Collection includes correspondence, memoranda, reports, minutes, conference materials, and other documents related to Edens's professional career. The collection is divided into eight series. The first and largest series, Subject Files, is arranged alphabetically by topic, and chronologically within each subject. Correspondence is filed by name of correspondent; miscellaneous correspondence is filed alphabetically at the beginning of each letter group. The next series, U. S. State Department's Advisory Commission on Educational Exchange, contains papers from Edens's service on this commission. The third series, National Commission on Accrediting, contains papers from Edens's service on this commission. Inauguration, the fourth es, includes material on Edens's presidential inauguration in 1949. The next series, Annual Reports to the President, contains the reports submitted to the president by major divisions of the university. The sixth series, Assistant to the President, Earl Porter (1956-1960), contains the papers of Edens's assistant. The seventh series, Segregation Policy Petitions, involves the desegregation process at Duke University. The next series, U.S. State Department, Educational Exchange Service, details Edens's involvement with that organization. The ninth series, Gross-Edens Controversy, consists of papers relating to Edens's resignation. This series is restricted. The final series is Oversized Materials and includes items from Edens's inauguration as president of Duke.
Arthur Hollis Edens was born on February 14, 1901, in Willow Grove, Tennessee. He was the son of Everett C. Edens, a Methodist minister, and Barbara Ellen (Jolly) Edens. He attended Emory University, from which he received the degrees of B.Ph. (1930) and M.A. (1938). He also received a Master of Public Administration degree (1944) and a Ph.D. (1949) from Harvard University. Prior to coming to Duke, Edens worked as a teacher and administrator at the Cumberland Mountain School and Emory University. In 1946, he was named Dean of Administration at Emory, and in 1947 became Vice Chancellor of the University System of Georgia. In 1948, he was appointed associate director of the General Education Board of the Rockefeller Foundation.
In November 1948, the trustees of Duke University selected Edens to serve as president of the institution. Edens began his presidency on March 15, 1949. With inflation rapidly eroding purchasing power, the University launched a capital gifts program and a national development campaign. Edens noted that upon entering the field of fund raising Duke faced a "peculiar handicap." He stated, "Never before had we sought sizeable sums from either alumni or the general public. Indeed, the magnitude of James B. Duke's Indenture had been such as to encourage the uninformed public to believe that Duke University never would require additional capital." Through the success of this campaign Duke University began to build its own endowment and expand its programs. Academic units such as the Center for Commonwealth Studies and the Center for the Study of Aging date from this time. Formal participation of the faculty in governance began in 1952 with the formation of a University Council and the consolidation of several committees into an Undergraduate Faculty Council. Additional accomplishments included the establishment of the James B. Duke Endowed Professorships, the organization of a student union program (the Duke University Union) to enhance student life, and a vigorous defense of academic freedom during the McCarthy Era. Though not so well known because he chose to work behind the scenes, Edens also assiduously sought to have the segregated admissions policy of the University changed.
Following disagreements with the Board of Trustees and some members of the faculty, Edens resigned on February 19, 1960. After leaving Duke, Edens served for five years as executive director of the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation in Winston-Salem, N.C. Edens died in Atlanta, Georgia, on August 7, 1968. He was survived by his wife, Mary Kathleen (Russell) Edens, and his daughter, Mrs. Jefferson D. Wingfield, Jr.
