Title: Louis Carlisle Walker papers Creator: Walker, Louis Carlisle, 1875-1963 Dates: 1881-1963 Extent: 5 linear feet, 1 oversize folder Abstract:
Muskegon, Michigan equipment manufacturer. Correspondence, scrapbooks, printed materials and miscellanea concerning student activities at University of Michigan, the Shaw-Walker Company of Muskegon, Michigan, unemployment during the Depression, State Republican Party affairs, political conservatism, the Muskegon Red Cross, Liberty Bond drives and the United States Shipping Board during World War II, and his activity as an author and patron of conservative writers.
Call number: 86465 Aa 2 Language: The material is in English Repository: Bentley Historical Library
1150 Beal Ave. Ann Arbor, MI
48109-2113 Phone:
734-764-3482 Fax:
734-936-1333 e-mail:
bentley.ref@umich.edu Home Page: http://www.bentley.umich.edu/
Finding aid created by Michigan Historical Collections staff, 1967
Access and Use
Acquisition Information:
The collection was the gift of the Shaw-Walker Co. and members of the Walker family (donor no. 4480), and came to the library in 1967.
Access Restrictions:
The collection is open to research.
To protect fragile audiovisual recordings (such as audio cassettes, film reels, and VHS
tapes), the Bentley Historical Library has a policy of converting them to digital
formats by a professional vendor whenever a researcher requests access. For more
information, please see: http://bentley.umich.edu/research/duplication/.
Copyright:
Donor(s) have not transferred any applicable copyright to the Regents of the University of Michigan. Patrons are responsible for determining the appropriate use or reuse of materials.
Preferred Citation:
[item], folder, box, Louis Carlisle Walker Papers, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan
Biography
Louis C. Walker was an internationally known industrialist and philanthropist from Muskegon, Michigan. He was born January 8, 1875 in Farmington, Michigan and graduated from the University of Michigan in 1896. In 1899, he co-founded with Arch W. Shaw the Shaw-Walker Company, manufacturers of office furniture, equipment, and supplies. He became sole owner of the company in 1902 when Shaw retired. The company, which began with the manufacture of a box to file 3 by 5 cards, grew quickly with an ever expanded product line. These included a payroll system, the 29-inch high office desks, fire-proof file cabinets, and various supplies for libraries.
More than a businessman, Walker played a key role in the economic and civic life of the city of Muskegon. He was officer of the Hackley Union National Bank from 1929 to 1958. He helped to organize the Muskegon Federal Savings and Loan Association, serving as its president until 1948. Interested also in the city's schools, Walker was a member of the Muskegon Board of Education from 1917 to 1927, and was a supporter while on the board of the Hackley Library and the Hackley Art Gallery.
A lifelong Republican, Walker served his party at the local and state level. He was a delegate to the GOP national conventions in 1936 and 1948. As an intimate of Herbert Hoover, Walker was named vice-chairman of the President's job-sharing recovery program in 1932, and in 1949 he was a member of the citizens' committee for reorganization of the executive branch of government which sought adoption of the Hoover Commission report.
Walker's thought son job sharing were in part based on the ideas proposed in his book Distributed leisure wherein he discussed the concept that leisure was a product of industry as well as manufactured items. His work-sharing ideas were intended to alleviate some of the joblessness of the depression years. The concept received wide recognition and Walker was appointed to a national committee to discuss the applicability of job sharing on a national level.
Walker was a member of numerous other civic organizations, including the Greater Muskegon Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Muskegon War Chest campaigns. Among his many gifts to his adopted community was the L.C. Walker Sports Arena. Walker died October 5, 1963.
Collection Scope and Content Note
The Louis C. Walker papers have been divided into the following series: Correspondence, Miscellaneous, and Scrapbooks. The container listing describes more fully the subject content of the Correspondence series. Appended to the finding aid is a selective index to some of the more significant correspondents within the collection. Miscellaneous is an amalgam of collected materials and non-correspondence manuscripts mainly arranged by topics of interest to Walker or relating to organizations or projects in which he was involved. Of note here are materials relating to a strike at his company and various other material pertaining to his ideas on job sharing. The collection is largely an accumulation of personal materials and contains very little on the company which bears his name.
