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University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library

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Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2113, USA
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Fred Newton Scott papers, 1860-1931

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Summary

Creator:
Scott, Fred Newton.
Abstract:
Professor of rhetoric and journalism at University of Michigan. Correspondence concerning his professional activities, particularly his interest in linguistics and English language and speech, and papers, 1917-1918, concerning war issues course at the University, manuscripts of articles and speeches, diary, 1903-1909, day-books, 1903-1922, and miscellaneous notebooks and journals; also photographs.
Extent:
3 linear feet
1 oversize folder
Language:
English
Call Number:
86145 Aa 2; Ac
Authors:
Finding aid created by Mary Arnheim

Background

Scope and Content:

The Fred Newton Scott collection includes correspondence, drafts of articles and reviews, diaries, daybooks, some personal materials, and photographs.

The correspondence is the core of the collection, consisting mainly of incoming letters to Scott from friends, colleagues, students, publishers, editors, authors, and learned societies. The letters deal mainly with literary and language questions and with Scott's lecture engagements, book reviewing, and other writings. The correspondence, arranged chronologically, is between Scott and four categories of individuals: Students; Journalists and publishers; Professional associates; and University colleagues and other.

I. Students

The wide-ranging influence of Scott's philosophy and teaching is amply illustrated through letters from his former students. They kept him informed of how they were putting his principles into practice as journalists or in academic teaching, and sought his advice on further developments in their work. The accomplishments of women students who had studied with him are particularly noteworthy. Gertrude Buck, whose dissertation on metaphor was considered a definitive study at the time, became a professor at Vassar College. In 1898, she had received the first Ph.D. in Rhetoric awarded by the University of Michigan. Other women students who went on to distinguished careers included Marjorie Nicolson, English professor and dean of Smith College; Helen Mahin, professor of journalism, University of Kansas; Ada Snell, Wellesley College; and Phyllis Povah Drayton, actress. Georgia Jackson was one of the first women to serve on the editorial staff of The American Boy magazine and later became editor of the Literary Digest. Other students of Scott were Frank Mitchell, Katherine Reed, Alice D. Snyder, Katherine Taylor, and Joseph M. Thomas.

Perhaps the most locally prominent among men graduates was Lee A. White who became editor of The Detroit News. Scott also numbered among his accomplished students, Avery Hopwood, playwright and donor of the Hopwood prizes; Wilfred B. Shaw, author and editor, and Director of Alumni Relations at the University of Michigan; Paul Osborn, playwright; Edgar A. and Paul Scott Mowrer, journalists; Joseph Thomas, Dean of the Senior College, University of Minnesota; James O. Bennett, journalist, The Chicago Tribune and Walter A. Donnelly, editor and Director of the University of Michigan Press.

II. Journalists and Publishers

As Scott developed courses in journalism he called on editors and publishers, some of whom had been his students, to lecture on the practical side of newspaper work. Much of this correspondence concerns arrangements for, and contents and evaluations of, these lectures. Since he was also concerned with improving journalistic writing, some letters deal with projects he undertook in cooperation with editors to raise the standards and styles of reportorial work. These professionals included James O. Bennett, Edmund Booth, George Booth, Frank Cobb, J.W. Cunliffe, Willard B. Gore, W.W. Harris, Roy Howard, Frank G. Kane, James M. Lee, Louis Ling, Milton A. McRae, C.M. Marstow, Robert Mountsier, Edgar Ansel Mowrer, Paul Scott Mowrer, Chases S. Osborn, E.G. Pipp, Arthur C. Pound, James Schermerhorn, James E. Scripps, Edwin E. Slosson, and Lee A. White.

III. Professional associates

Many of the letters in F. N. Scott's papers deal with his work on the National Council of Teachers of English and other professional organizations in which he played an active role. These are scattered throughout the collection but are not listed here. The largest amount of correspondence is that related to his interest in setting up an academy for the improvement of the English language. A British organization, the Society for Pure English, had been founded in 1913. In early 1922, a committee was organized, with Scott as chairman, to work with a British committee consisting of Robert Bridges, Henry Newbolt, and J. Dover Wilson, to form an international academy of English. The members of the American committee were: Henry Seidel Canby, Charles M. Gayley, Charles H. Grandgent, John L. Lowes, and John M. Manley. Other correspondents within organizations with whom Scott corresponded included John W. Bright, C.G. Hoag, F.P. Keppel, and Louise Pound. There also letters exchanged with Henry Ford.

IV. University colleagues and others

Included here are letters of Professor Thomas E. Rankin dealing with departmental affairs when he was acting chairman of the department in Scott's absence, and also his reactions to the later merging of the department with the Department of English. Aside from departmental and university concerns, the collection includes extensive correspondence with Jean Paul Slusser who became director of the Museum of Art following a long career teaching design and painting at the university. There is also correspondence with Regent Lucius Hubbard who shared Scott's interest in good English usage and in rare books. In addition, Scott was attracted to the health teachings of John Harvey Kellogg, stayed at his sanitarium in Battle Creek, and exchanged letters with him regarding his health regimen. Other correspondents include John Effinger, Peter Monro Jack, Clarence Cook Little, and Charles E. Whitman.

Biographical / Historical:

Fred Newton Scott was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1860, but the family later moved to Battle Creek, Michigan, where he attended local schools before entering the University of Michigan. After completing his education at the university, Scott (B.A. 1884, M.A. 1888, PH.D. 1889) began a long and distinguished career on the faculty of the university. His interest in upholding high standards of English usage and the teaching of sound writing principles led to the founding of the Department of Rhetoric in 1903, which he headed until his retirement in 1927.

