, Thomas, Schwab, Wheeler, Wickersham and Vanderlip were gifts of Andrew F. West on Sept. 29, 1927 .

Letters to Clara West, Randolph West, and A. K. Bowman were a gift of John Lee West in 2016 . (AM 2017-74)

Appraisal

No appraisal information is available.

Processing Information

Folder inventory added by Nicholas Williams '2015 in 2012.

Access & Use

Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. No further photoduplication of copies of material in the collection can be made when Princeton University Library does not own the original. Inquiries regarding publishing material from the collection should be directed to RBSC Public Services staff through the Ask Us! form. The library has no information on the status of literary rights in the collection and researchers are responsible for determining any questions of copyright.

Credit this material:

Princeton University Library Collection of Andrew Fleming West Correspondence; Manuscripts Division, Department of Special Collections, Princeton University Library

Permanent URL:
http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/1g05fb61k
Location:
Firestone Library
One Washington Road
Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
(609) 258-3184
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Storage Note:
Firestone Library (mss): Boxes 1; B-000879