Skip to main content

Frank Prescott papers

 Collection — Multiple Containers
Identifier: MS-034

Scope and Contents

This collection includes much of Prescott's teaching and research material, including government documents from 1928 to 1967. There is a strong collection of material relating to local and national political campaigns, TVA, civil rights, communism, labor, military and World War II (including Nazi newspapers, and correspondence from students serving in World War II) and political figures. There is some correspondence between himself and Dr. Joseph Zimmerman with whom he co-authored the book, The Politics of the Veto Legislation in New York State (1980). Additionally, the papers include records from his service as a delegate in four Tennessee Constitutional Conventions held in 1953, 1959, 1965, and 1971.

Dates

  • Creation: 1953-1971

Creator

Language of Materials

This collection contains materials in English.

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

The copyright status of this collection has not been evaluated.

Biographical / Historical

Frank Williams Prescott (1896-1981) was a professor of Government, History, and Political Science at the University of Chattanooga from 1928 until his retirement in 1967. He was the Adolph Ochs Professor of Government at the university, as well as the head of the Political Science department until 1962. Dr. Prescott was also a delegate in four Tennessee Constitutional Conventions, 1953, 1959, 1965, and 1971. He was considered an expert in the makeup of government and the application of its powers. He was involved with local and state government, and served as a member of the committee which drafted the county council-manager charter for Hamilton County in the early 1940s. He was also executive secretary of the Tennessee State Tax Commission, and on the Chattanooga Citizen’s Committee on the Merit System for City Employees. Early in his days in Chattanooga he succeeded in getting a road tax removed from the state constitution, in which he suspected graft was involved. He founded the Southern Political Science Association and was a member of the American Political Science Association. He was also a correspondent of the National Civic Review and the author of An Outline of Europe since 1815. At first Dr. Prescott was a liberal but later became a Republican. Prescott was originally from New Hampshire and graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 1921, with a graduate degree in 1925. He taught high school history briefly in Wichita, Kansas in 1921-22, then taught at the University of Wisconsin from 1922-1925, and then taught at Tulane University in New Orleans from 1925-28 before coming to Chattanooga. He was married to Marjorie Bean Prescott and they had a son and a daughter.

Extent

77.75 Linear Feet (134 Boxes)

Additional Description

Immediate Source of Acquisition

This collection was donated by Frank Prescott to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga on 1973 January 11.

Processing Information

Processing of this collection is complete.

Related Names

Subject

Subjects

Finding Aid & Administrative Information

Title
Frank Prescott papers
Status
Under Revision
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Physical Storage Information

Collection Area Details

Collection Area Details

Part of the Manuscripts Collection Area

http://www.utc.edu/library/special-collections/
Contact:
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Library
c/o Special Collections
600 Douglas Street
Chattanooga Tennessee 37403 United States