The James A. Perkins papers consist of the administrative papers of his presidency from 1963-1969; subjects include the issues of academic freedom and freedom of speech, the educational needs and sociological problems of black students in the university, and the establishment and maintenance of programs to facilitate black students' success; there is also extensive correspondence concerning trustee and alumni affairs, particularly regarding fund raising and university endowments; other topics include the funding of the Andrew Dickson White Professors-at-Large and other professorships and chairs, the construction and funding of new campus buildings, planning for and celebration of the Cornell Centennial of 1965, the College of Arts and Sciences Humanities Council, university research and government funded research, university relations with Ithaca New York and Tompkins County; also, Cornell Latin American Year, Cornell United Religious Work, Cornell Clubs; relations with the State University of New York (SUNY), the development of the Division of Biological Sciences, the Society for the Humanties, and the Cornell University Library rare book collections; also, relations between the Administration and the University Faculty, the Residential Club fire of 1967 and the six year Ph.D. Program; the funding and development of the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, and the separation of Cornell University and the Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory of Buffalo.

Topics also include anti-war protest relating to ROTC, the suppression of the distribution of "The Trojan Horse" and the resulting conflict between students and the administration; housing for students both on and off campus, the difficulties and emergency situations arising from student conduct, dissent, protest, and demonstrations, and the question of university governance particularly in the Spring of 1969. Organizations and corporations discussed include the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation, the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the American Council on Education, the National Science Foundation, the Association of Colleges and Universities of the State of New York, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory, the Cornell University Medical College and New York Hospital, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, and United States Selective Service. Correspondents include Morton Adams, Eric Ashby, Max Black, James E. Allen, Kingman Brewster, McGeorge Bundy, Van Alan Clark, Dale R. Corson, Arthur H. Dean, Mary H. Donlon, Jean-Jacques Demorest, Mario Einaudi, Orville L. Freeman, Henry Guerlac, John W. Gardner, Jacob K. Javits, Herbert F. Johnson, George McT. Kahin, Alfred E. Kahn, Burnham Kelly, W. Keith Kennedy, Milton R. Konvitz, Sol M. Linowitz, Franklin A. Long, Deane W. Malott, Arthur M. Mizener, Chandler Morse, Steven Muller, Floyd R. Newman, and Jansen Noyes.

Other correspondents include John M. Olin, Spencer T. Olin, Charles E. Palm, Robert W. Purcell, Edgar M. Queeny, Laurance S. Rockefeller, Clinton Rossiter, Allan P. Sindler, Robert L. Sproull, James E. Turner, Maxwell M. Upson, and Harold D. Uris.

Also, reports of the President's Commission to Study the New York State College of Agriculture, the Commission of April 1968, the Commission of Undergraduate Education, and the Committee of Student Involvement in Decision Making.

Album with programs and photographs from Cornell University's Centennial, 1965.

Additional office files from the tenure of Presidents Edmund Ezra Day, Deane W. Malott, and Perkins, ca. 1935-1963.