John William Ward Papers, 1952-1985
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Amherst College Archives and Special Collections
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collection
John William Ward Papers
Creation of John William Ward Papers
Time of Creation of John William Ward Papers
Ward, John William, 1922-
Biographical History for: John William Ward Papers
Biographical Note Born in Boston in 1922, John William Ward was educated at Harvard University (A.B., 1945) and the University of Minnesota (M.A., 1950; Ph.D. 1953). He taught at Princeton University (1952-1964), where he started as a professor of English but later changed his primary intellectual interest to history. At Amherst College, Ward was professor of History and American Studies (1964-1971) and served as the 14th President of the College (1971-1979). Perhaps more than anything, Ward's presidency at Amherst was marked by the introduction of coeducation. The Trustees of the College voted in favor of it in November 1974, the first female students were admitted in the fall of 1975, and the first women graduated in June 1976. Ward will also be remembered during his presidency for participating in a 1972 antiwar protest at Westover Air Force Base in Chicopee, Massachusetts, where he and 471 other protesters blocked traffic for more than thirty minutes. The protesters, including Ward, his wife Barbara, several Amherst faculty members and several hundred Amherst students, were arrested for disturbing the peace. Ward's participation stirred both approval and outrage, as well as a large volume of media coverage and commentary, related to the appropriateness of a college president's involvement in individual acts of civil disobedience. Ward's publications include the books Andrew Jackson, Symbol for an Age (1955); Red, White, and Blue: Men, Books, and Ideas in American Culture (1969); "Tocqueville and the Meaning of Democracy," in: Tocqueville's America (1982). From 1978 to 1980 Ward headed a special Massachusetts commission to investigate corruption and mismanagement in the construction of state and county buildings. The "Ward Commission" issued a report in 1980 that resulted in new state legislation to oversee public sector contracting. Ward also served as president of the American Council of Learned Societies from 1982 to 1985. John William Ward died on August 3, 1985.
Scope and Contents of the Collection Speeches, lecture notes and course syllabi, articles and other personal papers documenting Ward's career as a teacher, scholar and administrator at Princeton University and Amherst College. Many of the speeches are from Ward's tenure as Amherst College President (1971-1979), including statements regarding his involvement in an antiwar protest at Westover Air Force Base in 1972 at which he was arrested. The collection also includes lecture notes for courses in English and American literature that Ward taught at Princeton University, research notes and other miscellaneous papers.
American literature--Study and teaching (Higher)
lcsh
English literature--Study and teaching (Higher)
Education, Higher--United States.
lcnaf
Amherst College--Faculty.
Amherst College--Presidents.
Princeton University--Faculty.
series
Series 1: SPEECHES AND TALKS, 1964-1985
Series 1, SPEECHES AND TALKS, 1964-1985, consists of typescripts of speeches given by Ward before a variety of scholarly, academic, governmental and civic bodies. Many are speeches given as President of Amherst College (1971-1979), such as at Commencement, Convocation or alumni meetings; others were given by Ward as President of the American Council of Learned Societies (1982-1985).
