Ernest McPherson Lander Jr. was born on December 16, 1915 in Calhoun Falls, South Carolina. Educated in local school, he received an A.B. (Bachelor of Arts) degree from Wofford College in 1937, an Masters of Arts from the University of North Carolina in 1939, and a Doctorate of Philosophy, also from University of North Carolina, in 1950. He married Sarah Ray Shirley in 1947 and they have two daughters, Elizabeth and Caroline.

From 1937 to 1940, Lander was a teacher and coach at various high schools. From 1940-1941 he was a professor of social sciences and a basketball coach at Reinhardt College in Waleska, Georgia. He first became a member of the Clemson College faculty in 1941 and continued until his retirement in 1983, with interruptions for military service and sabbaticals. In December 1942, Lander was called into military service with the U.S. Army Air Forces, assigned to Fort Jackson. After a six-month return to Clemson to assist with a special need for teaching math to aviation students, he was called back into service and served in India from 1944 to 1946. He returned to Clemson in 1946 and resumed his teaching career. Lander was awarded tenure in 1958 and appointed Alumni Professor of History in 1969. He served as Visiting Professor at Western Carolina University in 1954 and 1957, at the University of South Carolina in 1958, at the University of Idaho in 1963, and at the University of North Carolina in 1974. Twice Lander was a Fulbright Lecturer in American history, at Jadavpur University in India, 1966-1967, and at the University of Lagos, Nigeria, 1970-1971. His service to the University included terms on the Faculty Senate, the Graduate Committee, and an ad hoc committee selected to examine a question of the violation of academic freedom of a professor in the History department. He served as thesis advisor and thesis committee member to many Master’s degree candidates.

Lander also participated actively in several professional organizations. He served on the Scholarly Activities Committee of the South Carolina Tricentennial Commission. He was active in the Southern Historical Association, serving on the board of managing editors for the Journal of Southern History from 1965 to 1969, the nominating committee, and as a member if the executive council from 1974 to 1977. He also participated in the South Carolina Historical Association, with a term as president in 1959-1960, and the American Association of University Professors. Other organizations in which Lander participated but are not documented in this collection are the Organization of American Historians, the South Carolina Historical Society, and Phi Beta Kappa.

In addition to his teaching duties, service in professional organizations, and service to the university community, Lander was a prolific researcher and author in the area of Southern history. Many of his publications are represented in this collection by research materials, correspondence with publishers, reviews and correspondence with readers of his works.

During his career at Clemson, Lander often found himself holding and expressing a minority view on many issues such as the construction of the Hartwell Dam, academic standards, academic freedom, and justice for blacks. Lander usually voiced these views in letters to newspapers and to public figures, and by speaking out at local club meetings. In expressing his views, he always tried to be factual, accurate and polite. In his memoir, Few Would Listen: a Clemson Professor’s Memoir of Dissent, Lander says that although he was occasionally regarded as a maverick, only once did the administration reprimand him for publicly expressing his views (concerning his opposition, on economic grounds, to the construction of the Hartwell Dam). Lander received promotions and tenure and retired as Alumni Professor of History where he was highly respected among his colleagues in the profession.