To honor the life and service of William Davis Melton to the University of South Carolina, the William Davis Melton Graduate assistantship in University Archives was been established by Caroline Bristow Marchant, The Honorable Walter James Bristow, Jr., and Dr. William Melton Bristow, Jr., in memory of their grandfather, with a generous contribution by Major General Trelawney Eston Marchant, husband of Caroline Bristow.

After earning his law degree from then South Carolina College in 1892, William Davis Melton became a highly successful and respected businessman and community leader, as well as a strong supporter of education. In 1922 he was tapped to serve as president of the now renamed University of South Carolina. His vigorous personality and executive ability greatly benefited his alma mater, including tremendous increases in funding and enrollment. But the greatest tribute to Melton and the importance he placed on higher education came after his sudden death in 1926, when numerous students revealed that Melton had enabled them to stay in college by quietly granting them personal loans.

The William Davis Melton Graduate Assistantship provides a graduate student with invaluable experience while promoting the care, use, and development of the University’s historical collections. The University Archives, which is a unit of the South Caroliniana Library, serves as the institution’s official memory. The Archives acquires, preserves, and makes accessible those University records that have permanent historical value. Particular focus will be paid to the expansion of the Remembering the Days Oral History Project, which adds a personal dimension to the University's historical record by documenting the memories of its alumni, faculty, and staff.

To learn more about the University of South Carolina Archives at the South Caroliniana Library, please visit http://www.sc.edu/library/socar/archives/index.html.

To donate to this fund and for additional information, please contact the University Libraries Development Office at (803) 777-5564 or visit http://www.sc.edu/library/develop/cu.html.

To make a gift online, please click the "Gift Online" button located on the left side of this page or the following link https://giftsonline.sc.edu/contribute.asp.