Although Charles Whiting Williams was well known for his pioneering effort to get management in the private and public sectors to understand the needs of workers, this portion of his life is not documented here.  Instead these files focus on his brief career as an Assistant to the President of Oberlin College, 1904-1912.  It was, however, an important time in the history of the institution.

            The Williams Papers are organized around two series: 1. Correspondence and 2. Writings.  The correspondence documents Williams' activities during his tenure as Presidential Assistant, 1904-1912. It covers such topics as scholarships, fund-raising, and women's donations to female students.  Businessmen, Lucien C. Warner and Harvey S. Firestone, and Professor Charles Wager are among the names found in the rich correspondence series.

            Card Catalogs, indexing the correspondence, are divided A-M and N-Z.  Each correspondent is listed, along with the date of his letter and in some cases a short description of the topic of the letter is mentioned.

            The writing files are quite modest in size.  One folder consists of a handful of articles written while Williams was at Oberlin College.  Titles include: "The Relation to the Constituency" (n.d.) and "The Forlorn Philanthropist: Is it More Blessed to Give Than to Receive" (n.d.).  In addition, the second folder, contains a report by Williams entitled "Recommendation for Increasing the Efficiency of Oberlin College" (undated).

Series I.  Correspondence, 1904-1912, (5.4 lin. ft.)

            This series consists of two subseries: 1. Indexes (to correspondence files) and 2. Name Files.  Two card catalogs (A-M, N-Z) index the collection of letters sent to Williams while he was the Presidential Assistant.  In the Name Files is located correspondence, arranged alphabetically, on various topics which include: fund-raising, scholarships, women's donations and building plans.  Key correspondents include  Dan Bradley, T.E. Burton, J.G.W. Cowles, Charles and J.D. Cox, Harvey S. Firestone, Henry Churchill King, R.T. Miller, Azariah S. Root J.L. Silsbee and Lucien C. Warner.

Series II.  Writings, 1904-1913, (0.1 lin. ft)

            Two files of writings contain only a modest number of Williams' many writings about the sociology of the common laborer, against a much larger number he wrote later in life.  The articles in this series were probably written between 1904-1913.

The Charles Whiting Williams Papers were transferred on December 27, 1967 to the College Archives from a storage room in the President's Office on the third floor of the Administration Building.

For related materials the researcher is encouraged to consult the papers of other presidential assistants: William Bohn (3/1/1), Harold S. Wood (3/3/1), Thomas E. Harris (3/4/1) and Bayley Mason (3/5/1).  Williams' student files (28/1, Box 1023) and his faculty file (28/3, Box) may also provide more biographical information.  In addition, the Western Reserve Historical Society Library, Cleveland, Ohio, has papers on Williams relating to his labor activities.