Subject Terms
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the finding aid database and catalog of The Bentley Historical Library/University of Michigan. Researchers desiring additional information about related topics should search the catalog using these headings.
Authors, American -- Michigan.
Conservatism.
Depressions -- 1929 -- Michigan -- Muskegon.
Muskegon (Mich.)
Office equipment and supplies.
Red Cross and Red Crescent -- Michigan -- Muskegon.
Unemployed -- Michigan.
World War, 1914-1918.
World War, 1939-1945.
Job sharing -- Michigan.
Scrapbooks.
American National Red Cross.
Republican Party (Mich.)
Shaw-Walker Company.
United States. Shipping Board.
Walker, Louis Carlisle, 1875-1963.
Alger, Frederick Moulton, 1907-1967.
Avery, Sewell Lee, 1873-1960.
Barnes, Harry Elmer, 1889-1968.
Blodgett, John Wood, 1860-1951.
Brownell, Herbert, 1904-1996.
Brucker, Wilber Marion, 1894-1968.
Bush, Prescott Sheldon, 1895-1972.
Clark, Tom C. (Tom Campbell), 1899-1977.
Dávila, Carlos G., 1887-1955.
Dewey, Thomas E. (Thomas Edmund), 1902-1971.
Dirksen, Everett McKinley.
Donnelley, Thomas Elliott, 1867-1955.
Eisenhower, Dwight D. (Dwight David), 1890-1969.
Engel, Albert Joseph, 1888-1959.
Ferguson, Homer, 1889-1982.
Fitzgerald, Frank Dwight, 1885-1939.
Frank, Jerome, 1889-1957.
George, Walter F. (Walter Franklin), 1878-1957.
Gifford, Walter S. (Walter Sherman), 1885-1966.
Hall, Leonard W. (Leonard Wood), 1900-1979.
Hay, Regina, 1896-
Henry Regnery Company.
Hoover, Herbert, 1874-1964.
Hunt, Roy Arthur, 1881-1966.
Hutchins, Harry B. (Harry Burns), 1847-1930.
Hutchinson, B. E. (B. Edwin), 1888-1961.
Jenner, William E. (William Ezra), 1908-1985.
Kellogg, W. K. (Will Keith), 1860-1951.
Kelly, Harry F. (Harry Francis), 1895-1971.
Lamont, Robert Patterson, 1867-1948.
Lawrence, Howard Cyrus, 1890-1961.
McElroy, Neil H. (Neil Hosler), 1904-1972.
Moley, Raymond L., 1886-
National Taft-for-President Committee.
Perkins, Frances, 1880-1965.
Reece, Carroll, 1889-
Richey, Lawrence, 1885-1959.
Ruthven, Alexander Grant, 1882-1971.
Sargent, Noel Charrett, 1894-
Shakespeare, William, -1950.
Sigler, Kim, 1894-
Sloan, Alfred P. (Alfred Pritchard), 1875-1966.
Summerfield, Arthur Ellsworth, 1899-1972.
Taft, Robert A. (Robert Alphonso), 1889-1953.
Teagle, Walter C. (Walter Clark), 1878-1962.
Utley, Freda, 1898-
Vandenberg, Arthur H. (Arthur Hendrick), 1884-1951.
Van Wagoner, Murray Delos, 1898-
Wallace, DeWitt, 1889-1981.
Wood, Robert E.
