Title: Don D. Lescohier Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1921-1969

Creator:

• Lescohier, Don D., 1883-1961

Call Number: Mss 718; PH 3731; PH 3732

Quantity: 0.8 c.f. (2 archives boxes) and 56 photographs

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Papers of Don D. Lescohier, a former industrial consultant and professor of economics at the University of Wisconsin primarily consisting of consultant reports and related materials, other writings, and bibliographies. For work done as a consultant for Allis-Chalmers there are reports on profit sharing and the closed shop, a personnel management course textbook, minutes of negotiations (1949), copies of form letters to employees (1946-1947) and a subject index of grievances. Also of interest are a photo scrapbook and interview notes for a study of the influence of the IWW during the harvest of 1921.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00718

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Don Divance Lescohier, professor of economics and an industrial consultant, was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1883. After graduation from high school, he enrolled at Albion College, but lack of funds caused him to interrupt his studies in order to serve a series of temporary pastorates. He then returned to school, made up the missed course work, and graduated on schedule. Even as a youth, Lescohier was concerned by labor-management problems, and for a time he considered a career in the ministry as a way of correcting social injustice. Instead, in September 1907 he entered graduate school at the University of Wisconsin in order to specialize in labor-management issues under the direction of professors Ely and Commons.

In 1909 Lescohier was hired as a labor economist by the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industries. For the next nine years he worked in the areas of industrial accidents, workmen's compensation, and employer liability, also occasionally teaching at Hamline University. In 1918 Lescohier was invited to return to the University of Wisconsin Economics Department where he pioneered courses in Americanization, personnel management, business cycle theory, and industrial conflict. He was also involved in the early development of the School for Workers.

Throughout his career, Lescohier did a great deal of industrial and labor consulting. During the early 1920's he investigated the influence of the IWW in the wheat harvest for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In 1929 he took a leave to work for the Wisconsin Industrial Commission. In 1939 he published a lengthy report on public assistance for the City of New York. Lescohier also worked for a number of private firms including Allis-Chalmers, A.O. Smith, and International Harvester. Among his numerous publications are the third volume of the History of Labor in the United States series (1935) and Can Business Prevent Unemployment?.

Lescohier retired in 1953 and died in 1961.

The collection consists of some miscellaneous consultant's reports, writings, and related material collected by Mrs. Lescohier after her husband's death. She wrote to the Historical Society at that time that her husband had saved few papers to document his career, so these research products are, for the most part, unsupported by correspondence or other primary documentation.

Perhaps the most important material concerns work he did for Allis Chalmers during the 1940's. This file consists of reports on profit sharing and the closed shop and a business management course he designed for them, copies of form letters to employees (1946-1947), minutes of negotiations (1949), and a subject index of grievances. The collection includes a few other examples of his writing and a bibliography. Many of these titles including his autobiography My Story to 1960 are available in the Historical Society Library.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Mary Lescohier, Madison, Wisconsin, September 22, 1972. Accession Number: M72-362

Processing Information

Processed by Sandra Whitney and Carolyn J. Mattern, 1987.

Mss 718 Box   1 Folder   1	I.W.W. and the wheat harvest scrapbook, interview notes, and articles, 1921
PH 3732	Photographs from scrapbook
Mss 718	Allis Chalmers
Box   1 Folder   2	Preliminary report on Profit Sharing, 1940
Box   1 Folder   3	Report on Closed Shop and Seniority Policies on Collective Bargaining, 1940
Box   1 Folder   4	A-C Boston Works labor boards case materials, 1944
Box   1 Folder   5	Letters to employees, 1946-April 1947
Box   1 Folder   6	Negotiation minutes, 1949
Box   2 Folder   1	Subject index of grievance rulings, undated
Box   2 Folder   2	Business Administration course, “Management of Personnel Resources,” 1960
PH 3731	Photographs of 1946 strike removed from statement of Harold Story before Senate committee on Labor and Public Welfare, February 14, 1947 Note: The report is in the Story Papers (call number Mss 69).
Mss 718 Box   2 Folder   3	American Council on Public Relations course on industrial relations and public relations, 1940
Box   2 Folder   4	Reports on public assistance in New York City, 1939
Box   2 Folder   5	International Harvester, 1960
Box   2 Folder   6	Teaching materials and unidentified chapters
Box   2 Folder   7	Bibliographies, 1962-1969