Finding Aids

Archival Collection 1: Office of the Principal Records (Williston & Dobbs), 1902-1970

 

Extent

Archival Collection 1 (1902-1959) spans 15 Cubic ft. in three series over 57 boxes (10 letter document boxes, 3 half-letter document boxes, 42 flat letter document boxes, and 2 oversized boxes).  

Acquisition

This collection was transferred from the Office of the President. Transfer date after 1980. This collection is closed. 

Scope & Content Notes

This collection contains administrative files related to the school’s Principals: Arthur L. Williston and Frederick E. Dobbs; and documentation related to the school’s founding. Most files relate to the distribution of scholarships, speeches, faculty meetings, war materials, relations with alumni, and the expansion of the Aircraft Engine Laboratory in the late 1940s. Most of these items are paper, with some photographs and newspaper clippings. The collection includes materials on the dispute over the expansion of the school to a three-year institution in the early 1920s. The collection also contains a large scrapbook collection, most of which focuses on the Evening School and Print Shop, and includes materials from newspapers, photographs, and other mixed media.  

Biography & History 

Office of the Principal:

The Office of the Principal was established in 1910 by the trustees of the Wentworth Institute. The principals were Arthur L. Williston (February 1910-30 June, 1923), Frederick E. Dobbs (25 February, 1924-1951), and Marshall N. Arlin (Acting 1952-1953). The Board of Directors voted in early 1953 to change the title of the Principal to the President. H. Russell Beatty became president on 1 July, 1953. 

Arthur Lyman Willison:

Arthur Lyman Williston was born on October 11, 1868, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1889 and 1890, he graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and used his education to become an engineer and architect. Williston was appointed by the Board of Directors in 1910 as the first principal of Wentworth Institute. He served for 14 years.  

Williston came from the Pratt Institute, in Brooklyn, New York. Williston had been the director of the School of Science and Technology at Pratt for 12 years. By 1910, Pratt was considered the country’s leading school for industrial training. Because of his experience at Pratt, the Board believed Williston would be the ideal man to lead the Institute in its foundational years. 

As Wentworth's first principal, Williston provided constructive leadership, hired a superior faculty, and created a vital curriculum which reflected the demands of the trade community. Williston wrote the Institute’s first catalog. Williston was no-nonsense, rule-oriented, and discipline-oriented. The Institute followed in his footsteps: labs were kept clean, attendance was closely monitored, if not mandatory, and courses of study were demanding and rigid. 

Williston pulled from industry professionals to fill the Institute’s first group of faculty. No department head did not have years of practical experience. During his tenure, most teaching happened in a lab, not the classroom.  

Williston believed strongly in educating the whole person. 1- and 2-year programs did not allow much variation in course of study, so he pulled from Wentworth's family crest for additional inspiration for the students. He based the Institute's seal on the Wentworth family's heraldic shield, framed by four banners, each bearing a fundamental virtue: honesty, energy, economy, and system.  

“Honesty, in thought, in word, and in deed, that sees with precision things as they are, that speaks fearlessly without selfishness or malice, and that acts always with confident straightforwardness; Energy, of mind and body, that comes with the full development of all our powers and the ability to concentrate them all at will; Economy, steadfast and constant, that is the natural product of the exercise of sound judgment, self-restraint, and self-denial, and; System, the cultivated habit of orderly and well-considered procedure in thought and in conduct." 

Williston personally interviewed every student for admittance to the Institute. He averaged 750 interviews of potential students per year.  

Williston took great pride in contributing to the Institute's war effort from 1917-1918. He was the driving force behind the Institute’s involvement in wartime instruction. In April 1918, U.S. Secretary of War, Newton D. Baker, appointed him as the Educational Director of Training of Drafted Men in "industrial and mechanical lines."  

Even after the Armistice was signed on November 11, 1918, Williston and Wentworth Institute forged ahead with a progressive war-related initiative. In 1919, Wentworth ran free four-month courses to reintegrate veterans into productive civilian lives. These veterans slept in the barracks still in place from the Institute's 1918 training programs. Williston directed the men toward fields where demand was outpacing supply, such as printing, pattern making, and plumbing. Dozens of the participants were physically disabled.  

