Guide to the Henry Noble MacCracken Papers, 1907 - circa 1968

Collection Summary

Biographical Note

Dr. Henry Noble MacCracken (1880-1970), was born in Toledo, Ohio, in 1880. He graduated from New York University in 1900 with a degree in English literature, and returned to earn a master's degree in English in 1904. He went on to Harvard University for a second Master's and received his Ph.D. in 1907. He taught at Harvard University, Yale University, and Smith College before coming to Vassar in 1915.

MacCracken was Vassar's fifth president and his tenure was the longest in the college's history. He sparked controversy because of his advocacy for women's suffrage and his liberal views toward education and politics. He was fired in 1918 because of these views but returned to office after student-faculty protests and the resignation of three trustees. MacCracken contributed many important things to Vassar including service as an English professor and the endowment of a chair in the English department. He also worked to bring more foreign students to Vassar, increased student involvement in college policy making, established the Euthenics Department (1923), and supported Hallie Flanagan Davis in her work on the Experimental Theatre. MacCracken worked tirelessly through both world wars, spearheading Vassar's many contributions to the war effort. He also worked with the Red Cross and served as director of educational work on the New York Council of Home Defense.

MacCracken was also involved in many local and national organizations, both during and subsequent to his time at Vassar. He was a member of the National Committee of the League to Enforce Peace, an organizer for the Dutchess County Health Association, (the first county public health organization in the United States), and one of the creators of the Kosciuszko Foundation to promote relations between the United States and Poland. He was a key figure in the foundation of Sarah Lawrence College in 1926, a member of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, and chairman of the conference's international meeting in London.

MacCracken also spent a significant amount of his time lecturing, at Vassar as well as at other institutions across the country. Topics included his religious views, the United Nations, civil liberties and English literature, among others. He also had an interest in local history and wrote several books on the Poughkeepsie area and Vassar. Titles included The Family on Gramercy Park, The Hickory Limb, Old Dutchess Forever! The Story of an American County, and Blithe Dutchess: The Flowering of an American County from 1812.

MacCracken died May 7, 1970 in Poughkeepsie at the age of 89.

Scope and Content Note

Correspondence, memoranda, minutes, reports, contracts, publications, and other materials pertaining to Vassar College Trustees and administration, Buildings and Grounds, faculty, students, alumnae, programs, and activities, 1914-1950; to the World Youth Congress of 1938; to his own teaching activities; to Sarah Lawrence College, 1926-1937; to World War I, 1915-1920; to the Dutchess County Health Association, 1919-1945; and to the Kosciuszko Foundation (New York City), 1923-1962. Correspondence files from his personal involvement in such organizations as the American Civil Liberties Union, the Congregational Church, American Red Cross, International Migration Service, National Student Federation, the Southern Women's Educational Alliance, and the National Conference of Christians and Jews, 1915-1946. Personal and business correspondence with Felix Frankfurter, F.J. Furnivall, Herbert Hoover, Charles Evans Hughes, G.L. Kittredge, Herbert Lehman, John M. Manley, Henry Morgenthau, Michael Idvorsky Pupin, Eleanor Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Constance Rourke, Alfred E. Smith, William Howard Taft, M. Carey Thomas, Mary E. Woolley, and others, 1915-1946. His speeches, manuscripts, typescripts, publications, and related correspondence, some of which concern Dutchess County history. Scrapbook of letters and clippings concerning his radio talk on religious liberty in the United States, 1928. Letters and a notebook of miscellaneous records from the U.S. Committee for the Care of European Children, 1940-1942. Photographs and biographical information.

Access and Use

Encoding Information

Encoded by Elizabeth Clarke, February 2007. Updated by Emma Gronbeck, October 2023.

Administrative Information