Wilson Martindale Compton was born in Wooster, Ohio and attended the College of Wooster and earned a Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University as well as a law degree. In 1916, he married Helen Harrington, and later had four children together. Compton became President of the State College of Washington in 1945, and remained in that position until 1951. His presidency saw creation of the College Senate, a first Faculty Manual, and establishment by the faculty of general education requirements in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences for all students, as well as honors at graduation. In April of 1951, in the midst of difficult financial times due to state budget cuts, the Board of Regents ended the Compton presidency. After he left WSU, Compton was Director of the International Information Administration (IIA), the forerunner of the United States Information Agency (USIA), within the Department of State. He died in 1967.
The collection consists of one scrapbook covering the period around Compton's inauguration as WSC President, Comptons's lightly annotated copy of the 1947 State Manual of Washington, several pages of primarily photocopied letters and articles relating to Compton and his family, 34 short day books listing significant meetings and events in Compton's life, and three checkbook stubs.
Though chronologically comprehensive, the actual entries in the day books tend to be exceedingly brief, listing where Compton was traveling, who he was meeting with, and daily expenditures, but little more.
The collection is organized by material type, with the scrapbook boxed separately, followed in order by the day books, checkbook stubs, State Manual, and folders of loose papers. Within each folder or subset, items are ordered chronologically.
This collection is open and available for research use.
Copyright restrictions may apply.
[Item Description]
Wilson Compton Day Books and Papers, 1928-1997 (Cage 810)
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
The materials in this collection were gifted to WSU MASC in two accessions in 1996 (MS 96-05, MS 96-11) by Catherine Compton Chase, one of Wilson Compton's daughters. Additional material. relating to the donation of Wilson Compton's portrait, recieved from WSU Office of the President (UA2001-08) was incorporated upon processing.
The materials were jointly processed in June 2014 by University Archivist Mark O'English.
Compton Family Dramatization Cassette Recording, 1947
Claude Simpson Manuscript, “The Compton Years, The State College Of Washington, November 1944-September 1951", 1986
State College of Washington Office of the President: Wilson Compton and Charles Clement French Records, 1948-1956
State College of Washington Office of the President: Wilson M. Compton Records, 1944-1952
Washington State University Office of the President Media, 1937-2006
State College of Washington Office of the President: Letters from Prominent Correspondents, 1897-1951
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.