Harold Taylor, who first came to national prominence in 1945 when at the age of thirty he was appointed as the third president of Sarah Lawrence College, is known as one of the most provocative and original thinkers in the field of American education.
Taylor received the B.A. and M.A. degrees in 1935 and 1936 for honors work in philosophy and literature at the University of Toronto, where funding for his graduate work was awarded through the university’s Moss Scholarship for accomplishments as an athlete, musician, writer, and student. From 1936 to 1939, Taylor attended the University of London in England in pursuit of a Ph.D. in philosophy; the degree was conferred upon Taylor in 1938 on completion of his dissertation, The Concept of Reason and Its Function in 17th and 18th Century Philosophy and Literature.
In 1939, Dr. Taylor joined the philosophy faculty at the University of Wisconsin, teaching courses in social philosophy, aesthetics and the philosophy of George Santayana, for a period of six years, with a leave of absence for war service in psychological research for the National Defense Research Council.
As the president of Sarah Lawrence College, he continued his scholarly interests and taught philosophy both at the New School for Social Research and at Sarah Lawrence College. The author of Art and Intellect (1960), On Education and Freedom (1953), and Essays in Teaching (1952), and of more than 300 articles on philosophy and education published from 1945 to 1962 in journals and magazines, Dr. Taylor developed theories for the radical reform of education. During his tenure at Sarah Lawrence, Taylor also developed a number of experimental educational programs, including an amalgamation of the work in music, theatre, and dance into a new curriculum in the performing arts, a program of children’s theatre, music, and dance, and a program in graduate studies in which each student’s graduate work is individually planned. He also launched an experimental teacher preparation program in which students’ practical experience with children in the local schools was combined with their regular work in the liberal arts in the fields of philosophy, psychology, history, literature, and the social sciences. Furthermore, during the McCarthy era, Taylor was a vigorous leader in the struggle to maintain academic freedom for teachers and students.
Following his retirement from Sarah Lawrence College in 1959, Dr. Taylor continued writing and traveled extensively in the United States, the Soviet Union, Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and Australia, lecturing in universities and research institutes on topics in the arts, education and social philosophy, and conferring with political leaders, writers, artists, students, and intellectuals on problems of contemporary world society. In the 1960s, Taylor served as founder and chairman of the Committee on Peace Research sponsored by the Institute for International Order and the National Research Council on Peace Strategy, and co-founded the Peace Research Institute, later amalgamated with the Institute for Policy Studies. In the 1970s, Taylor continued to direct pioneer educational experiments, among them a pilot project for a World College in collaboration with twenty-three United Nations countries, and founded and chaired the United States Committee for the United Nations University.
General Papers consist of bibliographic information, biographical information, a manuscript of Taylor’s doctoral dissertation with hand-written notes in the margins, and post-retirement correspondence with Sarah Lawrence College and press clippings on Taylor in the years after his tenure at Sarah Lawrence College.
Sarah Lawrence College Papers consist of subject files, see folder list. Includes correspondence, memos, news clippings, published materials, and scrapbooks. Note: a number of subject files deal directly with Taylor’s defense of academic freedom during and after the McCarthy era of red-baiting.
1. Correspondence – Faculty – Esther Raushenbush, 1953-1954
2. Correspondence – Faculty – Stephen Spender, 1946-1953
3. Correspondence – Faculty – Stephen Spender, 1947-1952
4. Correspondence – Faculty – Ackerly to Barillet
5. Correspondence – Faculty – Barta to Blankenchip
6. Correspondence – Faculty – Bodian to Breiseth
7. Correspondence – Faculty – Breit to Brown
8. Correspondence – Faculty – Brun to Collins
9. Correspondence – Faculty – Colman to Devree
10. Correspondence – Faculty – Diamond to Fabricand
11. Correspondence – Faculty – Feninger to Fox
12. Correspondence – Faculty – Franco to Fromme
13. Correspondence – Faculty – Martinelli to Weiner (Incomplete)
14. Development – Building Fund, 1952-1954
15. Development – Marts and Lundy (Re: Building Campaign and Fundraising), 1950-1958
16. Development – The Sarah Lawrence Plan (SLC Development Committee, Faith Whitney Ziesing ’32, National Chair), 1953-1954
17. Entertainment, 1954-1955
18. “Essays in Teaching” Comments, Reviews, Etc., 1951
19. Faculty, 1953-1954
20. Field Work Committee, 1946, 1951
21. Forum Discussion: The Education of Women, 1952
22. Foundations – Lists and Replies, 1954-1955
23. Friends of Democracy, 1952-1954
24. Fulbright Awards, 1953-1956
25. “A Garland for Mrs. Stone” Memorial Service Speech (Alma Stone), 1973
26. Glen Washington Road, 1951
27. Graduate Studies, 1953-1954
28. Harvard University, 1952-1955
29. Housing, 1953-1954
30. Inauguration, 1945
31. Individuals, 1953-1954
32. Arthur Kober Night, 1952-1958
33. Lawrence Park West Golf Course, 1951
34. Memos, 1950-1953, 1957-1959
35. National Orchestral Association, 1946-1949
36. Neighbors, 1945-1959
37. Parents, 1948-1955
38. Politics and Students, 1953-1954
1. Press, 1945-1959
2. Prospects Magazine (SLC Student-run), 1953
3. Publicity – Look Magazine Articles, 1958
4. Racial Discrimination – Bronxville, 1947
5. Religion Round Table, 1949-1958
6. Report of the President to the Alumnae, 1957
7. Reports of the President to the Board of Trustees, 1945-1946, 1946-1947, 1951-1952, 1954-1955
8. Reports of the President to the Parents of SLC Students, 1947, 1948, 1951, 1952, 1954, 1956
9. Report of the President to the SLC Community, 1947-1954
10. Report of the President to the SLC Community, 1955-1959
11. Resignation, 1959
12. Resignation – Testimonial Dinner, 1959
13. Size of the College, 1955-1958
14. Special Composition Concert, 1957
15. Special Gifts, 1953
16. Speeches, n.d.
17. Speeches, 1946-1949
18. Speeches, 1950-1954
19. Speeches, 1955-1959, 1963, 1973, 1975, 1982
20. Sports and Recreation, 1953-1954
21. Student Arts Center, 1953-1954
22. Students, 1951-1957
23. Trustee-Faculty Committee on the Library, 1955
24. Trustees, 1951, 1958
25. Tuition, 1949, 1951
26. Tuition Exchange Plan, 1952-1958
27. Veterans – Study and Report on SLC Veterans, 1956-1957
28. Virden Incident, 1948-1957 (CLOSED FOR 75 YEARS OR DEATH OF INDIVIDUAL)
29. Westchester County Planning Committee, 1951
30. Westchester Film Society, 1951
31. “Women in the Arts” Convocation (cancelled), 1959
32. Yale/Sarah Lawrence Conferences, 1957, 1959
Academic Freedom – Alfred Kohlberg Papers Re SLC From Hoover Institution, 1950s
Scrapbook – Jenner Committee, 1953
Scrapbook – American Legion, 1951-1952
Scrapbook – American Legion, 1952-1953