Rand, Frank Prentice, 1889-

Frank Prentice Rand, professor, playwright, poet, and historian, was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, on November 8, 1889. He attended school at Monson Academy and Cushing Academy, and graduated from Williams College in 1912. After graduation he taught English at the University of Maine for one year. In the fall of 1914 he came to the Massachusetts Agricultural College. In 1915 he received the M.A. in English from Amherst College. Rand remained at Massachusetts Agricultural College for 46 years, the only interruption being a year in the U.S. Army during World War I.

From 1914 to 1929 Rand served as editor of The Signet of Phi Sigma Kappa, and for three years was national secretary of that fraternity. In 1920 he became director of the Roister Doisters, a student theater group, and continued in that role until 1947. From 1933 until 1955 Rand was Chairman of the English Department, and from 1948 to 1955 he served as Acting Dean of the School of Liberal Arts. He also served as the Director of the College English Association, and was a trustee of Cushing Academy, Amherst Academy, and the Jones Library. Rand received two honorary doctorates, one from the University of Massachusetts in 1955 and the other from Williams College in 1956. He retired from the University of Massachusetts in 1960 and died in 1971.

Rand was the author of the following books and plays (published books except where indicated otherwise):

The papers document Frank Prentice Rand’s distinguished career as professor, playwright, poet, and historian and consist of correspondence, speeches, lectures, drafts of writings, reviews, publicity material, programs and playbills, scrapbooks, gradebooks (1917-1959), clippings, memorabilia, costume masks, and other papers relating to Rand’s teaching career, his writing of poetry, plays and history, and his activities as a dramatic coach and director.

Rand’s plays and books are well documented and represent the bulk of the collection. The papers include manuscripts, correspondence, reviews, and clippings related to his works. Documentation exists for eighteen of his book length works and a significant number of poems, including examples from his student days. Seven of his works are present in published form. Also included are clippings of his column Random Reminiscences, which he wrote for the Amherst Record between 1966 and 1971, and a scrapbook of published-poems, advertisement jingles, and editorials written by Rand as a student (1905-1917).

Significant documentation also exists on the Rand Commemoration Fund, established shortly after his retirement in 1960, the dedication of the Rand Theater in the Fine Arts Center (1976) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and on his awards and honors. In the folders on the Rand Commemoration Fund are letters to and from Archibald MacLeish concerning his Rand Commemorative Lecture, November 9, 1961, the second lecture in the series.

Largely absent from this collection are records of Rand’s service as Acting Dean of Liberal Arts, a post he filled from 1948 to 1955, and his work as Chairman of the English Department from 1933 to 1955. Also, few records exist of Rand’s career as a teacher, with the exception of a folder of examinations and his gradebooks.

The collection has been arranged into Subject Files (1917-1976); Writings (1905-1971), which includes manuscripts and other material related to his writings; and Published Materials (1905-1973).

This collection is organized into three series:

The collection is open for research.

Cite as: Frank Prentice Rand Papers (RG 40/11 Rand). Special Collections and University Archives, W.E.B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Acquired from Margarita Hopkins Rand in 1981.

Processed by Charlotte Truesdale, 1975.