Guide to the Livingston Farrand Papers,
1921-1939

Livingston Farrand was born in 1867 in Newark, New Jersey. He graduated from Princeton in 1888, and took an M. D. degree from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. He was an instructor in psychology at Columbia, served as Executive Secretary of the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis, and was chairman of the American Red Cross. In 1914 he became president of the University of Colorado, and in 1921 was inaugurated as the fourth president of Cornell University, a position he held until 1937. Farrand died on 8 November 1939.

The Livingston Farrand Papers consist of correspondence, office files, reports, letters of transmittal, notices of appointment to committees, scrapbooks, cross reference sheets, clippings, diplomas, and certificates deriving from his presidency of Cornell University from 1921 to 1937. The collection consists chiefly of correspondence, pertaining largely to the routine administration of the President's Office and the University. Subjects include student and faculty issues, student health, athletics, Cornell United Religious Work including arrangements for Sage Chapel preachers, alumni affairs, fraternities, the Cornell-in-China Program, and the University Faculty; also, relations with and the administration of the Law School, the College of Arts and Sciences, the Cornell University Medical College. the College of Engineering, Cornell University Library, the Office of the Comptroller, ROTC, the New York State College of Agriculture, and the New York State Veterinary College, and relations with New York Hospital, the city of Ithaca (N.Y.), the United States Office of Education, the New York State Department of Education, the American Council on Education, the Carnegie Corporation and Carnegie Foundation, the Heckscher Research Council, and the United States War Department.

Other topics include instances of student malfeasance and scholastic failure, racial discrimination and anti-semitism on campus, concern with communist influence in the educational community, and Farrand's personal interests in eugenics and public health. Major correspondents include Arthur Allen, Howard E. Babcock, Carl Becker, Romeyn Berry, Cornelius Betten, Charles Bostwick, Charles K. Burdick, Foster M. Coffin, L. M. Dennis, R. Louise Fitch, Harold Flack, Frank E. Gannett, William A. Hammond, Frank H. Hiscock, Carl E. Ladd, Albert R. Mann, Archie Palmer, George Rogalsky, Flora Rose, Robert Treman, Allan H. Treman, Myron C. Taylor, Martha van Rensselaer, George F. Warren, and J. DuPratt White.

Includes collection #3-5-1353.

The Livingston Farrand papers consist of a single alphabetical arrangement. University offices, departments, and administrative divisions are filed by the name of the incumbent. The folder headings are arranged according to natural alphabetical prefixes, ie. A-ACE, R-ROW, etc, or according to subject heading, ie. American Council, or subject heading and alphabetical prefix, ie. Cornell University Medical College CA-F.

The Index contains only selected subjects and correspondents.