These documents are correspondence, memos, press releases, and other media belonging to Jefferson Davis Blackwell, President of the State Teachers College at Salisbury from 1935 to 1955. The bulk of matierials in this collection date from 1940-1948, and specifically the years of the Second World War. The collection documents STC correspondence to and from Blackwell, events, employment, programs, academic curriculum, construction, budgeting, supply requisitions, student lists, grades, staff lists. Also included are letters to and from the registrar and other administration copied for the president.

Jefferson Davis Blackwell was fourth head of the State Teachers College (STC) at Salisbury, and first person to bear the title of president. He was born in Missouri and earned a PhD from Johns Hopkins University. He began work at the State Teachers College in 1935, lifting it out of severe financial issues. Blackwell oversaw the University through the Second World War, and helped expand the size of the college in the postwar years with the first men’s dormitory and student center building. He retired from his position at the college in 1955.  

The JD Blackwell Papers document the activities of the president and State Teachers College (STC) at Salisbury from 1941-1947, but is not inclusive of Blackwell’s entire tenure in his position at the STC, with some attached documents from the 1930s attached as they relate to the correspondence. Correspondence includes correspondence and documents related to the State Employment Commission, State Department of Education, budgets, building and maintenance, scholarship applications, supply requisitions and purchases, curriculum, the Institutes on Public and Professional Relations, press releases, memorandums, faculty, the campus elementary school, armed forces credits and testing, and student activities.

The papers are arranged alphabetically based on the categories created by the original filing system. Contents within each folder are arranged chronologically.