Dos Passos, Carleton College 1964
Dos Passos, Hampton Institute 1965
Alumni Talks 1970
American International College Commencement Address 1971
Merrill Center Dedication 1971 Aug 31
Welcome to the Freshman Class 1971 Sep 7
Opening Convocation 1971 Sep 9
Freshman Parents' Day 1971 Oct 2
Inaugural Address 1971 Oct 23
"The Conflict Between Education and Society," talk to Amherst College Alumni Associations 1971-1972
Faculty Dinner 1972 May 3
Amherst College Assembly 1972 May 4
Statement to students in Johnson Chapel 1972 May 10
Presentation at Princeton University 1972 May 14
"Charge to the Senior Class," Amherst College Commencement 1972 Jun 2
"The Meaning of Passive Civil Disobedience" 1972 Sep
Amherst College Opening Convocation 1972 Sep 7
Presentation of Letter to Doshisha University 1972 Sep 7
"Academic Freedom and Civil Disobedience" 1972 Sep 11
"The Curriculum and Politics," Amherst College Parents' Day 1972 Oct 21
"The Committee for Public Justice" 1972 Nov 7-8
Inaugural Dinner of the Committee of Historians for Peace 1973 Jan 20
American Association of Higher Education, panel on the question "Should College Presidents Take Stands on Sensitive Public Issues?" 1973 Mar 12
Amherst College Assembly 1973 Sep 4
Brotherhood Banquet, National Conference of Christians and Jews 1973 May 14
"Charge to the Seniors," Amherst College Commencement 1973 June 1
"The State of the College," Alumni Association Meeting 1973 June 2
President's Report to the Board of Trustees 1973 Sep
Welcome to the Freshmen 1973 Sep 4
Freshman Parents' Day 1973 Sep 4
Amherst College Opening Convocation 1973 Sep 6
General College Meeting, Amherst College 1973 Oct 22
Amherst College Assembly 1973 Nov 12
"Reflection on a Trip to Japan" 1973 Dec 5
"Charge to the Senior Class," Amherst College Commencement 1974 June 7
Amherst College Opening Convocation 1974 Sep 5
Library Cooperation, HILC, Hampshire College 1974 Oct 5
Amherst College Meeting 1974 Nov 4
Remarks by President Ward at the Annual Meeting of the Amherst College Alumni Council 1974 Nov 16
"Charge to the Seniors," Amherst College Commencement 1975 May-June
Amherst College Opening Convocation 1975 Sep 4
"Education for What? The Liberal Arts and the Modern World," Whitman College 1975 Sep 14
Thursday Evening Lecture, [Amherst College] 1975 Oct 2
"Liberal Education and Modern Society," Thursday Evening Lecture, Johnson Chapel 1975 Nov 13
"Landscape of the Mind," Berkshire Community College 1976 Mar 16
Wesleyan University Commencement Address 1976 May 30
"Charge to the Seniors," Amherst College Commencement 1976 Jun 6
"The Revolution and the Meaning of the Humanities," Dartmouth College 1976 Jul 5
"Individualism: Ideal or Ideology?" Colgate University 1976 Aug 4
"The Individual and the Community," Colgate University Convocation 1976 Sep 5
Amherst College Opening Convocation 1976 Sep 9
Address to Montclair Kimberley Academy 1977 Apr 6
Lindbergh: The 50th Anniversary, Little Falls, Minnesota 1977 May 22
"Charge to the Seniors," Amherst College Commencement 1977 May 29
Amherst College Opening Convocation 1977 Sep 8
On Mass-PIRG (Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group) 1977 Sep 20
Memorial Service for Charles W. Cole (AC 1926 and 12th President of Amherst College) 1978 Feb 12
"The CIA and the Academic Community" 1978 Mar 7
"To the Class of 1978," Amherst College Commencement 1978 May-June
Amherst College Opening Convocation 1978 Sep 7
Princeton Conference: "Fiscal Issues in Higher Education" 1978 Oct 27
"South Africa and Investment Policy," excerpt from President's Report to the Campus 1978 Nov 8
"Jacksonian America: A Generation of Interpreters," Southern Historical Association 1978 Nov 10
"Our Day to Day Life Together," excerpt from President's Report to the College 1979 Feb 13
"Charge to the Seniors," Amherst College Commencement 1979 May 27
Comment on "Landscape Studies" by John Brinckerhoff Jackson - annual meeting of the American Studies Association, Minneapolis, Minn. 1979 Sep 28
"Management in the Non-Profit Sector: A Reflective Analysis," Hightower Lecture, Emory University School of Business Administration 1979 Nov 12
"The Scientist As Citizen," National Engineers Week, Engineering Societies of New England, Inc. 1980 Feb 21
"The Common Weal and the Public Trust: Politics and Public Morality" 1980 Oct 21
"Higher Education and Corporate America: Learning from Each Other," address before the Commission for Independent Colleges and Universities of Pennsylvania 1981 Apr 8
Suffolk University Commencement Address 1981 Jun 14
Address before the Massachusetts Municipal Association 1981 Nov 13
"The Public Salary Crisis" 1981 Nov 17
"Television and the Presidential Elections," Harvard University 1982 Jan 29
"The 'Market' and the Future of Humanistic Scholarship" 1982 Feb
"Toqueville and the Meaning of Democracy" - LTV Corporation "Washington Seminar" 1982 Feb 1
"Strategies for Sustaining the Humanities Faculty," AAHE National Conference 1982 Mar 4
Testimony by Ward as President of the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) before the House Appropriations Sub-Committee on Interior and Related Agencies on the Budget of the National Endowment for the Humanities 1982 May 7
"Realistic Visitors," National Association for Foreign Student Affairs 1982 May 24
"How Do We Understand Political Corruption?" - Massachusetts Historical Society 1982 Sep 22
"Jobs or Citizenship: The Community College and the Humanities" - Community College Humanities Association, Hartford, Conn.; 1983
"Can American Studies Develop a Method?" n.p., n.d. n.d.
