The papers (1937-2003) of J. Milton Yinger provide minor information about their subject's personal life, but document fairly well Yinger's intellectual range as a social scientist. The strength of this collection resides in its documentation of Yinger's research in educational sociology carried out under a grant from the U.S. Office of Education from 1965 to 1969. Also, copious amounts of correspondence outline Yinger’s myriad professional involvements, including visiting professorships and contacts with various religious, sociological, and political groups, to name a few.

The collection is divided into six series: 1. Professional Files; 2. Student Exchange Program With Black Colleges; 3. S.E.O.P. Administrative Files; 4. Office of Education Cooperative Research Program Files; 5. Published Writings and 6. Correspondence. The bulk of the collection consists of Series 6, Correspondence, and is broken down by professional, personal, and student/alumni letters. The second largest grouping in this collection can be found in Series 4, research files for the study involving the Special Educational Opportunities Program at Oberlin College, "Middle Start: Supportive Interventions for Higher Education among Students of Disadvantaged Backgrounds." Yinger was principal investigator for this study. Files document all phases of the project over a six-year period (1964-70), including grant application preparation, interim reporting to the federal government, training of research assistants, and data collection and analysis. Page proofs of Middle Start: An Experimental Study of Educational Enrichment in Early Adolescence (Cambridge University Press, 1977), the monograph to emerge from the study, are housed in Series 1, Professional Files, together with numerous journal offprints, the texts of honorary degree presentations made by Yinger at Oberlin commencements, and files documenting Yinger's committee work.

The records of Series 2, document Yinger's ongoing interest in promoting strong race relations. Files relate to the student exchange program initiated in 1946 between Oberlin and Hampton Institute and extended to include Tallageda College in 1951, Fiske University in 1950, Spelman College in 1958, and Tougaloo College in 1963. Correspondence (1946-65) from both Yinger and Chairman of the Sociology and Anthropology Department George E. Simpson (1904- ) to colleagues in the South concerns student recruitment for the programs. Student reports offer first-hand accounts of the experience of studying at black colleges.

Materials in Series 3 relating to the administration of the Special Educational Opportunities Program are scant. Included are an incomplete series of minutes, newspaper clippings, and select issues of the S.E.O.P. newsletters (1965-66). For supplemental materials, the researcher is advised to consult the Papers of Ira S. Steinberg, 30/111 and the Committee Files in record group 33.

Series 5, Published Writings, gives researchers background notes, published reviews, editor comments, and sales reports of eight Yinger publications, including such titles as Religion in the Struggle for Power (1946), Racial and Cultural Minorities (1953), Religion, Society, and the Individual (1957), and A Minority Group in American Society (1965), to name four.

Significant names appear in Series 6, Professional Correspondence, Subseries 1. George Eaton Simpson, Robert Bellah, Al McQueen, and Robert Longworth are four. Yinger’s collection of Personal Correspondence in Subseries 2 includes an ongoing discussion with the Selective Service Board pertaining to Yinger’s Conscientious Objector status during W.W.II. Subseries 4 was added in accession 1998/088, and begins a mixed professional and personal letter alphabetical file. More letters of George Simpson can be found here, as well as selections to and from Marc Bernstein, Steve Cutler, Joe and Joanne Elder, Amitai Etzioni, Gary Marx, Robert Merton and Harriet Zuckerman, George Simpson, Gerhard (“Jerry”) Lenski, and Robin Williams, Jr. For further information regarding George E. Simpson, see RG 30/64.

Series I. Professional Files, 1939-2003 (2.2 linear feet)

Series II. Student Exchange Program With Black Colleges, 1946-75, n.d. (.4 linear feet)

Series III. Special Educational Opportunities Program Administrative Files, 1963-70, n.d. (.8 linear feet)

Series IV. Office of Education Cooperative Research Program (Middle Start), 1963-78, n.d. (3.6 linear feet)

Subseries 1. Administrative Files, 1965-70, n.d.

Includes budgetary projections; correspondence with the granting agency, the
U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare Office of Education; and various reports, including interim "technical progress" reports prepared by project directors (1965-69) and the Middle Start Final Report (1970).

Subseries 2. Data Collection Files, 1963-70, n.d.

