Scope and Content Note
The papers of William Edwards Deming (1900-1993) span the years 1795-1994 with the bulk of the items concentrated between 1930 and 1993. The collection reflects the breadth of Deming's career, including government service, academic positions, and activities as a consultant in statistical studies and management in the United States and abroad. The papers contain the following series: Personal File, General Correspondence, International File, Client File, Subject File, Writings, Academic File, Reference File, and Miscellany.
The Personal File contains correspondence and other papers relating to Deming's family, engagement calendars, and a 1795 French military leave pass for Captain Jean Baptiste Fraube. Other files relate to Deming's study of music and include copies of his sacred music compositions and music he wrote for the "Star Spangled Banner."
The General Correspondence series consists primarily of letters exchanged with professional colleagues in academia and industry. One file relates to Walter A. Shewhart of Bell Telephone Laboratories in New York, a statistician who had a seminal influence on Deming's understanding and study of statistical analysis of quality control for industrial production. Also included is important correspondence with such statisticians as A. C. Aitken, Raymond T. Birge, Harold French Dodge, Churchill Eisenhart, J. M. Juran, Gregory Lidstone, Jerzy Neyman, John Wilder Tukey, and W. Allen Wallis. Other significant or frequent correspondents include Peter Ferdinand Drucker, Newt Gingrich, Lee A. Iacocca, Ichirō Ishikawa, Ken'ichi Koyanagi, H. Ross Perot, Dan Quayle, Ronald Reagan, and Robert B. Reich.
The International File features material pertaining to Deming's work with foreign corporations and governments, his collaborations with professional colleagues abroad, and personal matters. Among the principal files are those relating to Japan. In 1947, Deming visited Japan as a statistical advisor to the Supreme Command of the Allied Powers. On a return trip in 1950, the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers invited Deming to lecture on the application of statistical quality control to industry. The penetrating effect of his ideas and lectures on Japanese industrial leaders and managers resulted in a long association, and many cite Deming as a major influence in Japan's ascent as a world economic power after World War II. Correspondence and related material also reflect his relations with Japan's academic community. Files pertaining to Great Britain contain correspondence with A. C. Aitken, George Bernard, Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher, Maurice G. Kendall, E. S. Pearson, Karl Pearson, L. H. C. Tippett, and John Wishart. The file for India includes correspondence with P. C. Mahalanobis, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Pandurang Vasudeo Sukhatme. Other files document Deming's trips to Greece in 1946 to observe elections and his consultant work for the government of Turkey.
The Client File constitutes the largest portion of the Deming collection. It records Deming's activities as a private consultant to American industry from the late 1940s to the 1990s and includes correspondence, memoranda, reports, testimony, seminars, charts, and other related items. The bulk of the material pertains to Deming's work with motor freight, railroad, and telephone companies. As an advisor to these industries, he used sampling and statistical analysis to evaluate and set service rates and to address other industry concerns. He designed a “continuous traffic study” for the self-regulation of the motor freight industry and participated in government hearings in 1979-1980 regarding deregulation of the industry. He also provided statistical studies for setting rates for transcontinental railroads and often testified before the Interstate Commerce Commission in disputes among the railroads. Other clients featured in the papers include automobile companies, medical researchers, marketing research companies, and government agencies. Deming's management seminars are also represented in notebooks created for individual engagements, material related to statistical sample techniques, such as his red bead and funnel tests, a typescript account of a four-day seminar, notes, and itineraries.
The Subject File highlights Deming's association with professional organizations and government service, including the Bureau of the Census and the Bureau of the Budget. Deming was employed by the Census Bureau from 1939 to 1945, and his proposed sampling methods were successfully implemented in the 1940 census. He served simultaneously as an instructor for the Budget Bureau and taught statistical quality control courses to the defense supply industry. Other files in the series relate to the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers, the Deming Prize, the American Statistical Association, and the National Broadcasting Company's television documentary in 1980 on Deming and Japan.
The Writings File contains articles, papers, speeches, lectures, books, forewords, interviews, and reviews spanning Deming's entire career. Deming was a frequent contributor to scholarly journals. Set I in the Writings File is composed of published copies of articles and papers arranged in rough chronological order according to a numerical system devised by Deming and his staff. Set II includes additional articles and papers, book production files, speeches and lectures, interviews, reviews, and other writings. Among the interviews is a transcript of an interview with Deming and Robert B. Reich in 1986.
The Academic File focuses on Deming's student work and his teaching positions. His meticulous notes and papers as a student are early evidence of a disciplined mind. Included are copies of his master's thesis at the University of Colorado and his doctoral dissertation at Yale. As head of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics in the Graduate School of the Department of Agriculture from 1935 to 1953, Deming contributed to the statistical education of government employees and arranged for a notable series of lectures on statistical theory and methodology. Material from this phase of his career as well as from his association with New York and George Washington universities is also located in the Academic File. A separate Reference File contains notes and printed matter related to mathematical and statistical topics and includes notes and printed matter regarding individual mathematicians. Miscellany in the Deming collection contains books with marginalia, certificates and awards, biographical printed matter, programs from speaking engagements, photographs, and a few writings by others. Among the photographs are portraits, scenes from family and professional gatherings, and photographs taken by Deming during his travels abroad.