Scope and Content Note
The papers of Georges Frederic Doriot (1899-1987), university professor, military official, and venture capitalist, span the years 1917-1985, and include correspondence, reports, speeches and lectures, and diaries.
Doriot is perhaps best known for his lengthy and influential career as a professor at Harvard University where he taught from 1926 to 1966, except for a short break during World War II. His papers, however, principally concern his association with the United States Army during and after the war. Joining the armed forces as a lieutenant colonel, Doriot was attached to and later directed the army's equipment and supplies research and development unit, in which he distinguished himself and rose quickly to the rank of brigadier general. After returning to civilian life in 1946, Doriot continued his association with the army as a frequent consultant and an informal adviser to friends and colleagues who remained in the military, many of them high-ranking officials such as secretaries and assistant secretaries of war and members of the joint chiefs of staff.
Doriot's papers, in the main, document his associations with the army and are arranged accordingly. The General Files, containing correspondence and reports accumulated during his time as a civilian, reflect his interest in business and commerce and largely concern his role as civilian consultant to the military during the postwar and Cold War years. The War Department Files, by contrast, contain correspondence, reports, and photographs accumulated and generated during Doriot's military service in World War II with the army's equipment and supplies research and development unit. These files chronicle the operation, mission, and state of the army's research and development program during the war and its association with similar programs of allied governments. Subjects for which there is ample documentation include procurement, design and development, simplification ("standardization"), and research results and ratings of items in the army's equipment and supplies inventory. Although the correspondence and reports have been organized as separate subseries within the War Department Files, letters-of-transmittal may be found attached to various reports. Subjects of the photographs include Dwight D. Eisenhower, George C. Marshall, Henry Ford, Edsel Ford, Walter P. Chrysler, Thomas A. Edison, and Herbert C. Hoover. Edison, Hoover, and Ford are pictured at the dedication ceremony for the museum at Greenfield Village, Dearborn, Michigan.