Frank R. Reade Papers, 1841-1989 | Valdosta State University Archives

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."

Dr. Jere (pronounced "Jerry") Madison Pound was the second president of Georgia State Womans College. He was appointed in July 1933 by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, and served only until May 1934, due to illness.  Dr. Pound was born in Liberty Hill, Georgia, in 1864.  He received an A.B. from the University of Georgia in 1884 and an honorary LL.D. from the University of Georgia in 1915.  He married Ada Murphey in 1890, and they had five sons:  Murphey, Jere Madison Jr. (d. 1910 at age 14), Edwin Aldine, Merritt Bloodworth and William Stokely; and three daughters: Willie Greene, Ida, and Lucy Floyd.

Dr. Pound had an extensive career as a Georgia educator and administrator, beginning as a teacher at the Boys High School in Atlanta (1884-85).  He was the principal of the Fort Valley (Ga.) Institute (1885-87), then president of the Gordon Institute in Barnesville (1887-96 and 1897-1901). During 1896-97, he was the director of the Normal Department at Georgia Normal and Industrial College in Milledgeville.  He was the superintendent of the Macon and Bibb County public schools (1901-04), and was briefly the superintendent of the East Florida Seminary (1904-05).  Pound then returned to his former job as director of the Normal Department at Georgia Normal and Industrial College (1905-08).  He was the Georgia State Superintendent of Schools (1908-10), and during this same time, was also the president of the Gordon Institute until 1912.  Dr. Pound was then elected president of the State Normal School in Athens, later named Georgia State Teachers' College, and held that position for 21 years (1912-33) until his reassignment as president of  GSWC in July 1933.

Pound came to GSWC during a rough period in the school's history.  However, he did not let lingering attitudes affect his plans to further the College.  After visiting Pound and touring the campus in December 1933, the visiting committee of the Board of Regents made the following report: "All the clouds are swept away and the local people are in full accord with Dr. Pound's management."  Pound had the Regents' full support:  "Your committee voices the hope that President Pound will remain at the helm of Georgia State Womans College for many years."  Sadly, this was not to be. Although he had goals to continue the development of the College, Pound struggled with an unknown illness, and had to work College business around surgery, recuperation and doctor's visits. Nevertheless, during his short tenure, he aggressively pursued and laid the groundwork for major projects, including building a dining hall and auditorium, paving campus roads, and adding a home economics course to the curriculum.  The dining hall and auditorium projects were approved by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to be done with federal public works funds. Pound worked with University System Chancellor Philip Weltner on having the state pave campus roads.  Pound also worked closely with Weltner and other University System presidents to standardize routine processes, such as registration, and to establish specific curricula within System schools.

Pound endured at least two surgeries during his presidency, and neither seemed to positively affect his condition. In April 1934, he wrote Chancellor Weltner and it gave him "more pain than any I have ever written before in my life" to ask for a two-month leave of absence (May-June).  Frank Robertson Reade was brought in to substitute for Pound during this time. However, Pound's health declined rapidly, and he returned to his home in Athens, where he died on February 8, 1935.