Chair Sought For Study Of Latin Nations

A group of alumni is campaigning to obtain funds for a chair in Latin American history. "We hope to have the permanent professorship by September, 1960," Myron P. Gilmore, chairman of the History Department, disclosed yesterday.

Until then, Charles C. Griffin '22, a visiting professor from Vassar, will instruct three courses in the area. Griffin, who will begin a year at the University in the Fall, will fill a void due to the departure last spring of Thomas F. McGann '41. McGann taught four courses that comprised the entire offering in Latin American history.

Griffin will instruct a full course surveying historical development in the area and a Fall half-course on Latin America and international relations. During the Spring, he will conduct a graduate seminar in general Latin American history.

"A professorship in this area does exist now," Gilmore pointed out, adding that the Bliss Chair in Latin American History, established in 1913, has not been filled for several years. The chair was endowed so long ago that it does not provide a large enough salary for a professor today, Gilmore explained.

Funds collected by the alumni group will be added to the left-over endowment from the Bliss Chair. No one has been selected yet to fill the professorship.

In addition to Griffin, three other visiting professors will teach history courses next year. Henry T. Wade-Gery, professor at Oxford University, will offer a Fall half-courses on the Greek renaissance and archaic Greece.

Military relations in the United States from 1775-1865 will be taught by Marcus Cunliffe, senior lecturer in American History and Institutions at the University of Manchester. Clarence L. Ver Steeg, associate professor at Northwestern University, will conduct a graduate seminar in the Spring on American history.