Charles L.B. Lowndes correspondence with Richard M. Nixon, 1954
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Summary
- Creator:
- Lowndes, Charles L. B.
- Abstract:
- Charles L.B. Lowndes was a professor at Duke Law School while Richard Nixon was a student in the 1930s. The collection consists of three letters sent to and from Richard Nixon regarding a 1954 controversy over the possible awarding of an honorary degree to Nixon.
- Extent:
- 3 items
- Language:
- Materials in English
- Collection ID:
- UA.20.01.0003
- University Archives Record Group:
- 20 -- School of Law
20 -- School of Law > 01 -- School of Law
Background
- Scope and content:
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The collection consists of three letters: a copy of a letter from Charles L. B. Lowndes to then-Vice President Richard Nixon, Richard Nixon's original signed reply to Charles Lowndes, and a copy of RIchard Nixon's letter to then-President of Duke University Hollis Edens, all dated 1954.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Charles L.B. Lowndes was a professor at Duke Law School who taught Richard M. Nixon as a student. In 1954 Nixon was invited to give the commencement address at Duke University, but the faculty voted against granting him an honorary degree, igniting a controversy on campus, and Nixon eventually declined the invitation to deliver the commencement address.
Charles L.B. Lowndes was born in 1904 and received his LL.B. from Harvard Law School in 1926 and his S.J.D. in 1930, also from Harvard. He joined the faculty of Duke Law School in 1934, teaching, researching, and writing on tax law. He served as Acting Dean of the Law School for the 1949-1950 academic year, and was granted Duke Law's first named distinguished professorship, the James B. Duke Professorship, in 1955. He died July 28, 1967.
Richard Milhous Nixon (1913-1994) attended the Duke University School of Law from 1934 to 1937, graduating number three in a class of twenty-six. During his three years at Duke, Nixon was active in the Duke Bar Association and was elected President in his senior year. He then served in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate before being selected as Dwight D. Eisenhower's running mate in the 1952 U.S. Presidential election. Eisenhower won, and Richard Nixon became the Vice President of the United States in January, 1953.
In 1954 then-President of Duke University A. Hollis Edens invited then-Vice President Nixon to deliver the commencement address that year. Traditionally, the commencement speaker is given an honorary degree by the University. However, the faculty of the university voted against granting Nixon an honorary degree, and the resulting controversy prompted Charles Lowndes, Nixon's former Duke Law Professor, to write to Nixon, advising against giving the commencement address. Richard Nixon never gave a commencement address at Duke University.
- Acquisition information:
- The Charles L.B. Lowndes correspondence with Richard M. Nixon were received by the Duke University Archives as a gift in 2017.
- Processing information:
-
Processed by Tracy M. Jackson, December, 2017
Accessions described in this collection guide: UA2017.0068
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Subjects
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Contents
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- Restrictions:
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Collection is open for research.
- Terms of access:
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Copyright for Official University records is held by Duke University; all other copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
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- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Charles L.B. Lowndes correspondence with Richard M. Nixon, Duke University Archives, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.