"The Relationship of Scholarship to Humanities" [1983]
"On Understanding Ourselves" (National Foreign Language Week) [1983]
"The Life of Learning" - Century Club (The Century Association) 1983
Testimony by Ward as President of the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) before the Sub-Committee on Post-Secondary Education of the House Education and Labor Committee (on the budget of the National Endowment for the Humanities); 1983 Mar-May
Testimony by Ward as President of the ACLS before the Sub-Committee on Graduate Education of the National Commission on Student Financial Assistance;
Testimony by Ward as President of the ACLS before the Sub-Committee on Interior and Related Agencies of the House Appropriations Committee
"As Others See Us: How Scholars View University Presses" - speech before the American Association of University Professors 1984 Jul
ACLS - Soviet Academy of Sciences Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences - Opening remarks at plenary session 1984 May
"The Relationship of Scholarship in the Humanities to Society" 1984 Sep
Testimony by Ward as President of the American Council of Learned Societies to the Committee on Labor and Human Resources, U. S. Senate, Sub-Committee on Education, Arts and Humanities, on the re-authorization of the National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities Act of 1965 1985 Jun 20
"What is Education?" Whitman College Commencement Address 1985 May 19
"The Life of Learning," University of Minnesota Commencement Address 1985 May 23
Address before the American Council of Learned Societies (conference on the disposal of hazardous wastes) n.d
"The Humanities and Society" n.d
"The Humanities in a Democratic Culture" n.d
"The Nature of This Community" n.d
"The Sense of History and the Assumptions of American Foreign Policy" n.d.
Talk at Amherst College n.d
"Talk to the Freshman Class" n.d.
Talk to the Parents of Amherst College n.d.
Talk to the Senior Assembly n.d.
Series 2: WRITINGS, 1956-1985
Series 2, WRITINGS, 1956-1985, includes manuscripts, reprints and photocopies of essays and articles published by Ward, as well as a small amount of apparently unpublished material.
"Anarchy and Authority in American Literature" n.d.
"Andrew Jackson: Symbol for an Age," in: The Historian's Workshop: Original Essays by Sixteen Historians (ed. L. P. Curtis, Jr.) [1970]
"Civil Disobedience" 1972
"The Conflict Between Education and Society" for The Educational Register n.d.
Cooper, James Fenimore n.d.
Cozzens, James Gould n.d.
"The Demands of the Office of President" 1972
"Dealing with the Soviets" [1980s?]
"The Function of an Ideal" n.d.
"The Global 2000 Report to the President" 1981 Jan 19
The Idea of a Party System by Richard Hofstadter (book review) n.d.
"Individualism: ideology or utopia?" In: Hastings Center Studies 2:3, pp. 11-22 1974 Sep
"Individualism Today" 1960
"An Injudicious Act" (for The Amherst Student) 1974 Sep 9
Learning, the Humanities and a Democratic Society n.d.
Lindbergh Alone by Brendan Gill (book review) n.d.
