The Widener Library has received from the family of the late Henry Villard his letters and business records covering his entire career as a railroad and steamship executive from 1874 until his retirement from business in 1895. During this time Mr. Villard was receiver for the Kansas and Pacific Railroad, and president of the North American Company, the Oregon Improvement Company, the Northern Pacific, which railroad he completed in 1883, the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company, the Oregon and California Railroad, and the Oregon Transcontinental Company.

Mr. Villard was also one of the founders of both the North American Company and the General Electric Company, of which he was the first president. His papers and correspondence relating to all these companies are said to form a remarkable record of the railroad development of the Pacific Northwest, showing among other things, the important part which German capital played in the financing of the roads, the documents and correspondence relating to which are included in the gift to the Library.

This donation is credited to the Harvard Commission on Western History, which was disbanded last year and of which Mr. Oswald Garrison Villard '93, the editor of the "New York Nation", was a member. The other donors are Mr. Harold G. Villard '90 and Mrs. Henry Villard.

Henry Villard was greatly interested in Harvard University, on one occasion donating $25,000 to the Law School Library, and leaving $50,000 to the College in his will.