Samuel B. Earle Presidential Records
Collection
Identifier: Series-0016
This series contains the presidential records of Samuel Broadus Earle, Acting President of Clemson College, 1924-1925. (For the six months in 1919 that Earle served as President in the absence of Walter M. Riggs, see the Riggs Presidential Records.) The series includes correspondence, departmental report and budgets, and annual report to the South Carolina General Assembly, partial lists of cadets, employment agreements, letters from parents and other individuals concerning the student walkout in October 1924, and speeches delivered by Earle.
Frequent correspondents include the following University officials: H. W. Barre, director of research; R. N. Brackett, director of the chemistry department; F. H. H. Calhoun, director of resident teaching; G. D. Heath, college surgeon; R. E. Lee, head of the drawing and design division; W. W. Long, director of the extension service; C. C. Newman, head of the horticulture division; H. M. Stackhouse, secretary of the Board of Fertilizer Control; and Trustees W. D. Barnett, B. E. Geer, Senator Alan Johnstone, A. F. Lever, Governor Richard Manning, Paul Quattlebaum, H. C. Tillman, and J. E. Wannamaker. Other correspondents of interest include Iowa State College president and chairman of the Association of Land Grant Colleges, R. A. Pearson; Mrs. W. M. Riggs; and U. S. Secretary of Commerce, Herbert Hoover.
Topics covered in the letters include the death of President Riggs, the cadet walkout over the food served in the mess hall, selection of a site for the proposed Sand Hill Experiment Station, the reconstruction of the Agricultural Building (now Sikes Hall), and the search for a new Commandant at a time when Clemson's Reserve Officer Training Corps was the largest in the country.
Samuel Broadus Earle was born in Gowensville, South Carolina on March 11, 1878. Earle received his undergraduate degree from Furman University in 1898 and a graduate degree in language and mathematics from that same institution the following year. In 1902 Earle continued graduate study in electrical engineering at Cornell University, but did not earn a degree at Cornell. However, Earle received an honorary doctorate of laws degree from Furman in 1932 and an honorary doctorate in engineering from Clemson in 1959.
Earle served Clemson College in various capacities: as Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering from 1902 to 1906; as Associate Professor from 1906 to 1910; as Dean of the School of Engineering from 1911 to 1932; as Acting President of Clemson College from January to July 1919 while President Riggs served with the Army Educational Forces in Europe, and from January 1924 to July 1925 after the death of President Riggs; and Director of the Engineering Experiment Station from 1921 to 1933.
Earle was a member of the Newcomen Society, South Carolina Public Service Commission, rotary and various engineering societies. Earle died May 10, 1978 and is buried in Cemetery Hill on the Clemson campus.
1.3 Cubic Feet (including 2 photographs and 2 oversize items.)
English
This series is arranged alphabetically by subject. Some material found in President Riggs' desk after his death was removed to the Riggs' presidential files. Copies of letters in poor condition have ben replaced with photcopies on archival quality bond.
Office of the President, Clemson University.
Two undated photographs of the Sikes Hall entrance were moved to Series 100, Clemson University Photographs.
Processed by Michelle Clark, student assistant, in December 1988. Revised, June 2004.
Part of the Clemson University Libraries Special Collections and Archives Repository