Correspondence -- A-M, 1921 - 1943

The records of President Gray's administration are mostly correspondence on a wide variety of topics, but also contain a report on the death of Bates student Alonzo Brown, a report on the collections for the George M. Chase Memorial Fund, and a copy of a book containing President Chase's citations about Bates honorary degree recipients. The file "Letter to Bates Graduates" contains Gray's letter to alumni about recent activities on campus, and the final file in the collection pertains to the issues and apparent controversy about the alumni memorial gift of the title.

Nearly all of the correspondence herein pertains to academic, fund-raising, and other issues at Bates. Most of the files contain letters to and from the names on each folder, but some also contain material from other individuals about the subject of the file. A few files contains notes made at later dates about the material in each, most notably the "Honorary Degrees" folder, which contains a list of correspondents within. This folder contains letter to and from Bates honorary degree recipients and a few who declined degrees. Notable correspondents include Harry F. Byrd, Bette Davis, Robert Frost, Jan Masaryk, and William L. Shirer. The folders "College Policies" and "Dancing at Bates" are largely to and from administrators at other institutions regarding policies on social events, although there are some brief items about Bates admissions policies. The "A-Z" folder contains general correspondence, usually single letters, arranged alphabetically by correspondent; some notables within this folder include Pearl S. Buck, Calvin Coolidge, Harold Ickes, General John J. Pershing, Charles F. Phillips, and a number of Maine political figures.

The correspondence with George S. Ricker, a member of the first graduating class of Bates in 1867, is notable as it relates to a discussion of the reinstatement of several female non-graduates to 'graduated' status by the College. This correspondence contains some information about the activities of some of the first women to attend Bates, and also about the attitudes of some of their classmates regarding co-eduation. There are also folders of correspondence with Bates notables such as Alfred Williams Anthony, Oliver Barrett Clason, and Emma Clark Rand.