This collection is indexed by subject headings. Scroll down to Digital Objects (not Subjects) and choose from list of headings.

The papers are divided into five series: Personal and Biographical, Board of Regents, Faculty, General Correspondence, and Special Topics.  Each series title below contains a link to a table of records for that series.

Personal and Biographical, Boxes 1-9:  This series includes materials on Frank and Jean Reade, their personal lives, his career and education prior to GSWC, personal correspondence, and papers by and about his relatives. These papers include manuscripts and published works by Reade and by his father Willoughby Reade, a manuscript of a published Civil War diary by Frank Smith Robertson, and a several scrapbooks of photographs, family history, and important events.  This series includes personal correspondence with Edith Bolling Wilson, Eleanor Roosevelt, Harry Stillwell Edwards, Lamar Dodd, Albert Einstein, Walter George, Jim Thorpe, and other notables of the day.  Mike Nelson, an animator at Disney Studios maintained a long correspondence with Reade which he illustrated with original drawings.  Numerous photographs are in this series, and realia such as Reade's baby curls, his yearbooks from Episcopal High School and University of Virginia.  Wills, Deeds and other official documents from the Reade-Robertson families are included.  Journals and books, some featuring Willoughby Reade's work are part of this series.  This series has earliest and latest items, with many in the early 1900's.



Board of Regents, Boxes 10-14:  The Board of Regents series includes correspondence between Reade and the various Chancellors and Regents during his tenure as president.  It's dates are 1933-1948.  Correspondents include Chancellor Philip Weltner, Chancellor S.V. Sanford, Raymond R. Paty, W. Wilson Noyes, L.R. Siebert, Judson Ward, Board of Regents, A. Hollis Edens, H.T. Healy, Pope Brock, Sandy Beaver, J.C. Dixon, and Dr. George Works.  Topics of interest in this series include the WPA projects at GSWC: Senior Hall (now Reade Hall), the Pool, the Library (now Powell Hall), and the Log Cabin.  During Reade's tenure the curriculum was examined and overhauled to create GSWC as a liberal arts college, and this series includes information about this study and results of the re-organization.  The college's 25th anniversary and Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt's dedication of the library also appear in this correspondence.  Most of the correspondence, however, deals with the "nuts and bolts" of running the college.



Faculty, Boxes 15-18:  The faculty series includes contracts and correspondence with GSWC faculty members.  Many of the papers in this series were actually generated during the tenures of Drs. Powell and Pound, but evidently in the interest of continuity of the files they were kept together.  Use these files for all faculty members from the opening of the school in 1913 to the end of Reade's tenure in 1946.  Most files contain contracts only; however, faculty members who had served for a length of time, or who were somehow noteworthy or notorious had correspondence in their files.  Correspondents of note included Annie Powe Hopper, J. A. Durrenberger, J. R. Dusenbury, Marian Farber, Evelyn Deariso, Iva Chandler, Camm Campbell, Lena Hawks, Beatrice Nevins, Gertrude Gilmer Odum, Edith and Lillian Patterson, Mildred Price, Harold Punke,  Louise Sawyer, James R. Stokes, Caroline Parrish Thomas, James F. Wood.  This series also contains notes on the Curriculum committee and the changes recommended for each department.



General Correspondence, Boxes 19-21:  The general correspondence series contains communications ranging from letters with and about Eleanor Roosevelt to complaints to the local cab company about driving too fast.  The folders are arranged alphabetically by correspondent, and within the correspondence, chronologically.  Corresponents and topics of note include, Vladimir Nabokov, Eleanor Roosevelt, Willoughby Reade, the Whitehead Camellia Trail, Drexel Park, a kitchen fire, Reade's illness, WAAC recruiting on campus, the Carnegie Foundation, Harley Langdale and the American Turpentine Farmers Association, and Reade's manuscripts.  There is extensive correspondence with Cartter Lupton, an anonymous benefactor of the school during this period.  The correspondence described as "various business and personal correspondence" ranges from notes to students, faculty and fellow administrators at other schools to invitations, thank you letters, and personal notes.



Special Topics, Boxes 22-31:  This series is the longest and most involved of any in the collection.  Most of this series is correspondence, although speeches and papers, newspaper clippings, photographs, reports and programs are included.  Topics range from the college's WPA building program and it's curriculum revisions to information about food costs, ration books, and raises for the kitchen staff.  There are many correspondents of note: Eleanor Roosevelt; Thomas Munro, who worked on revising the curriculum; prominent southerners such as Cason Calloway approached on behalf of Episcopal High School, Vladimir Nabokov, and Ralph McGill of the Atlanta Journal /Constitution. This series includes correspondence with the president and other administrators of almost every college in the state.  Here also, correspondence illustrates his activities with many organizations and associations related to higher education, from the Association of Georgia Colleges-of which Reade was an officer, to The Association of American Universities.  His work with the War Bonds program and area leadership for the Georgia State Chapter for the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis and March of Dimes are here.  This series also includes correspondence with Georgia's governor's: Mr. & Mrs. M.E. Thompson, Ellis Arnall, Eugene Talmadge, and E.D. Rivers.  Correspondence relating to Budgeting, the campus building program, GSWC's relation to Moody Field, and to Emory Junior College provide insight on decisions of the time.  Valdosta in World War II is amply illustrated by letters on topics from food to international students to travel restrictions.  Reade's typical humor is evident in his attitude towards war-time travel restrictions: "Personally, I feel we would all do a lot better if we stayed at home and tried to solve some of our own problems, rather than all meeting somewhere and hearing some fellow make a speech about his problems."--FRR, 11/2/42. Of interest in the area of race relations in South Georgia are his letters to various historically black colleges on behalf of the children of GSWC workers.  Evidently there was a fund, administered by the president, that paid for these students to go to college.   Reade's and the college's work with federal agencies and programs such as the WPA, the National Youth Administration, and the Public Works Administration are amply documented here.  According to Reade, he was "the only man in captivity who has been asked to hurry--not once, but twice, by WPA."