Administrative records, 1875 - 1920

The Administrative series consists primarily of correspondence to and from Chase, concerning a variety of administrative, academic, and financial issues. The series also contains several other files, including a typescript on Addison Small believed to have been written by President Chase. (Small graduated from Bates in 1869 and served the College as an Overseer from 1886-1900 and as Treasurer from 1886-1893.) There is also a letter written by Chase as a protest to the board of the St. Joseph's Parochial School, and signed by several other members of the board.

The correspondence files are arranged alphabetically by correspondent or subject. Some of the subjects concern campus matters such as the closing of the Cobb Divinity School, hazing of Bates College freshmen, efforts to obtain a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, appointment of Rhodes Scholars, and plans for Chase's retirement and successor. The "Carnegie Foundation" and "Carnegie Foundation Gifts" folders consist of correspondence concerning the two conditional gifts, of $50,000 each, given to the College by Andrew Carnegie. The correspondence is primarily between President Chase, Andrew Carnegie, and James Bertram, Carnegie's personal secretary. Also included are letters of solicitation, written by President Chase, to raise the needed funds to meet the conditions of the gifts. These gifts and funds were added to the College's endowment and used for the erection of the Carnegie Science building.

The majority of personal correspondence concerns Chase's efforts at fundraising for Bates. Many of the letters are written to or by Chase, but a substantial portion are letters of introduction written on Chase's behalf to help him in the solicitation of funds. Most of the correspondents are business, financial, legal, and religious professionals in Boston, New York City, and across New England. Finally, a few letters are written to those whom Chase hoped to have come speak at Bates, including Booker T. Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Percival Lowell, William Howard Taft, Wilfrid Laurier, Robert Frost, and Owen Wister.

Finally, the correspondence with Nellie Hutchinson Cushing concerns coeducation at Bates, and contains Chase's recollections of some of the first women to attend Bates, and the attitudes of those in the College community both for and against coeducation.