Walter M. Riggs Presidential Records
Collection
Identifier: Series-0017
This series contains the records of the office of Walter Merritt Riggs, President of Clemson College 1909-1924. The series is divided into two parts: correspondence, which is arranged chronologically, and collected material, arranged alphabetically.
The correspondence falls into the general categories of administration, cadet life, and institutional development. Within these respective categories the topics deal with specific issues such as budget requests, requests for raises, resignations, and loyalty to President Riggs; dance clubs, the discipline of cadets, hazing, and epidemics; construction of faculty housing, fires, maintenance of property, funding of the Y.M.C.A. building, and the growth of the Experiment Station. President Riggs corresponded frequently with agencies such as the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations, the Bankhead Highway Association, the Federal Board for Vocational Education, the Good Roads Association, and the United States Department of Agriculture. The files also contain letters from students, faculty, and staff.
The collected material consists of reports (from departments and from officers on an annual basis), inventories, transcripts, minutes of the discipline committee, publications, newspaper clippings, speeches given by Riggs to students and to organizations, and writings. Of note are copies of the investigation of the president and commandant and transcripts of the investigation of the student walkouts of 1920 and 1924. Also included are personal effects and items collected after Presidents Riggs' death.
There is an index to this series. See Separated Material for an inventory of photographs.
Unrestricted
Walter Merritt Riggs was born 24 January 1873, in Orangeburg, South Carolina, to Harpin and Emma Gowan Riggs. He received his undergraduate education in 1893, and the engineering and master of engineering degrees in 1894, from Auburn University. He began his career at Auburn as an instructor in English and then physics. Riggs came to Clemson in 1896, as an assistant in the mechanical and electrical engineering department. In 1901, he was appointed professor of electrical engineering and head of the engineering department. Riggs became intensely active in the life of the college from the start: he organized the Glee Club, organized and coached the first football team in 1896, and was later responsible for the college's hiring of football coach John Heisman. Riggs established the South Carolina Intercollegiate Athletic Association in 1900, and served as vice-president and president of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association.
On 6 December 1909, Riggs was chosen acting president of Clemson College to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of P. H. Mell. Although reluctant to accept the position he was appointed the fifth president in March 1911. While he was president Riggs created new efficiency in the operation of the college. He strengthened the power of the office and consolidated authority by ending the practice of faculty, staff, and parents of cadets taking their requests and complaints to the Board of Trustees. He insisted on loyalty to the college from all of his subordinates and established a publicity department for cultivating good relationships with editors and the public. He also spoke to many groups in the state defending and promoting the mission of the college. He abolished the preparatory school, introduced architectural studies, enlarged the extension program through an agreement with the U. S. Department of Agriculture and allowed women to participate in some of the summer agricultural courses. A department of student affairs was created in 1920. During Riggs' administration enrollment doubled and Clemson became generally acknowledged as one of the leading land-grant institutions.
Riggs died 22 January 1924 in Washington, D. C. while attending a land-grant college meeting. His body was returned to the college and buried on Cemetery Hill.
11 Cubic Feet
English
Office of the President
The following photographs were removed from this collection and added to Series 100, Clemson University Photographs.
A. Individuals
Brearly, Harrington Cooper, 1924 (2)
Eaton, Robert Knight, 1923
Eddy, Clifford Otis, 1923
French, Dewey, 1923
Glenn, Howard Emmit, 1924
Littlejohn, J. C. and Margaret Sadler, no date, folder 370
Love, Nathaniel N., n. d.
Riggs, Walter Meritt fiftieth birthday, 1923, folder 370
Riggs, Walter Meritt funeral, 1924, folder 373
Riggs, Walter Meritt in uniform, no date (2), folder 370
Shelton, Fred, n. d.
Withers, Arthur S., no date
Wolcott, Rosamond, no date
B. Subjects
Agriculture, School of haystacks, location unknown, 1911, folder 25
Campus Scenes, 1916 (3), folders 134, 135, 137
Cemetery Hill
Poultry Science, part of the 53 buildings in egg laying contest, 1924
Library technical assistant Katherine Fracasso-Lee, and student assistant Betsy Newton, 1990.
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. Student assistant Rebecca Gnosa entered the index in October 2010.
Part of the Clemson University Libraries Special Collections and Archives Repository