Table of Contents
- Collection Summary
- Biographical Note
- Scope and Content Note
- Subject Headings
- Related Material
- Administrative Information
- Access and Use
- Encoding Information
- Arrangement
- Series List
- Container List
Collection Summary
Repository: | Archives and Special Collections Library, Vassar College Libraries |
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Creator: | Vassar College. Office of the President, Blanding, Sarah Gibson, 1898-1985 |
Title: | Office of the President Records, Sarah Gibson Blanding Files |
Inclusive Dates: | 1911-1977 |
Bulk Dates: | 1946-1964 |
Quantity: | 27.5 cubic feet (33 boxes) |
Abstract: | Records of the Vassar College Office of the President, correspondence, memoranda, clippings, articles, speeches, and press releases during her tenure at Vassar, 1946-1964, concerning women's education, academic freedom, 1950's politics, her stand against Congressional investigation of Communist influence in education, her introduction to Adlai Stevenson on a radio program, and her 1962 statement on pre-marital sex and Vassar students. |
Biographical Note
Sarah Gibson Blanding, sixth president - and first woman president - of Vassar college, was born in Lexington, Kentucky in 1898. With her certificate from the New Haven Normal School of Gymnastics, she was offered two positions to teach physical education in high schools, but she took a similar position at the University of Kentucky for half the pay. Here she taught and studied, and received her B.A. in 1923. Her teaching and administrative abilities so impressed the university authorities that she was named acting dean at the age of twenty-four. After one year she left for Columbia University to earn an M.A. Two years later Miss Blanding studied at the London School of Economics with Harold Laski and then returned to the University of Kentucky as Dean of Women and teacher of political science until 1941. During these years, she lived on a 250-acre farm and raised tobacco of such high quality that it brought twice the going price.
Although a social scientist, not a home economist, in 1941 she became head of New York State College of Home Economics at Cornell, a position she held for five years. During World War II she served on the Joint Army and Navy Committee on Welfare and Recreation. She was also appointed to the War Department Civilian Advisory Council and to the Chief of Staff's National Civilian Advisory Committee for the Women's Army Corps.
When Miss Blanding was appointed president of Vassar in 1946, she not only took on the responsibilities of that office but also was called upon to serve on many public and private committees. She was successful in raising money for the college, hiring more male faculty members, increasing faculty salaries, introducing new curriculum, and bringing to Vassar the Mellon Fund grant for the study of personal growth and change during the college years. In 1964 she retired to her home in Lakeville, Connecticut, but continued to serve on the boards of numerous educational organizations. Blanding died in 1985 at the age of 86 at a retirement home in Newtown, Pennsylvania, where she had lived since 1980.
TopScope and Content Note
The Vassar College Archives does not have a full set of official records for Miss Blanding's presidency. In 2002, 26 cartons of official material were removed from a collection previously associated with the presidency of her successor, Alan Simpson.
In addition to those boxes, there is a small collection of materials previously transferred to the archives, including: Correspondence, memoranda, clippings, articles, speeches, and press releases during her tenure at Vassar, 1946-1964. Subject matter includes women's education, academic freedom, 1950's politics, her stand against Congressional investigation of Communist influence in education, her introduction to Adlai Stevenson on a radio program, and her 14 April 1962 statement on pre-marital sex and Vassar students. Correspondence is largely letters received, including those from Marian Anderson, Elizabeth Bowen, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Robert Oppenheimer, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Adlai Stevenson. Other items include scrapbooks, biographical articles, materials relating to her inauguration, diplomas, and citations, 1946-1985. There is also an undated travel diary of a trip to the British Isles (Gift of Barbara Austin Foote, VC 1940), and six letters to Jane Iglehart, VC 1943, purchased in 2006.
TopArrangement
A small collection of Blanding material collected by the Vassar College Library is in the first 7 boxes. This smaller collection contains the 2006 addition of Iglehart letters. The larger part of the collection, the transfer of records from the Office of the President, is in another run of 26 boxes, which was described at the folder level in 2014.TopAccess and Use
Access
Some files in this collection are restricted and labeled as such in the container list. The rest is open for research according to the regulations of the Vassar College Archives and Special Collections Library without any additional restrictions.
Restrictions on Use
Permission to quote (publish) from unpublished or previously published material must be obtained as described in the regulations of the Vassar College Archives and Special Collections Library.
Related Material
- Additional material related to Sarah Gibson Blanding may be found in the Archives and Special Collections Library in:
Subject Headings
Names:
- Anderson, Marian, 1902-
- Bowen, Elizabeth, 1899-1973
- Fisher, Dorothy Canfield, 1879-1958
- Oppenheimer, J. Robert, 1904-1967
- Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
- Stevenson, Adlai E. (Adlai Ewing), 1900-1965
Organizations:
- Vassar College--Administration
- Vassar College--Presidents
- Vassar College--Public relations
- Vassar College--Students
Subjects:
- Communism in education
- Communism--United States
- Premarital sex
- Women college presidents
- Women educators
- Women in politics
- Women--Diaries
- Women--Education
- Women--Social conditions
Places:
- British Isles--Description and travel
- United States--Politics and government--20th century
- United States--Social conditions
Document Types:
- Correspondence
- Diaries
- Financial records
- Reports
- Scrapbooks
VCL Categories:
- Vassar College Presidents
Encoding Information
Encoded by Elizabeth Clarke, November 2006.
Updated by Zachary Bodnar and Laura Streett, December 2014.
Updated by Emma Gronbeck, November 2023.
TopAdministrative Information
Preferred Citation
Office of the President Records, Sarah Gibson Blanding Files, Archives and Special Collections Library, Vassar College Libraries.
Processing Information
The materials transferred from the Office of the President were processed by Cynthia Sauer in 2002.
Updated October 2006, August 2013, and by Zachary Bodnar in July 2014.
Updated by Emma Gronbeck, November 2023.
Acquisition Information
Gifts of various donors; 2002 addition, transferred from the Vassar College Office of the President.
Series List
Original Library Collection, 1911-1964 |
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President's Office Transfer: |
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Series I. Trustees and Administration, 1939-1964 |
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Series II. Buildings and Grounds, 1949-1968 |
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Series III. Faculty, 1933-1965 |
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Series IV. Gifts, 1926-1969 |
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Series V. Within the College, 1941-1969 |
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Series VI. Associations, 1932-1964 |
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Series VII. Centennial, 1956-1971 |
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Series VIII. Additions, 1943-1977 |
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Container List
Return to the Table of Contents
Details
Records of the Vassar College Office of the President, correspondence, memoranda, clippings, articles, speeches, and press releases during her tenure at Vassar, 1946-1964, concerning women's education, academic freedom, 1950's politics, her stand against Congressional investigation of Communist influence in education, her introduction to Adlai Stevenson on a radio program, and her 1962 statement on pre-marital sex and Vassar students.