Contents List
Request materials for use in the Bentley Library
Container / Location
Title
Correspondence [series]
Box 1
1881-1929
(5 folders)
(subjects concern in part Michigan Union building fund)
Box 1
1930
(2 folders)
(pertains to LCW's book The office and tomorrow's business)
Box 1
1931
(2 folders)
(concerns LCW's book Distributed leisure and U-M alumni matters)
Box 1
1932
(4 folders)
(subjects include reduction of work week in Muskegon, the White House Conference on Unemployment, the formation of a Share the Work Committee, and LCW's election as bank president)
Box 1
1933
(2 folders)
Box 1
1934-1935
(3 folders)
(concerns interest in Republican party affairs and the Literary Digest poll)
Box 1
1936
(4 folders)
(subjects concern Republican National Convention, state politics, and the campaigns of Wilbur Brucker, Albert Engel, and Alfred M. Landon)
Box 1
1937
(2 folders)
(subjects include Republican party fund raising and labor problems, some clippings)
Box 1
1938-1939
(2 folders)
(concerns Republican party fund raising with some anti-labor material)
Box 1
1940
(4 folders)
(concerns Republican party matters and possible presidential nomination of Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg)
Box 1
1941
(5 folders)
(relates to strike of workers at Shaw-Walker Company; also raising of funds for Hackley Hospital)
Box 1
1943
(6 folders)
(concerns War Chest drive, and LCW's quest for political office)
Box 2
1944
(7 folders)
(concerns War Chest drive, and establishment of an Author Fund to promote conservative books)
Box 2
1945
(6 folders)
(relates to resignation from War Chest fund and promotion by the Author Fund of different publications)
Box 2
1946
(4 folders)
(concerns Author Fund and Republican party fund raising)
Box 2
1947
(12 folders)
(concerns Author Fund and article entitled "Our Labor Force" published in American Affairs)
Box 2
1948
(12 folders)
(concerns Republican National Convention and Author Fund)
Box 3
1949
(6 folders)
(relates to Albert Engel's plan to run for governor, and promotion by Author Fund of Carlos Davila's We of the Americas)
Box 3
1950
(4 folders)
(concerns Albert Engel's plans for Republican nomination for governor, and promotion by Author Fund of Authority and the Individual by Bertrand Russell)
Box 3
1951
(4 folders)
(relates to Author Fund and its promotion of The China story by Freda Utely and God and man at Yale by William F. Buckley)
Box 3
1952
(4 folders)
(subjects include Republican party and Robert Taft campaign, also promotion of book by Author Fund of How to keep our liberty by Raymond Moley)
Box 3
1953
(4 folders)
(concerns the Author Fund in part)
Box 3
1954
(4 folders)
(concerns demise of the Author Fund, politics, and current events; includes some clippings)
Box 3
1955-1961
(6 folders)
(concerns politics, books, etc.)
Miscellaneous [series]
Box 3
University of Michigan 1919-1934
Box 3
Reviews, etc. of The office and tomorrow's business 1930-1933
Box 3
Manuscript and reviews, etc., of Distributed leisure 1931-1933
(1 folder, 1 volume)
Box 3
Speeches 1932
Box 3
Speeches and articles written following trip to Europe after World War II
Box 4
Republican Party (state and national) politics 1928-1960
(5 folders)
June 15, 1950, June 19, 1950, June 27, 1950, Nov. 5, 1952
Clark, Tom C. (Thomas Campbell), 1899-1977.
May 12, 1947, May 14, 1947
Davila, Carlos G., 1887-1955.
June 2, 1949, July 27, 1949, Aug. 1, 1949, Aug. 7, 1949, Sept. 28, 1949
Dewey, Thomas E. (Thomas Edmund), 1902-1971.
July 2, 1948
Dirksen, Everett McKinley
June 19, 1951, Aug. 8, 1951
Donnelley, Thomas Elliott, 1867-1955.
1943-1945
Eisenhower, Dwight D. (Dwight David), 1890-1969.
Dec. 29, 1952
Engel, Albert Joseph, 1888-1959.
Nov. 7, 1934 and 1942-1949
Ferguson, Homer, 1889-1982.
Sept. 17, 1942, Sept. 23, 1942, May 14, 1946, Dec. 17, 1948, Dec. 21, 1948, Jan 25, 1951, May 21, 1953, May 23, 1953, May 27, 1953, May 28, 1953, Apr. 9, 1954, May 18, 1954, Oct. 21, 1954, Nov. 12, 1954, Dec. 30, 1954
Fitzgerald, Frank Dwight, 1885-1939.
Nov. 17, 1934, Dec. 20, 1934, Jan. 3, 1935, Jan. 5, 1935, Jan. 29, 1935, Feb. 4, 1935, May 7, 1936, June 13, 1936, June 17, 1936, Dec. 21, 1936
Frank, Jerome, 1889-1957
Oct. 25, 1945
George, Walter F. (Walter Franklin), 1878-1957.