Looking Backward" (for The Olio) 1975 Apr 30
[folder number not used] --
MacLeish, Archibald 1983
"The Making of the Amherst Mind" (for Paedeia) 1974 Feb
"The Meaning of Lindbergh's Flight" - research materials, correspondence and manuscript 1958
"The Meaning of Lindbergh's Flight" - research notecards 1958
Mill, Marx and Modern Individualism 1959
Memorandum to Amherst College faculty and students on disciplinary procedures 1972 May 26
"The Organization Society," in: University (a Princeton University magazine) 1960
"'Reciprocity': An Exercise in Definition" 1982 Jul
Red, White and Blue: Men, Books and Ideas in American Culture (photocopies of six chapters) 1969
"Reflection on a Trip to Japan," in: Amherst magazine [1973]
Report of the Delegation on American Studies (sent to National Academy of Sciences) 1985 Mar
"The Revolution and the Meaning of the Humanities," in: Massachusetts Review [1976]
"On Shining Shoes" n.d.
"Some Reflections on Freedom," in: American Scholar 28:4 (Autumn 1959) 1959
Some Reflections on Technology, American Express and Social Values [1980s?]
Steinbeck, John 1956
Stowe, Harriet Beecher - Uncle Tom's Cabin n.d.
Stowe, Harriet Beecher - "Uncle Tom's Cabin as a Matter of Historical Fact," in: Columbia University FORUM IX (Winter 1966), 42-47 n.d.
The University and the Public Interest by A. Bartlett Giamatti (book review) n.d.
Violence and American Liberal Values - manuscript for Yale Law Review 1971
"Who Was Benjamin Franklin?" In: The American Scholar 32:4 (Autumn 1963), 541-553 1963
Series 3: PRINCETON COURSE MATERIALS, 1952-1964
Series 3, PRINCETON COURSE MATERIALS, ca. 1952-1964, consists of syllabi, lecture notes, articles and other materials related to history and English courses taught by Ward at Princeton University.
Auden (English 206) n.d.
Dewey, John (History 308) n.d.
Dreiser, Theodore (English 201 and 309) n.d.
Eliot, T. S. (English 143 and 206) n.d.
Faulkner (English 143) n.d.
Frost, Robert (English 206) n.d.
Hemingway, Ernest (English 143 and 206) n.d.
James, William, and Pragmatism n.d.
Joyce, James (English 143 and 206) n.d.
Yeats, William Butler (English 143 and 206) n.d.
Series 4: MISCELLANEOUS, ca. 1956-1985
Series 4, MISCELLANEOUS, ca. 1956-1985, includes copies of various articles, some correspondence and various fragments and clippings. Of special note here are a 1982 article in the Chronicle of Higher Education about Ward's advocacy for the humanities, and a folder on Ward's opposition to the Century Club's refusal to admit women as members.
Time Magazine issue of June 11, 1956, with cover story featuring Jacques Barzun, "American and the Intellectual: the Reconciliation" 1956
The Amherst Student with articles about Ward's presidency 1979 Apr-May
2 audiotape cassettes: song performed for Ward upon his resignation from the presidency of Amherst College; Trustee party, 6/13/79 1979 Jun
Affidavits by Ward and others in the case of Bertell Ollman vs. John S. Toll, et al., U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, mainly concerning the role of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) 1980 Jun-Aug
Biographical summary - John William Ward ca. 1982
Article in Chronicle of Higher Education: "John William Ward: A Boston 'Street Fighter' Defends the Humanities" 1982 Jul 7
Letter from William Harris, Harvard University 1983 Jul 15
Letters to Century Club, New York City, concerning policy of refusing to admit women as members 1985 Jan-Feb
Photocopy of article by Andrea Rushing, "For Colored Girls, Suicide or Struggle," Massachusetts Review n.d.
Clipping: quote from magazine interview with Dean Daniel Tostenson, Harvard Medical School n.d.
Photocopy of article by Frederick Jackson Turner, "Contributions of the West to American Democracy" n.d.
Supplementary reading list for History 271b, Mr. Weinstein (Princeton University?): "Between the Wars: American Civilization and its Discontents" n.d.
Photocopy of article by Warren Susman, "The Thirties" n.d.