Rush Welter Collection

Collection — Multiple Containers

Identifier: IC-029

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The bulk of materials in the Rush Welter Collection pertain to Welter’s teaching activities and role in campus life at Bennington College. The collection also includes materials pertaining to Welter’s teaching and lecture activities at the University of Western Ontario. The collection does not include manuscripts or drafts of Welter’s books or documentation of the bulk of his committee work during his tenure at Bennington College. See series notes for scope and content information pertaining to series within this collection.

Dates

1956 - 1993

Extent

3.5 Linear Feet (Personal papers of Rush Welter, faculty member at Bennington College from 1952-1993. Creator: Rush Welter Inclusive Dates: 1956-1993 Bulk Dates: N/A Extent: 37 linear inches (7 boxes) Donated By: Estate of Rush Welter; Other files of unknown origin. Accession No./Date: Accession #419, 7 July 2006. Processed By/Date: Melissa Tacke, 30 June 2008. Access: Access to this collection is unrestricted. )

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Personal papers of Rush Welter, faculty member at Bennington College from 1952-1993.

Arrangement

The Rush Welter Collection has been organized into the following series: Series 1 – Committees; Series 2 – Constitutionalism Course; Series 3 – Correspondence; Series 4 – Writings and Lectures; Series 5 – Miscellaneous Subject Files. Materials within folders are arranged chronologically and original folder titles have been preserved whenever possible. Please see series notes for organization information pertaining to individual series

Separated Materials

Please see the faculty committee files and division meeting minutes, located in the records of the Office of the President, for additional information related to Welter’s contribution to campus committees, educational policies, and college governance.

Bibliography

Rush Welter was a historian and a long-time faculty member at Bennington College. He grew up in Staten Island, New York and earned his A.B. degree from Harvard University in 1943. After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, Welter returned to Harvard to complete his Ph.D. in the History of American Civilization, an interdisciplinary program, in 1951. In 1952, he joined the Bennington College faculty, where he remained until his retirement. In addition to teaching, Welter was often involved in issues and committees surrounding College governance and educational policy. He also served as Dean of Studies from 1985-1987. During leaves of absence from the College, Welter also taught at the University of Manchester and the University of Western Ontario, worked for the American Council of Learned Societies, and held a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship at the Library of Congress. After retiring from Bennington College in 1993, Welter moved to New York City, where he lived until his death in November 2001. During the course of his career, Welter wrote and edited several articles and texts, a model study (Bennington, Vermont: An Economic History, in 1959), and authored two major books, Popular Education and Democratic Thought (1962) and The Mind of America, 1820-1860 (1975). In his 1981 Pulitzer Prize-winning, three-volume history of American education, educational historian Lawrence A. Cremin cited Popular Education and Democratic Thought as “the most incisive work on the special role education has played in American politics and political thought.” Following his retirement, Welter began work on a third book, which was unfinished at the time of his death.