Converted to EAD3 : Encoded Archival Description (EAD), Version 3 : Release: 1.1.1 : Release Date: 2019-12-16. Validating against latest version of schema.
Contact information: https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.contact
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm89077597
Collection material in English
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the LC Catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically.
The papers of Frederick D. Patterson, African American educational administrator and advocate, were donated to the Library of Congress by Patterson's son, Frederick D. Patterson II, in 1988, 1989, and 1991.
The Patterson Papers were processed by Michael Spangler in 1991. The finding aid was revised in 2010. The finding aid was updated in 2023 by Maria Farmer as part of a division-wide remediation project by the Inclusive Description Working Group.
Photographs have been transferred to the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library where they are identified as part of these papers.
The Patterson Papers form part of a sizable group of materials in the Manuscript Division relating to Black educators and the African American community. The Division's Booker T. Washington Papers, Moton Family Papers, and Frederick D. Patterson Papers constitute an important group of research materials relating to the first three presidents of Tuskegee Institute. The Moton Family Papers include correspondence between Patterson and Robert Russa Moton during the 1930s.
Copyright in the unpublished writings of Frederick D. Patterson in these papers and in other collections of papers in the custody of the Library of Congress has been dedicated to the public.
The papers of Frederick D. Patterson are open to research. Researchers are advised to contact the Manuscript Reading Room prior to visiting. Many collections are stored off-site and advance notice is needed to retrieve these items for research use.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, Frederick D. Patterson, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The papers of Frederick Douglass Patterson (1901-1988) span the years 1861-1988, with the largest group of materials dating from the period after 1965. The collection is composed of the personal papers of Patterson, third president of Tuskegee Institute and founder of the United Negro College Fund. They largely reflect his career following his retirement from Tuskegee in 1953 and highlight his efforts to preserve and develop historically Black institutions of higher learning. The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence, reports, organizational records, printed materials, writings and speeches, notes, clippings, memorabilia, and other miscellaneous items.
The Correspondence series of the Patterson Papers contains separate groupings of personal and general correspondence. Included in the personal correspondence are felicitations regarding Patterson's election to the presidency of Tuskegee Institute in 1935, his White House Private Sector Initiative Commendation in 1982, and his receipt of the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Ronald Reagan in 1987. A few family letters from the early 1930s are also contained in this portion of the file. Items in the general correspondence include communications with organizations and individuals concerned with education, educational administration, business, fund-raising, and government.
The greatest concentration of materials in the Patterson Papers is found in the Subject File. The papers in this series cluster chiefly around Patterson's association with the Robert Russa Moton Memorial Institute and the College Endowment Funding Plan. Established by Patterson in the late 1950s in memory of his father-in-law and second president of Tuskegee Institute, the Robert Russa Moton Memorial Institute provided financial planning and training for historically Black colleges. Operating under the auspices of the institute was the College Endowment Funding Plan, devised by Patterson to endow small, poorly financed Black colleges, thereby securing their long-term stability. The file pertaining to the College Endowment Funding Plan traces the development of this program throughout the 1970s and 1980s, focusing on the passage of legislation that established federal matching grants for Black colleges. The materials document Patterson's work with educational administrators, financial officers, and government officials. Prominent correspondents include Caspar W. Weinberger, Willa B. Player of the United States Office of Education, and Congressman, later Senator, Paul Simon.
Other papers in the Subject File relate to the latter years of Patterson's tenure as president of the Phelps-Stokes Fund, a foundation devoted to improving housing and educational opportunities for African Americans and other disadvantaged people. Franklin H. Williams, Patterson's successor, is a prominent correspondent in the papers relating to the fund. A key file pertains to education in Africa, including a handwritten journal of Patterson's travels through Nigeria in 1953-1954 inspecting educational resources on behalf of the International Bank Commission. Materials relating to Tuskegee Institute in the Subject File reflect Patterson's continued interest in the school and include extensive correspondence with his successor as president, Luther H. Foster. Also present are brief items relating to aviation and low-cost housing at Tuskegee, as well as a sizable file concerning the institute's veterinary medicine school. Patterson's interest in Robert Russa Moton and botanist George Washington Carver is also exhibited in the Subject File. A typescript draft of a biography of Moton is among various biographical materials found in the file. Patterson served as executor of Carver's estate and participated in various memorials recognizing his achievements. The file contains copies of Patterson's speeches honoring Carver. Also included are transcripts of oral history interviews with Patterson conducted in 1980 and 1981 for the Phelps-Stokes Fund and the United Negro College Fund.
The Clippings File consists of newspaper clippings and magazine articles from the late 1930s through the 1970s, which Patterson annotated and organized according to a detailed classification system. Topics treated include civil rights, desegregation, regional education, the South, higher education, philanthropy, and other related issues. Also included are a significant group of draft and printed copies of Patterson's writings and speeches, as well as notes relating to various topics. Other writings and speeches not included in this classification scheme are located in the Miscellany series.
The Miscellany series holds, among other materials, a collection of personal clippings relating to Patterson's career and his work with the College Endowment Funding Plan. Included also are draft and print copies of speeches and writings by Patterson, as well as a small group of his published articles among the printed matter. Other materials include certificates, biographical data, telegrams, and memorabilia.
Prominent or frequent correspondents include Robert L. Clayton, Nathaniel Sextus Colley, E. Roland Harriman, Patricia Harris, Matthew Jenkins, Maida Springer Kemp, Benjamin E. Mays, Henry Lee Moon, Ponchitta Anne Pierce, Hollis F. Price, and Robert Ogden Purves.
The collection is arranged in four series:
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm89077597
Personal and general correspondence, with attached and related matter, organized into separate groupings and alphabetically therein by name of person or organization or by type of material.
Chronologically arranged within folders.
Correspondence, reports, memoranda, circular letters, minutes, financial records, printed materials, occasional writings and speeches, notes, and miscellaneous items.
Organized alphabetically by topic or name of organization and within these headings by subject or type of material. Chronologically arranged within folders.
Newspaper clippings, pamphlets, and articles culled from academic journals and popular magazines. Also included are a number of draft and printed copies of Patterson's writings and speeches located primarily under the headings "Authors" and "Frederick D. Patterson" and scattered elsewhere in the series under various topics. Patterson's original subject classification scheme has largely been maintained.
Materials are arranged alphabetically first by broad subject headings and then narrower ones. A list of the subheadings with their assigned numerical classifications is located at the beginning of the first folder of each broad heading. Also, a master index is located in the first folder of the series. Items in the "Authors" and "Public Figures" folders are not filed by the original classification number but have been rearranged alphabetically by name. Similarly, the "Frederick D. Patterson" file under the "Authors" heading has been rearranged so that the materials are filed chronologically.
Draft and printed copies of speeches and writings, personal clippings, printed materials, notes, land and financial documents, biographical materials, certificates and awards, and assorted memorabilia.
Arranged alphabetically by topic, name of organization, or type of material.