In honor of the semiquincentennial, this month we take a closer look at W.R.’s investment in preserving United States history. W.R. Coe wanted his legacy to fund programs that promoted American principles and taught students – by way of teachers – United States history. Much of his benefaction went toward the University of Wyoming, where he funded the William Robertson Coe Library with a wing devoted to American Studies.
It began in 1942, when W.R. was shocked to learn about a statistic in a survey conducted by Benjamin Fine of The New York Times. It found that American History was a required subject at only one-third of American colleges and more than half of teachers’ colleges did not make history a prerequisite. The book The Road Ahead by John T. Flynne (1949), which warned of a future headed toward communism, further strengthened his belief that he needed to act. W.R. had “deep faith in the American system of which he was a product”, he fully embraced his adopted country and disdained the “socialistic” direction his native England was heading toward.
After donating his collection of Western Americana to Yale University, W.R. gave a speech in 1949 where he stated:
Excerpt from W.R.’s talk at Yale, 1949.
He also acknowledged his vantage point, “now speaking with the diffidence of a layman (I started to make my living at 15 and did not have the privilege of going to college)”, perhaps hinting at the irony of a self-made man, who like many of his generation, succeeded without a college degree. Afterward, Yale President Charles Seymour asked W.R. to endow an American Studies Program at Yale. He hoped that it would serve as a beacon for other universities to follow their lead. In 1950 W.R. gave $500,000 to Yale to fund the program (over $6 million in 2026).
Your Rugged Constitution, an illustrated guide to the constitution, 1969 edition.
W.R. became passionate about the book Your Rugged Constitution by Bruce and Esther Findlay and published by Stanford University Press. He purchased over 2,000 copies and sent them to colleges, boards of education, and industrial companies. He urged his fellow businessmen to wield their influence and even financed an inexpensive “Patriots” edition to ensure it reached a wide audience. Companies like Standard Oil of New Jersey and Firestone Tire & Rubber distributed them to their employees.
In 1951, President George Duke Humphrey of the University of Wyoming approached W.R. to finance an American Studies summer program. Due to W.R.’s partial residency in Wyoming and philanthropic efforts he felt duly invested in the state. After the three-year summer program, in 1954 he gave $750,000 to fully establish the American Studies program (over $10 million in 2026).
Not everyone supported W.R.’s claims. One Superintendent of Public Instruction from Richmond, Virginia, had faith that the younger generation would steer clear of socialist ideas. W.R. responded with a lengthy list of suggested reading and deep concern for the future of America. Again, he referred to his origin story:
“I started to work at fifteen years of age and the young who came out of the schools knew that it was only by their own efforts that they could achieve many of the benefits and also security for old age.”
Based on the success of the Wyoming program and upon receiving advice from Marguerite Pettet, his longtime executive secretary and later Trustee of the Coe Foundation, he added a provision to his will to fund similar programs. According to an oral history interview with Pettet, W.R. asked, “what shall I do with the last million and half?” After his death, the Coe Foundation sponsored summer programs at forty institutions. In his will, W.R. adds the following lines to the funds allotted for Planting Fields Foundation, Yale University, The University of Wyoming, Stanford University Harding College, and the Coe Foundation (today there is a William Robertson Coe Professor of American Studies at Stanford and Wyoming):
“For the establishment of a Program of American Studies calculated to aid in the preservation of our System of Free Enterprise as opposed to State Socialism, Totalitarianism or Communism, including a Summer Refresher Program of American Studies for selected teachers and professors to be patterned after the existing courses at the University of Wyoming.”
Map of American Studies programs funded by the Coe Foundation, circa 1960.
The 1970s brought changes to the program. Firstly, the Coe Foundation was dissolved in 1974, and large gifts were given to schools with strong programs: Abilene Christian College, Eastern Baptist College, and Pepperdine College. An endowment of $235,000 was set up for the American Studies Program at the State University of New York to be used for a summer institute hosted at Planting Fields(which held a pilot version back in 1960.)
When Planting Fields was transferred to the Department of Parks and Recreation in 1971, a separate institute was established: The Institute of American History and Government. Instead of a single visiting professor the format changed to a team of six guest lecturers and classes and lodging were hosted in the Main House through 1987 (it was later held at SUNY Old Westbury).
Eleanor Roosevelt in the Great Hall at Planting Fields, July 6, 1960. Mrs. Roosevelt was a guest lecturer for the American Studies Institute seminar and her talk, “The Constitution and the United Nations” inadvertently disagrees with many of W.R.’s sentiments (particularly the state of England and the necessity of capitalism and democracy always in alignment).
For additional context about anti-Communism in the 1950s:
https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/essays/anti-communism-1950s
Header Image: University of Miami, Latin American fellows, 1962.
All images Planting Fields Foundation Archives
– from Marie Penny, Director of Research and Collections.