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COLLECTION Identifier: HUG 4607.xx

Papers of Frederick George Nichols

Overview

Frederick George Nichols (1878-1954) was professor of education at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education from 1922 until his retirement in 1944. His papers contain correspondence, teaching materials, manuscripts of writings and speeches, and reports, chiefly documenting his professional activities while at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The collection also includes a corrected copy of Roy E. Anderson’s Stanford University doctoral dissertation, Contributions of Frederick G. Nichols to the Field of Business Education.

Dates

  • Creation: circa 1903-1963 and undated

Creator

Researcher Access

The Papers of Frederick George Nichols are open for research with the following exceptions: Personnel and student records are closed for 80 years. Restrictions are noted at the series level. Requires further review by the archivist; please see reference staff for details.

Extent

22 cubic feet (63 document boxes)

The Papers of Frederick George Nichols contain correspondence, teaching materials, manuscripts of writings and speeches, and reports, chiefly documenting his professional activities at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The correspondence, mostly arranged alphabetically, relates to Nichols’s professional life, including some letters pertaining to the National Clerical Ability Tests, which he developed throughout the 1930s. The collection also contains notes and manuscripts of his writings, articles, speeches, reports, and memoranda. Nichols’s teaching materials, include lecture notes, course outlines, and reading lists. A corrected copy of Roy E. Anderson’s 1963 Stanford University doctoral dissertation, Contributions of Frederick G. Nichols to the Field of Business Education, as well as related correspondence by Anderson and others regarding Nichols and his papers, is also found in the collection.

Biographical note on Frederick George Nichols

Frederick George Nichols (1878-1954) was professor of education at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education from 1922 until his retirement in 1944. He graduated from the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary in New York in 1899, the Rochester Business Institute in 1904, then briefly studied law at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Nichols’s first teaching position was at Montpelier Seminary in Vermont.

He served as the State Supervisor of Commercial Education for the New York State Educational Department from 1909 to 1911, then held a position as Director of Business Education for the Rochester, New York public school system. In 1918, he became Director of Commercial Education for the State of Pennsylvania.

In 1922, he joined the faculty of the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University, where he remained until his retirement in 1944. In acknowledgement of his many contributions to the field, Harvard awarded him with an honorary Master of Arts degree. In 1937, Nichols developed the National Clerical Ability Tests to measure the skills of entry level office workers. Throughout his career, he authored and edited over thirty books on business education. Nichols died in 1954.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged in nine series:

  1. Correspondence, alphabetical files, 1919-1942 (HUG 4607.5)
  2. Correspondence, 1924-1940 (HUG 4607.10)
  3. Correspondence and papers relating to the National Clerical Ability Tests, 1938-1942 (HUG 4607.15)
  4. Correspondence and related papers, circa 1903-1954 (HUG 4607.17)
  5. Speeches and articles, 1931-1942 (HUG 4607.20)
  6. Form letters and processed notes (HUG 4607.22)
  7. Lectures and speech notes (HUG 4607.25)
  8. Course outlines, examinations, and reading lists (HUG 4607.35)
  9. Contributions of Nichols to the field of business education by R.E. Anderson [dissertation], circa 1963 (HUG 4607.50)

Acquisition

Specific acquisition information, when available, is noted at the series level:

  1. Transferred from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, February 5, 1946
  2. Transferred from the Fresno State College Library, November 1971

Related Materials

The Harvard University Archives also holds:

  1. Cuttings and reprints from various periodicals by Frederick George Nichols, 1919-1953 (HUH 606)
In the UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections:
  1. The Frederick George Nichols Papers, 1953 (4233497)

Inventory update

This inventory last updated 2022 April 22.

Processing Information

This finding aid was created by Olivia Mandica-Hart in March 2021. Information in this finding aid was assembled from legacy paper inventories and container management data. The collection was not re-examined by the archivist.

Title
Nichols, Frederick G. (Frederick George), 1878-1954. Papers of Frederick George Nichols, circa 1903-1963 and undated : an inventory
Author
Harvard University Archives
Date
March 8, 2021
Description rules
dacs
Language of description
und
EAD ID
hua17021

Repository Details

Part of the Harvard University Archives Repository

Holding nearly four centuries of materials, the Harvard University Archives is the principal repository for the institutional records of Harvard University and the personal archives of Harvard faculty, as well as collections related to students, alumni, Harvard-affiliates and other associated topics. The collections document the intellectual, cultural, administrative and social life of Harvard and the influence of the University as it emerged across the globe.

Contact:
Pusey Library
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Cambridge MA 02138 USA
(617) 495-2461