Russell N. Cansler (1909-1995) Papers

The Russell N. Cansler Papers, filling two boxes, are arranged into five groups: biographical material; general correspondence; speeches, speech materials and publications; seminars; and reports.

The biographical material includes: one folder of newspaper and magazine articles either written by Cansler or in which he is mentioned or quoted, one folder of Northwestern memos and interoffice correspondence, one folder of real estate documents, and one folder of personal data including resumes and a biographical sketch. Also included are a photo album from a U.S. Navy Guest Cruise that Cansler took in 1959, and a folder of awards and certificates that he received.

The papers include a small amount of personal correspondence, chiefly between Cansler and his children, and a larger amount of professional correspondence. The correspondence spans the years 1958 to 1978, but the bulk is from the years 1973 and 1974 and mostly regards Cansler's retirement. The correspondence is arranged chronologically.

The speeches and speech material consists primarily of talks given at business efficiency seminars, but also includes a good deal of handouts, usually by other authors. About half of the material in this group is from a series of lectures given at a time managment seminar entitled “Double Your Effectiveness.” The remaining speeches and speech materials are largely fragmentary and unidentified, and are divided into management speeches, unidentified speech materials, and unidentified speeches. The two books that Cansler published for A.B. Dick occupy a folder in this section as well.

The seminar material consists of one folder containing a nearly complete set of materials from an office efficiency seminar, and another folder holding assorted seminar agendae.

There are two reports: “An Exploratory Study of Southeastern University” and “A Study of Certain Personal Relationships at the Kentucky New Era.”