As early as 1890-91 he had offered a course in "Rapid Writing". This developed into Course 13, "Newspaper Writing; Theory and Practice," offered in the new department, and marks the beginning of the study of journalism at the University of Michigan and in the nation. Under his leadership the department became a leader in the teaching of creative writing, journalism, and criticism.

When, in 1897, the Board of Regents established a university news service for the purpose of getting out news of university activities to the people of the state, Scott was appointed University News Editor. Under his direction, the special news section in the Michigan Alumnus was reprinted and distributed to state newspaper editors and legislators. Thus began the university's first news service program.

From 1903 to 1927, Scott was chairman of the Board in Control of Student Publications and was credited with helping many generations of student editors, some of whom went on to distinguished careers as newspaper editors and publishers.

Fred N. Scott's professional activities were national and international in scope. He was a member of the North Central Association and the American Association of Teachers of Journalism, and served as president of the National Council of Teachers of English and of the Modern Language Association. He was also a member of the English Association of Great Britain and actively worked to organize an American branch of the Society for Pure English.

After his retirement in 1927, Scott and his second wife, Georgia Jackson (a former student), moved to Tucson, Arizona. Retirement did not diminish his interest in promoting good English usage. He actively lent support to the teaching of rhetoric at the University of Arizona and gave the department there $2,000 to fund a student prize for excellence in writing.

In the spring of 1930 the University of Michigan Board of Regents voted to grant Scott an honorary degree. However, his failing health did not permit him to travel and he had to decline the honor, as the degree is not granted in absentia. He died on May 29, 1931.

Acquisition Information:
The bulk of the collection was the gift of Mrs. Fred Newton Scott (donor no. 1283 ) and came to the library in 1940-1941.
Accruals:

No further additions to the papers are expected.

Rules or Conventions:
Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)

Subjects

Click on terms below to find any related finding aids on this site.

Subjects:
Journalists -- Michigan -- Ann Arbor.
Language and languages.
American newspapers.
World War, 1914-1918 -- Education and the war.
World War, 1914-1918 -- Michigan -- Ann Arbor.
Dwellings -- Michigan -- Ann Arbor.
Formats:
Diaries.
Photographs.
Silhouettes.
Names:
Modern Language Association.
University of Michigan. Dept. of Journalism.
University of Michigan. Dept. of Rhetoric.
University of Michigan -- Faculty.
University of Michigan -- Football.
Detroit Municipal League.
Society for Pure English.
Scott, Fred Newton, 1860-1931.
Angell, James Burrill, 1829-1916.
Babbitt, Irving, 1865-1933.
Baker, Ray Stannard, 1870-1946.
Bishop, William Warner, 1871-1955.
Booth, Edmund Wood, 1866-1927.
Booth, George G. (George Gough), 1864-
Bridges, Robert Seymour, 1844-1930.
Bryant, John Howard, 1807-1902.
Canby, Henry Seidel, 1878-1961.
Catlin, George B. (George Byron), 1857-1934.
Cobb, Frank Irving, 1869-1923.
Cunliffe, John William, 1865-1946.
Denney, Joseph Villiers, 1862-1935.
Dewey, John, 1859-1952.
Douglas, Lloyd C. (Lloyd Cassel), 1877-1951.
Effinger, John Robert, 1869-1933.
Ford, Henry, 1863-1947.
Grant, Claudius Buchanan, 1835-1921.
Guest, Edgar A. (Edgar Albert), 1881-1959.
Harriman, Karl Edwin, 1875-1935.
Hopwood, Avery, 1882-1928.
Hubbard, Lucius L. (Lucius Lee), 1849-1933.
Jordan, David Starr, 1851-1931.
Kahn, Albert, 1869-1942.
Kellogg, John Harvey, 1852-1943.
Kelsey, Francis W. (Francis Willey), 1858-1927.
Knox, Frank, 1874-1944.
Koch, Theodore Wesley, 1871-1941.
Little, Clarence C. (Clarence Cook), 1888-
Miller, Edwin Lillie, 1868-1934.
Murfin, James Orin, 1875-1940.
Nevins, Allan, 1890-1971.
Newbolt, Henry John, 1862-1938.
Osborn, Chase S. (Chase Salmon), 1860-
Pattengill, Albert Henderson, 1842-1906.
Perry, Stuart Hoffman, 1874-1957.
Phelps, William Lyon, 1865-1943.
Pound, Arthur, 1884-1966.
Scripps, James E. (James Edmund), 1835-1906.
Shelley, Rebecca, 1887-1984.
Slosson, Edwin Emery, 1865-1929.
Staebler, Neil, 1905-2000.
Stoddard, Francis Hovey, 1847-1936.
Trueblood, Thomas C. (Thomas Clarkson), 1856-1951.
Wenley, R. M. (Robert Mark), 1861-1929.
White, Lee A., 1886-
Wilcox, Delos F. (Delos Franklin), 1873-1928.
Places:
Ann Arbor (Mich.) -- Dwellings.

Contents

Using These Materials

Info for Visitors

How to Request

Ordering Reproductions

Download PDF Finding Aid
RESTRICTIONS:

The collection is open to research.

USE & PERMISSIONS:

Copyright is held by the Regents of the University of Michigan but the collection may contain third-party materials for which copyright is not held. Patrons are responsible for determining the appropriate use or reuse of materials.

PREFERRED CITATION:

[item], folder, box, Fred Newton Scott papers, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan

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Collection

Fred Newton Scott papers, 1860-1931
Call Number 86145 Aa 2; Ac
Total components 80
Last indexed 2023-08-08