John Kelly Cauthen Papers
Collection
Identifier: Mss-0126
The South Carolina Politics material includes correspondence (1935-1971), clippings (1935-1942, 1952-1973), radio schedules of John Cauthen's radio broadcasts of state government activities (1938-1942), reports on South Carolina government, Governors McNair and West (1969-1971) and rough drafts of essays about Edgar A. Brown, Sol Blatt and South Carolina politics, (circa 1930's to 1970).
The Textile Industry (1943-1973) records include correspondence with fellow members of the South Carolina Textile Manufacturer's Association, material about meetings of the SCMTA, clippings concerning the textile industry (1943-1973) and reports of the South Carolina Textile Manufacturers Association (1945, 1955, 1968-1971).
The Boards and Commissions material includes appointments (1941-1971), committee reports (1968-1972), correspondence with fellow board members and others (1961-1972) and clippings (1950-1972).
The Personal papers (1933-1973) include articles about John Cauthen, awards received by John Cauthen from various organizations, ETV material, honorary degrees, miscellaneous articles and publications, clippings, biographical material, resolutions from South Carolina State Government, tributes and obituaries.
The largest part of the papers concern the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education (1965-1973). These include committee reports, committee statements and press releases, commission goals, annual reports, correspondence, meetings, clippings, program proposals for individual schools and reports on medical education in South Carolina.
There are twenty one VHS tapes from John Cauthen's Journal, an ETV production taped in 1972. They use the numbering sequence that SC ETV assigned when the tapes were created beginning at 0271-0001 and through 0271-0021. Transcripts for tapes # 2, 3, 5-8, 10, 20-21, and 22 are in the Personal series of the papers. There is no tape for the #22 transcript.
Photographs are inventoried at the end of the container list. They include family photos, photos from commissions and boards, photos of political figures in South Carolina government, photos used in Cauthen's book on Sol Blatt and photos used in newspaper articles.
John Kelly Cauthen was born in North Augusta, South Carolina on June 6, 1906, the son of the Reverend Henry J. Cauthen and Mary Finlayson Cauthen. John Cauthen began his career as a newspaperman with the News and Courier in Charleston, SC, serving 11 years before joining the Columbia Record in 1936. He left the newspaper in 1941 to become Governor J. Emile Harley's executive secretary. Gov. Harley was seriously ill and depended heavily upon Cauthen. Cauthen delivered the Governor's State of the State address in 1942, which was a very unusual procedure. After Governor Harley died in 1942, Cauthen continued to be executive secretary under Governor R.M. Jefferies. He joined the South Carolina Textile Manufacturing Association in 1943 as Secretary and stayed with the Association until his retirement as Executive Vice President in 1971.
During that nearly thirty year period, John Cauthen was involved and instrumental in the development of the SC Ports Authority, SC Educational Television and the SC Commission on Higher Education, of which he was chairman. He participated in the rapid expansion and transformation of South Carolina's textile industry during the decades following the Second World War.
John Cauthen was married to Deloris V. Cauthen and had two sons, John V. Cauthen and Henry Cauthen. He died in Columbia, SC, December 18, 1973.
4 Cubic Feet (21 VHS tapes, 110 photographs)
English
The papers are divided into series: South Carolina Politics; Textile Industry; Boards and Commissions; Personal and South Carolina Commission on Higher Education. Arrangement is chronological within each series. The photos were removed from the sections and arranged in date order and numbered before being foldered by the series from which they came.
This collection was donated by Mrs. Deloris V. Cauthen on March 21, 1988 and May 5, 1988. Cauthen's donation was presented to Clemson through the efforts of Bryan F. McKown. MSS 126 was formerly accessions 88-26 and 88-48.
4 cubic feet (21 VHS tapes, 110 photographs)
Arrangement of the papers was completed by Mark D. Smith in January 1992.
The conversion of this finding aid to Encoded Archival Description format was made possible with a grant from the South Carolina State Historical Records Advisory Board in 2009-2010. The finding aid was prepared for encoding by Jen Bingham.
Part of the Clemson University Libraries Special Collections and Archives Repository