Includes instructional materials on interviewing techniques; correspondence with S.E.O.P. schools (in Oberlin, Elyria, Lorain, Cleveland, and St. Louis) relating to data collection on S.E.O.P. students in these cities; questionnaires and tests administered to participating students; records of interviews conducted; and files of individual students containing test results. Also filed here are the results of interviews conducted under the "Follow Up Program." Interview records are arranged alphabetically by participating city; student files are arranged alphabetically; and correspondence is arranged chronologically.

Subseries 3. Data Analysis Files, 1965-66, 1969, n.d.

Contains codebooks used by project investigators in interpreting data as well as reports analyzing data prepared by Kiyoshi Ikeda's research assistants. Files arranged alphabetically by type of material.

Series V. Published Writings, 1943-44, 1946-47, 1953-1982, n.d. (.4 linear feet)

The background of eight published works by Yinger are housed within this series. Included are published reviews, related correspondence, editor notes, and for some titles, sales reports, library adoption lists and author’s contracts.

Subseries 1. Religion in the Struggle for Power (1946), 1943-44, 1946-47, 1959, 1962, 1966-67, 1973, n.d.

Contains published reviews, correspondence and an author’s contract.

Subseries 2. Racial and Cultural Minorities: An Analysis of Prejudice and Discrimination (1953), 1953-55,1958, 1965-68, 1972-75

Contains published reviews, correspondence College Library Adoption Lists, and Promotion Statistics.

Subseries 3. The Annals of the American Academy of the Political and Social Sciences (1957), May 1957

Contains one published review.

Subseries 4. Religion, Society, and the Individual (1957), 1956-60, 1962-64, 1966, 1970-71, n.d.

Contains published reviews, correspondence and a College Library Adoptions List.

Subseries 5. A Minority Group in American Society (1965), 1965-67, 1970

Contains published reviews, correspondence, a College Library Adoptions List and a sales report.

Subseries 6. Toward a Field Theory of Behavior: Personality and Social Structure (1965), 1960, 1963, 1965-74, n.d.

Contains published reviews and correspondence.

Subseries 7. The Scientific Study of Religion (1970), 1969-72, 1975, n.d.

Contains published reviews and correspondence.

Subseries 8. Major Social Issues (1978), 1978-82

Contains published reviews only.

Series VI. Correspondence, 1937-1993 (3.4 linear feet)

This series contains four subseries: Professional Letters, Personal Letters, Student/Alumni Letters, and Mixed Letters, a co-mingling of personal and professional letters. The first three are arranged chronologically, while Mixed Letters follows an alphabetical-by-correspondent arrangement.

Subseries 1. Professional Letters, 1939-1986

Contains professional discussions with Simpson, Bellah, McQueen, and Longsworth. Also contains numerous teaching position offers, invitations for speaking engagements, and discussions with multiple government, religious, and sociological groups, including the Anti-Defamation League and the A.S.A.

Subseries 2. Personal Letters, 1937-1989

Contains letters to and from the Selective Service Board in which Yinger defended his Conscientious Objector status during W.W.II, letters from friends, Christmas cards, and graduate school loan records.

Subseries 3. Student/Alumni Letters, 1945-46, 1948-59, 1961-89

Contains letters to and from Yinger’s students and alums, primarily regarding letters of recommendation for students entering graduate school.

Subseries 4. Mixed Letters, 1953-54, 1956-57, 1959, 1962-64, 1967-69, 1972-76, 1987-93, n.d.

This series contains both professional and personal correspondence, interfiled and arranged alphabetically by correspondent. Correspondents include Marc Bernstein, Steve Cutler, Joe and Joanne Elder, Amitai Etzioni, Gary Marx, Robert Merton, Eduardo and Janet Mondlance, Harriet Zuckerman, George Simpson, Gerhard (“Jerry”) Lenski, and Robin Williams, Jr.

The papers of J. Milton Yinger were received by the Oberlin College Archives under deed of gift from Professor Yinger. There have been eleven separate accessions: four in 1987, two in 1990, three in 1997, one in 1998, and one in 2002.

For additional records of the S.E.O.P., consult the papers of Professor of Education, Ira S. Steinberg, 30/111. Records relating to Yinger's service on the Mead-Swing Committee are housed in record group 33/1, Committees. The Library of Congress holds the records of Yinger's tenure as President of the American Sociological Association. As mentioned earlier, further information on George Eaton Simpson can be found in record group 30/64.