After the war, Williston's attention slowly waned. He offloaded expanding responsibilities onto his assistant, Frederick Dobbs. 

In 1922, Williston invented the term “technical institute” at a conference in Rochester, NY.  

Williston resigned in 1923 and spent the last three decades of his life as an educational consultant. He wrote at length about engineering education. In 1944, he authored a book, Beyond the Horizon of Science. In 1952, the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) chose Williston as the third recipient of its prestigious James H. McGraw Award. In addition, the ASEE named its annual award for writing excellence in his honor. 

Williston died on November 16, 1956.

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Frederick E. Dobbs

Frederick Eames Dobbs was born in Danbury, Connecticut in January 1882. He graduated from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. Dobbs began teaching at Wentworth Institute in 1911. Williston recruited Dobbs from Pratt Institute as one of the Institute’s original instructors for the Materials of Construction, Estimating and Practical Mathematics courses. 

Dobbs was trained under Williston and became the Institute’s second principal on February 25, 1924. He served for 27 years until his retirement 1951.  

Under his leadership, the Institute improved on Williston's foundation, securing the Institute as a technical leader. In 1930, Wentworth began to require applicants for admission to hold a high school diploma. In 1935, in response to the growing complexity of certain areas of students, the Institute dissolved the One-Year Day Courses that had been offered since 1911. Machine Works and Pattern Making became Two-Year Courses. Courses such as Plumbing, Masonry, and Plastering were terminated. 

During Dobbs’ tenure, women were permitted to serve in staff roles only. However, men were used as secretaries in the Principal's Office through at least the early 1920s. Treasurer Paul Barron Watson relayed a message from a Mr. Alvord to Dobbs. Alvord suggested replacing Dobbs' male stenographers with women because:  

"They would cost less...they are more faithful and conscientious, and do better work in stenography, than men. How do you feel about that?"  

Dobbs replied one week later. He didn't want to hire any females because, "in order to get some sensible level headed woman" she would require the same $25 per week as the male stenographer. Dobbs continued:  

"If we should engage active young women we would probably lose them by marriage, thereby causing frequent changes. We would probably find that an older woman would not be able to get out the volume of work necessary." 

Upon his retirement in 1951, Dobbs joined the Ford Foundation to assist in the formation of technical schools, patterned after Wentworth, in the Middle and Far East. In India he served as a consultant to the Indian government on a commission to develop the nation's small industries. In 1955, Dobbs received the Sixth Annual James H. McGraw Award in Technical Institute Education for his outstanding contributions, leadership, and administrative skill in technical education. 

Dobbs died in New York on October 11, 1962.  

Copyright 

Per the Archives Charter (1988): “Any record, in any format, produced by an employee of the Institute while performing an official Institute function, is the property of the Wentworth Institute of Technology.” Upon copyright transfer, all items become the permanent property of Wentworth Institute of Technology University Archives and are to be used in preserving and presenting the history of Wentworth Institute of Technology. 

Access

All materials are 75+ years old. Access is not restricted.   

Processed By 

Ashley Bryan, 2021-2022; Jacob Savory, 2021; Molly Peters, 2022; Mary Ellen Flaherty, 1985-2005. 

Processing Notes

Staples and other metal materials were removed. Any plastic, rubber band, or taped material was separated from paper (when able to be separated without damaging the materials) and discarded. Duplicate, non-unique copies of materials were withdrawn from the collection. Acidic or photographic materials were kept in their original order but were re-housed in mylar sleeves or leafing folders. Duplicate folders were re-labeled, re-organized, and re-foldered. Materials were kept in the original folder order: alphabetical by topic, and then chronological within specific folders. Folders were placed in new letter document boxes.  

Citation

Include at least the following information:

Folder Name, date (Month, year), AC 1, Series number, Box number, Folder number, Office of the Principal Records, Wentworth Institute of Technology University Archives, Boston, MA. URL if applicable. 

This collection is currently being digitized. Any folder contents that are linked to the digital collections have been digitized. 

Last updated on: October 2025