May 6, 1943
Gifford, Walter Sherman, 1885-
Feb. 2, 1932, June 13, 1932, June 24, 1932, June 30, 1932, July 15, 1932, July 26, 1932
Hall, Leonard Wood, 1900-
Oct. 28, 1954, Nov. 2, 1954
Hay, Regina, 1896-
1942, Jan 15, 1943, Jan. 20, 1943, May 20, 1943, Dec. 28, 1943, Jan. 3, 1944, Feb. 12, 1945, Mar. 10, 1948, May 8, 1948
Henry Regnery Company.
1946-1954
Hoffman, Clare Eugene, 1875-
Nov. 9, 1936, Nov. 11, 1936, 1947
Hoover, Herbert, 1874-1964.
Aug. 20, 1932, Aug. 31, 1932, Oct. 4, 1932, Jan. 25, 1944, Feb. 2, 1944, Aug. 3, 1948, Aug. 5, 1948, Aug. 12, 1948, June 30, 1952, June 23, 1953; and in Scrapbook no. 5 the following letters, Sept. 20, 1932, Aug. 31, 1932, Feb. 5, 1940
Jan. 2, 1948, Feb. 27, 1948, Mar. 5, 1948, Mar. 29, 1948, Apr. 19, 1948, Apr. 23, 1948, Feb. 4, 1952, May 13, 1952, May 14, 1952, June 4, 1952, June 7, 1952, June 9, 1952, June 13, 1952, June 17, 1952, June 18, 1952, June 19, 1952, July 28, 1952, Aug. 8, 1952
Perkins, Frances, 1880-1965.
July 7, 1930, Mar. 9, 1933
Reece, Carroll, 1899-
1945-1948
Richey, Lawrence, 1885-1959.
Jan. 6, 1933, Jan. 30, 1933
Ruthven, Alexander Grant, 1882-
Apr. 23, 1931, May 2, 1931, Dec. 9, 1931
Sargent, Noel Gharrett, 1894-
June 10, 1932, July 17, 1947
Shakespeare, William, Jr., d.1950.
1943, 1945
Sigler, Kim, b. 1894.
June 18, 1947, Feb. 27, 1948, June 29, 1948, July 1, 1948
Sloan, Alfred P. (Alfred Prichard), 1875-1966.
Jan. 25, 1944, Jan. 31, 1944, Feb. 28, 1944, May3, 1945, June 18, 1945, June 29, 1945
Summerfield, Arthur Ellsworth, 1899-1972.
1943-1946, 1948, 1952, Apr. 23, 1953, June 29, 1955
Taft, Robert A. (Robert Alphonso), 1889-1953.
Apr. 28, 1947, July 7, 1948, July 28, 1948
Teagle, Walter Clark, 1876-
Aug. 5, 1932, Aug. 8, 1932, Aug. 9, 1932, Aug. 11, 1932, Aug. 12, 1932, Aug. 13, 1932, Aug. 15, 1932, Sept. 26, 1932, Nov. 7, 1932, Dec. 6, 1932, Dec. 7, 1932, Jan. 3, 1933, Apr. 1933, May 1933, July 7, 1933, July 11, 1933, May 7, 1945, May 12, 1945, May 25, 1945
Utely, Freda, 1898-
1948-1953
Vandenberg, Arthur H. (Arthur Hendrick), 1884-1951.
Oct. 19, 1934, Nov. 7, 1934, May 11, 1936, Nov. 11, 1936, Dec. 28, 1939, Jan. 4, 1940, May 15, 1940, May 20, 1940, May 24, 1940, May 27, 1940, June 13, 1940, Sept. 30, 1942, Feb. 4, 1943, Jan. 16, 1945, Jan. 19, 1945, May 29, 1946, Aug. 22, 1946, Jan. 26, 1948, July 2, 1948, Aug. 5, 1948, Nov. 17, 1949, Nov. 21, 1949
Van Wagoner, Murray Delos, 1898-
Jan. 5, 1943
Wallace, DeWitt, 1889-1981.
Apr. 4, 1945, Apr. 11, 1945, Apr. 28, 1945, May 1, 1945, May 2, 1945, May 12, 1945, June 26, 1945, June 29, 1945, Oct. 22, 1946, Jan. 11, 1947, Jan. 21, 1947, Aug. 3, 1949
